System either freezes or crash when backup start ABR11A_17318

I am having these exact same symptoms, but on a Windows 2000 Server w/ Exchange Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. The system restart occurs ONLY when performing a DISK/VOLUME backup (and not every time from what I can tell).

Symptoms of this failure on our system are:
- VPN connections are abruptly disconnected until (I presume) the server has released the 'locked resources' and/or restarted
- the MS Exchange Information Store service is STOPPED
- there are (2) .LCK and (1) .XML files in the storage location where the DISK/VOL backup is stored
- there is a final entry of "Locking partition 0-0" in the Acronis job log

In addition to this problem, I'm having another serious issue that doesn't seem to have been addressed by Acronis yet. Apparently this is a well known problem by reading other posts on this forum, where a network storage location or share is inaccessible, even though the proper local or domain account credentials have been submitted. An "Access is denied" dialog box is returned upon each log on attempt, with blanked entry fields so you can presumably try again (yet all additional attempts fail).

I have been living with this software ('babysitting' might be a more apt description) since installing it 3 weeks ago. It was purchased to replace the old (but reliable) 'Backup Exec 9' platform, because a) I've always had great results with the Acronis products I've previously used (mostly True Image Workstation) and b) the bare metal recovery offered a more straightforward disaster recovery solution. That has not turned out to be the case so far with ABR 11. I've never experienced as many problems with a professional server product as I have with ABR 11. I haven't opened a case on these issues yet, since I wanted to be sure that the problems weren't caused by my lack of familiarity with the product. At this point however I can state that I am comfortable with the product, but still can't get a handle on why DISK/VOL backup jobs fail. It appears that they will run if launched manually, but fail if allowed to execute on schedule. I've disabled VSS, stopped Exchange services, rebooted the server prior to the job's scheduled start time, cleared 'orphaned' .LCK & .XML files, and so on. This is a production server and now I'm wondering if I should consider downgrading to ABR 10 ADV SVR until ABR 11 is proven to be stable? Is this an option?? I'm open to troubleshooting the symptoms, but it seems that many of the same problems I'm experiencing have already been posted many times, and I haven't seen compelling evidence that Acronis is seriously addressing these issues. Can anyone tell me if there are any planned updates to address these issues?

I would love it if my perception were wrong, and there were solutions to these frustrating issues.

Acronis - I could really use some help here.

We are seeing a similar issue with two separate console installations of Acronis Workstation Adv 11 Build 17318. The issue is a two different locations/management consoles/vaults that have been recently setup. When running a backup we can get anywhere from 5% to 70% progress and then it just hangs. The MMS service on the target system cannot be Cycled. Therefore we must reboot. This clears up the client and the console.

We get no errors of any kind within Acronis and no entries in the Windows logs. The last entry in Acronis logs is "locking partition 0-0" and nothing more.

We have a number of Acronis Adv Workstation 10 across our company and have no problems. I’m considering a return to version 10.

Hello William,

Welcome to our Forum, it's nice to have you with us.

"locking partition 0-0" means that the product is stuck on the moment of snapshot creation. First of all I would recommend you to install the SnapAPI update (I will send it to you via private message in a minute). If the issue remains, please gather Acronis Info, submit a case with the information attached, and let us know its number.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Hi Thierry,

I see a similar behaviour on W-XP SP3, it'll just crash when the partition imaging process starts if I am using the windows agent.

I found a way to do the backup:
- log out the WXP
- launch the mgmt console on a different PC
- connect to the ABR agent with that console and launch the backup

I can then login to the WXP, again, even if the backup is still running without further issues. I think that the partition locking / VSS step has to be finished before using the WXP client, again - if you login too quickly, it will still crash within the next seconds/minutes.

@Yana: My guess would also be that is has to do with the snapapi, but I haven't exact evidence. Any chance that I might test that snapapi update (I'm currently using ABR AW 11 Build 17437)?

Regards,
Konrad

Hello Konrad,

Welcome to our Forum, we're glad to greet you here!

That's a good explanation, probably the issue with the snapapi is related to its inability to get loaded properly, and it leads to the crash. Anyway, the drivers update should help in this case.

I will surely be glad to send you the drivers via Private message. Please check it, and let us know the results.

Thank you!

Hi Yana,

Thank you for the friendly welcome and the snapapi downloadable!

I've installed the snapapi and did a test backup - the machine did not crash, that time.

When I compared the 3 dll's, they looked the same as the one's installed on different systems based on the ABR 11 build 17437. Maybe the snapapi did not change at all and I just did not re-test it after the update I did few days ago (that might be highly possible, that I did not test it, as I really don't like to crash a system by intention...)?

But I still get application events 12292 stating that the Shadow Copy Provider COM class could not be created while running a backup (ABR is configured to use VSS software system provider). See PM.

BfN, Konrad