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"backup has failed"

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Hello,

I have an automated backup of several VM, all works fine excepted one.
I have the fellowing errors in the log:

Backup has failed. Please check the log for additional information.
1 Information 6/21/13 2:30:01 AM Task 'Multipoint01' changed its state from 'idle' to 'running'.
2 Information 6/21/13 2:30:01 AM Task 'Multipoint01' was started.
3 Information 6/21/13 2:30:08 AM Backing up VM(s).
4 Information 6/21/13 2:30:08 AM Successfully connected to 'VMware ESXi 5.1.0 build-799733'.
5 Information 6/21/13 2:30:15 AM Successfully connected to 'VMware ESXi 5.1.0 build-799733'.
6 Error 6/21/13 2:30:37 AM Failed to perform the requested operation.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 13
Module: 149
LineInfo: d1ab7fa1e56ec9b9
Fields:
Message: Failed to perform the requested operation.
--------------------
Error code: 103
Module: 83
LineInfo: a859dd78cc91defd
Fields:
Message: Failed to open the virtual machine ([DBNas] Multipoint01/Multipoint01.vmx).
--------------------
Error code: 253
Module: 83
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: VMware error: 'Remote method call failed.'.
--------------------
Error code: 32
Module: 0
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: Awaiting task 'CreateSnapshot' has failed. Reason: An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. See the virtual machine's event log for details..
--------------------
7 Error 6/21/13 2:30:37 AM The operation has failed.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 26
Module: 100
LineInfo: 48afbd3608a410ca
Fields:
Message: The operation has failed.
--------------------
Error code: 1080
Module: 1
LineInfo: d1ab7fa1e56ec832
Fields:
Message:
--------------------
Error code: 13
Module: 149
LineInfo: d1ab7fa1e56ec9b9
Fields:
Message: Failed to perform the requested operation.
--------------------
Error code: 103
Module: 83
LineInfo: a859dd78cc91defd
Fields:
Message: Failed to open the virtual machine ([DBNas] Multipoint01/Multipoint01.vmx).
--------------------
Error code: 253
Module: 83
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: VMware error: 'Remote method call failed.'.
--------------------
Error code: 32
Module: 0
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: Awaiting task 'CreateSnapshot' has failed. Reason: An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. See the virtual machine's event log for details..
--------------------
8 Information 6/21/13 2:30:38 AM Task 'Multipoint01' changed its state from 'running' to 'idle'.
9 Error 6/21/13 2:30:38 AM Task 'Multipoint01' failed: 'Failed to create a backup.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 435
LineInfo: 555b5abba09501ce
Fields:
Message: Failed to create a backup.
--------------------
Error code: 32786
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d32e
Fields:
Message: Failed to prepare for backing up.
--------------------
Error code: 353
Module: 149
LineInfo: a71592046cb2c5f6
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: 1080
Module: 1
LineInfo: d1ab7fa1e56ec832
Fields:
Message:
--------------------
Error code: 13
Module: 149
LineInfo: d1ab7fa1e56ec9b9
Fields:
Message: Failed to perform the requested operation.
--------------------
Error code: 103
Module: 83
LineInfo: a859dd78cc91defd
Fields:
Message: Failed to open the virtual machine ([DBNas] Multipoint01/Multipoint01.vmx).
--------------------
Error code: 253
Module: 83
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: VMware error: 'Remote method call failed.'.
--------------------
Error code: 32
Module: 0
LineInfo: c7610e0a857bedf4
Fields:
Message: Awaiting task 'CreateSnapshot' has failed. Reason: An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. See the virtual machine's event log for details..
--------------------'.

Thanks.

0 Users found this helpful

Hello Aurelien,

This is a known VMware issue, described in our Knowledge Base article: http://kb.acronis.com/content/4559 . Please try to create the snapshot using your Vsphere client-it should fail also: right click on the VM->Snapshot->Take snapshot with the following options : "Quiesce guest file system" = On , "Snapshot the virtual machine's memory" = Off .
Please report the results.

Thank you.

Thanks for your reply.

As expected it failed and showed the fellowing results:

"Le code d'erreur était : 5 Le message d'erreur était : 'VssSyncStart' operation failed: IDispatch error #8451 (0x80042303) "

Currently having the exact same problem...

In speaking with VMWare engineer on yesterday in addition to just reinstalling the tools he said to make sure to NOT install the Vmware VSS snapshot provider as well as it may interfere with backup products like Acronis, Symantec etc... that utilize snapshots in the manner that they do.

I have done this this morning and so far so good. But, honestly, this is really frustrating. I shouldn't have to do things like this just to get backups to work. Veeam never required modifications such as these and we are seriously considering going back to that product even though they are significantly more expensive.

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Hi dspjones,

The VSS components of VMware Tools are important for proper quiescing of the applications inside the VM and without them the snapshot is not application-consistent. The advise from VMware to uninstall VSS components looks quite strange (in fact I'd considered it only as workaround but not as a solution) and I strongly believe that there must be some normal solution without this step.

The snapshots creation process is performed totally on VMware side no matter which product you use (Acronis, Symantec, Veeam, etc.) and access to these snapshots is performed through the same standard vStorage API provided by VMware. In other words in your case the problem is not with "how" the snaphot is utilized by software, but "how" the snapshot is created. In case of Acronis vmProtect we allow reading from quiesced snapshots only, while other vendors optionally allow reading non-quiesced snapshots so this may explain the difference in behavior. But again - reading from non-quiesced snapshots (which are unaffected by VSS) is not 100% safe and may lead to corrupt data upon recovery.

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis vmProtect Program Manager

Hi Aurelien. I was just wondering here if you were able to fix this already? Can you also share the steps?

Just a heads up....
I've been banging my head against the wall for this problem for 2 days and there is a solution (albeit lengthy).

First off, a bit of background.
I was getting this exact same error after I P2V'd a server and all my Acronis for vmware backups would succeed on all other virtual servers except this newly P2V'd one.
On that P2V'd server were 2 separate backups solutions (an older symantec backup and an older sonicwall CDP backup [now Dell]).
After extensive reading and mountains of google-fu I could not get this to work with ESXi 5.0 or ESXi 5.1U1 and Acronis Backup for VMware (Acronis Backup for VMware Agent (build 9.0.10007)).
I tried all fixes posted on vmware's site, I tried all fixes posted on Acronis's website. NOTHING worked.
I tried the following solutions:
- Removing and reinstalling VMware tools
- Removing and reinstalling vmware tools with no VSS
- Removing and other conflicting VSS probviders (possible Symantec or Sonicwall/DELL)
- All server patches installed and up to date including service packs
- 5 separate above posted fixes listed earlier in this thread
- 8643 different server reboots.... (closer to 30)

No matter what I did, I could NOT get it to work UNTIL....
I upgraded to ESXi 5.5U1

I wanted to point blame at Acronis for this but I really think something was up with the VMware tools VSS provider doing something because as soon as I updated to ESXi 5.5U1 and the new vmware tools were installed (and have a newer VSS)... it all worked according to plan.
Hope this helps anyone struggling with issue.

TLDR; Upgrade to ESXi 5.5U1 and your problem gets resolved... (something to do with vmware tools VSS driver).

Note: This was on Windows server 2008 (not R2).

Hi Chris,

thank you for sharing your experiences!