VM Protect 7 - Exchange Aware backups fail

I am experiencing the same issue.

I have 2 additional errors showing too

Error code: 1001
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc69
Fields:
Message: Failed to parse MsExchange VSS writer metadata.
--------------------
Error code: 1003
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc51
Fields:
Message: Expected XML tag not found: WRITER_COMPONENTS
--------------------'.

Well I have tried everything. I have made sure the Exchange writers were functioning, I uninstalled all other programs that use VSS. I installed the Acronis agent piece on the Exchange server itself. I just cannot see any issues other than VMProtect claiming there is a corrupt VSS metadata.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated, as I like the product for its ease of use and footprint.

Hello JP Plante and Marcus,

Thank you very much for posting and welcome to our Forum.

Could you please re-install the VMware tools inside the guest OS - this should take care of the issue and if not, I would appreciate if you could get back to me with an update.

Please let us know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

I encounter the same issue.
Before vmProtect 7, I backed up this virtual machine with B&R 11 Virtual Edition, but vmProtect with it's option of brick level recovery seems to be the far more interesting variant.
So I uninstalled B&R 11 agent, rebooted, reinstalled VMWare Tools, rebooted, even installed the vmProtect Windows agent, but still the same result:
******* %< ******
Die Aktion ist fehlgeschlagen.
Zusätzliche Info:
--------------------
Fehlercode: 26
Module: 100
Zeileninfo: 903ba9594d70818b
Felder:
Nachricht: Die Aktion ist fehlgeschlagen.
--------------------
Fehlercode: 368
Module: 149
Zeileninfo: 4db9605401c151e5
Felder:
Nachricht: Vorbereitung zur Validierung der Microsoft Exchange-Datenbank fehlgeschlagen.
--------------------
Fehlercode: 358
Module: 149
Zeileninfo: 4db9605401c1509b
Felder:
Nachricht: Die VSS-Metadaten fehlen oder sind beschädigt.
--------------------
Fehlercode: 1001
Module: 460
Zeileninfo: df98e120ab10cc69
Felder:
Nachricht: Parsing der 'MsExchange VSS Writer'-Metadaten fehlgeschlagen.
--------------------
Fehlercode: 1003
Module: 460
Zeileninfo: df98e120ab10cc51
Felder:
Nachricht: Erwartetes XML-Tag nicht gefunden: WRITER_COMPONENTS
--------------------

*******>% ********

Any ideas?

Kind Regards,
Ralph

Hello,
Same issue for me.

La tâche 'Sauvegarder WIN2008R2 vers « DS_SMICRO »' a échoué : 'Échec de la création d'une sauvegarde.
Informations additionnelles :
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 3
Module : 435
LineInfo : 555b5abba09500ab
Champs :
Message : Échec de la création d'une sauvegarde.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 32786
Module : 114
LineInfo : 28314c961de7d3b2
Champs :
Message : Echec de la préparation pour la sauvegarde.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 353
Module : 149
LineInfo : a71592046cb2c5f8
Champs :
Message : Échec de la sauvegarde du groupe.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 2
Module : 218
LineInfo : 338a407ad20e0987
Champs :
Message : Une erreur s'est produite lors de l'exécution du moteur de sauvegarde et restauration.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 368
Module : 149
LineInfo : 4db9605401c151e5
Champs :
Message : Échec de la préparation pour la validation de la base de données Microsoft Exchange.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 358
Module : 149
LineInfo : 8e1d384601b2ab4c
Champs :
Message : Les métadonnée VSS sont manquantes ou endommagées.
--------------------
Code d'erreurs : 13
Module : 4
LineInfo : 86137b9d60c180c7
Champs :
Message : Le fichier est endommagé.
--------------------'.

Hello Ralph, and Alexis,

Welcome to our Forums, we are glad to greet you here.

We'll need some additional information for the investigation. Could you please provide us with the logs that product generates? See these instructions on how to save them.

Let us know if you have any additional questions, we will be glad to assist.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response.
Here is my log.

log uploaded

Hello Alexis and Ralph,

Thank you for the update.

Could you please let me know if you re-installed the VMware tools inside the guest OS?

Thank you.

Just for the information, I have opened a support ticket with acronis regarding this issue. The incident is 'escalated' to their expert team. Casenumber is 01524881 (for the Acronis guys here on the forum).

Hello,
Same problem after re-install VMware tools (v4.1 update 1).
Thank you.

The same from my side.
No change after re-install of VMWare-Tools

Kind Regards,
Ralph

I also re-installed VMWare-Tools to no avail.

same here
also no change after reinstall of vmware tools. i read in the above log that they run vsphere 4.1 but i run esxi 5

ps: strange it looks like an issue from a while back : the same floppy drive vss error

acronis log wrote:

Task 'xxxx' failed: 'Failed to create a backup.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 435
LineInfo: 555b5abba09500ab
Fields:
Message: Failed to create a backup.
--------------------
Error code: 32786
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d3b2
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for backing up.
--------------------
Error code: 353
Module: 149
LineInfo: a71592046cb2c5f8
Fields:
Message: Failed to back up the group.
--------------------
Error code: 2
Module: 218
LineInfo: 338a407ad20e0987
Fields:
Message: Error occurred while running the backup and recovery engine.
--------------------
Error code: 368
Module: 149
LineInfo: 4db9605401c151e5
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for the Microsoft Exchange database validation.
--------------------
Error code: 358
Module: 149
LineInfo: 4db9605401c1509b
Fields:
Message: VSS metadata is missing or corrupt.
--------------------
Error code: 1001
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc69
Fields:
Message: Failed to parse MsExchange VSS writer metadata.
--------------------
Error code: 1003
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc51
Fields:
Message: Expected XML tag not found: WRITER_COMPONENTS
--------------------'.

vcenter console: wrote:

Failed to start quiescing operation in the virtual machine. The error message was: (no valid message provided)

windows servers exchange logs wrote:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} - 00000000000004EC,0x00560000,0000000000000000,0,00000000002F0750,4096,[0]). hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.
.

it looks like this:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/279680
http://networkadminkb.com/KB/a491/how-to-fix-windows-2008-r2-ntfs-event…

Hello,
Problem solved with the latest tools !!!
http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/windows/x64/index.html

New problem, impossible to restore Exchange.

Bye.

Hello Alexis,

Thank you very much for confirming that updating the latest VMware tools resolves this issue.

Could you please create a new post for the recovery problem so that we can have separate threads for different issues.

Thank you.

OK
Thank you

indeed i tried restoring an exchange backup. (of an previously somehow completed backup) and tried to do an item level restore, i see it created a temp vm with the attached disks. but it remains powerd off the vm and the process on 13% further i had to manuall remove the mounts vm etc it was just hanging.. will create a new topic on this

correction: as you see below i still do not have a valid exchange backup, purhaps or most likely its the reason the recovery items it acting so stragne

hmm it seems i have now another error with doing the exchange backups WITH the latest vmware client
it can do snapshots now, but it fails at this point:

vmprotect7 logs wrote:

Task 'exchange test backup' failed: 'Failed to create a backup.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 435
LineInfo: 555b5abba09500ab
Fields:
Message: Failed to create a backup.
--------------------
Error code: 32786
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d3b2
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for backing up.
--------------------
Error code: 353
Module: 149
LineInfo: a71592046cb2c5f8
Fields:
Message: Failed to back up the group.
--------------------
Error code: 2
Module: 218
LineInfo: 338a407ad20e0987
Fields:
Message: Error occurred while running the backup and recovery engine.
--------------------
Error code: 368
Module: 149
LineInfo: 4db9605401c151e5
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for the Microsoft Exchange database validation.
--------------------
Error code: 358
Module: 149
LineInfo: 4db9605401c1509b
Fields:
Message: VSS metadata is missing or corrupt.
--------------------
Error code: 1001
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc69
Fields:
Message: Failed to parse MsExchange VSS writer metadata.
--------------------
Error code: 1003
Module: 460
LineInfo: df98e120ab10cc51
Fields:
Message: Expected XML tag not found: WRITER_COMPONENTS
--------------------'.

Hi everyone,

I have an update about this issue and we would really appeicate if you could follow these steps in order for us to investigate it. We are very sorry for any inconvenience.

The most possible reason of the issue is that the VMware Tools were installed inside the Exchange machine in silent mode which leads to corrupted VMWare VSS (it can be a not registered class, VSS provider service, etc.). Therefore the first step is to perform the proper reinstallation of the VMware tools in non-silent mode.

If re-installing the vmWare tools does not resolve the problem, please provide us with additional diagnostic information so that we can troubleshoot this issue.

It appears that the quiesced snapshot is not performed well for a particular machine, i.e. it is not generating proper VSS manifests output. When creating a quiesced snapshot of the VM from vSphere interface there must be *vss_manifestsXXXX.zip file generated on the datastore in the folder where this VM is. I have attached a couple of screen shots showing where to look at and how to create the quiesced snapshot. Under normal circumstances the VSS manifests .zip file is not empty, however if there are some problems with the VMware tools then the outputs may be corrupted.

Could you please send us that vss_manifests.zip file if it is not empty?

Additionally (if the manifests .zip is empty), please check "vssadmin list writers" command outputs (Start->Run->cmd) from the guest OS in order to check that there are no failing VSS writers.

Also, please collect AcronisInfo report from the Windows machine.

Let me know if you have additional questions please.

Thank you.

Hello Anton,
thanks for investigating this problem. I am also seeing this issue, as already reported in another thread.

I was able to initiate the snapshot from the vsphere client as instructed and i have attached the resulting manifest file. Also, 'vssadminlist writers' does not seem to report any problems, pls see attached.
The Acronis Info tool you have mentioned does not seem to create any output at all.

I hope attached files will help you with the investigation. Pls let me know if any other data is required.
regards

Almost forgot to mention....
I have also completely removed and re-installed the Vmware tools last night, as it was already suggested here before.
The error remained, however the error message was different.
The tools were installed in interactive mode.
regards

Hello zel,

I appreciate the update and the log files.

Your meta data is in order, it is possible you are experiencing a different issue.

Could you please get back to me with the operation logs?

Thank you.

Hello Anton, i had already uploaded the logs to the thread that i created previously.
Please see here http://forum.acronis.com/forum/30525

Kind regards

.

reinstall vmtools and disable vss fixed this part for me and exchange aware backups succeed
BUT exchange restore is not working yet

I am not sure why you would want to disable VSS.
VSS ensures you are creating a snapshot of a consistent state of your application and OS. Specifically with Exchange, as far as i understand it, VSS triggers the flush of the transaction logs.
You may have problems running a full restore of such a database.

We disabled vss because of the following error
"Cannot create a quiesced snapshot because the snapshot operation exceeded the time limit for holding off I/O in the frozen virtual machine" and we then followed this article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007696

It seems I have found the Solution to the problem, it is related to SBS 2003 and Exchange.
It is described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183/en-us
Once i changed the registry setting as described the Backups are now progressing nicely.

Touch wood!

Hello everyone,

Could you please get back to us with your progress on this issue.

According to the latest posts, zel resolved the problem by enabling the VSS writer. Alexis resolved the issue by re-installing the VMware tools.

If you are still having this issue, we would really appreciate if you could get back to me with this and this diagnostic information.

Thank you.

should it be s/disabling/enabling/ the VSS writer ?

From the linked article:

3.Double-click the Disable Exchange Writer value.
4.In the Value data text box, change the value from 1 to 0, and then click OK.

Dear Anton, please read more carefully my above posting. I wrote the issue appears to be fixed by enabling the VSS writer, not disabling it.

On another note, why Acronis support is not more actively discouraging users from disabling snapshots on Exchange is something i do not understand.  Where is the point of taking backups from an inconsistent database state?

regards

Hello zel,

Thank you for correcting me, I modified my post.

Occasionally we ask to disable the VSS writer in order to localize a specific issue. We are very sorry that you were under the impression that we provide this as a solution/workaround.

Could you please get back to me with your case number so that we can look for any missing opportunities for us.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

ok so what is the solution?

on / off upgrade appliance?

Task 'test exchange backup' failed: 'Failed to create a backup.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 435
LineInfo: 555b5abba09500ab
Fields:
Message: Failed to create a backup.
--------------------
Error code: 32786
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d3b2
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for backing up.
--------------------
Error code: 32786
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d392
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for backup of machine 'xxxxxxx'.
--------------------
Error code: 114
Module: 83
LineInfo: 179fcce6ee7090f5
Fields:
Message: Failed to serialize object 'ResourcePool'.
--------------------
Error code: 116
Module: 83
LineInfo: f276f8e5fc9c748e
Fields:
Message: Failed to get the object's property 'ResourcePoolConfig'.
--------------------
Error code: 44
Module: 83
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bed57
Fields:
Message: Failed to obtain server object 'config' (resgroup-936).
--------------------
Error code: 227
Module: 83
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bed59
Fields: error : 28
Message: SOAP 1.1 fault: SOAP-ENV:Client[no subcode]
"HTTP/1.1 200 OK"
Detail: connect failed in tcp_connect()

--------------------'.

this is what i get now with exchange backups!!

I'll upload ...maifest.zip and vmware.log of the faulting machine.
Backups of the exchange server in normal mode, not exchange-aware, are running fine.

Kind Regards,
Ralph

I found out, that there are two vss providers on the exchange servers.
Before vmProtect 7 I backed up the virtual machine with Acronis B&R 11 Vitual Edition. The agent itself had been uninstalled.

My VSS providers:
1. "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider 1.0"
2. "Acronis VSS SW Provider"

All Writers seem to be healthy and no errors

It is a Windows 2008R2 with Exchange 2010 SP2

Hello Ralph,

We appreciate the update. Would you be kind enough to get back to us with additional information. The vss manifest that you kindly provided came out empty.

1.    Start->Run->cmd and issue
“vssadmin list writers” command inside the Exchange VM (in guest OS), so that we can check the list of the VSS writers registered in the system
2.    Windows Event Logs: Application + System from the same Exchange machine.
3.    Windows sysinfo from the same Exchange Machine (Start->Run->msinfo32->File->Save).
4.    The corresponding .vmx file of this Exchange VM (from the datastore where you collected the vmware log).
5.    ESX(i) Host and vCenter version where you run the Exchange VM on

You can contact me via a private message with the reports.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

Hi Anton,

I submitted the requested information via pn.

Kind Regards,
Ralph

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for the update and I received the files, thank you for your private message.

I will get back to you as soon as I have any news.

Thank you.

Hi Ralph,

According to the information from the logs, the disk.EnableUUID parameter is missing from the virtual machine settings.

I would appreciate if you could take a look at this article and apply the solution from there.

In case you have additional questions I would really appreciate if you could get back to me.

Thank you.

Hi Anton,

that's the solution!
I am able to take Exchange Aware backups now and restore even single mails.

Thanks a lot :-)

Ralph

Hi Ralph,

You're welcome! I am glad it's working for you.

Thank you.

Is everyone's issue solved by the solutions given above?

We are still facing issues with the Exchange backups and none of the possible solutions given sofar do work.

This was tested on two SBS2011 installations on ESXi 5, with vmProtect 7 Update 1

Hi Arthur, if your error messages are the same as above, you should try the solution, I was suggested to implement. For me, it worked: look here!

Kind Regards,

Ralph

btw: i found an article on this type of error -> http://kb.acronis.com/content/31347

Hi Stefan, I tried the steps on that link. Still a no go. Any news from your case so far?