Error occurred while searching in the file. The handle is invalid.
I'm trying to backup a shared folder on a server that is part of a DFS replication group. I've set up the backup job to only backup that folder, excluding system files. It backs up to a centralized, unmanaged vault, and we're using a USB external hard drive. Custom backup scheme, with full backups scheduled to run every Friday at 5:30p, then incrementals running Mon - Thur at 5:30p. It is our intention to swap out the external drive every Friday afternoon before the next full backup runs. So theoretically, each drive that is taken off site should have one full backup and 4 incrementals...one week's worth of backups on it. I've set the jobs to create snapshots using VSSSoftware-System Provider.
Unfortunately, I've never been able to get this job to run successfully for an entire week. I can get one full backup, then maybe one incremental if I'm lucky, but never two. The incremental job starts, but never gets past 0%. I receive a message that an activity requires interaction. The error message says "Error occurred while searching in the file. The handle is invalid.". If I click Retry, it just pops back up a few seconds later. If I try to stop the job, nothing happens. I have to stop all Acronis services on the server being backed up.
I've searched on the error code and various keywords and phrases. No luck. I've spoken with Acronis support about other issues, and asked if ABR 11 is not compatible with DFS. I was told that there are known issues with backing up folders and files that are included in DFS and that I would just need to contact them with each issue. I tried to initiate a chat conversation earlier today, but after waiting for several minutes, gave up. Also tried contacting them via email, but my browser crashed just as I was trying to submit it. So I thought I'd try the forums to see if I can get an answer quicker than going through support. If nobody else has run into this and has a resolution, then I'll go ahead and contact support and just wait (groan).
Additional info that may or may not be related:
About every other time I click on the vault, whether it's on the AMS, or the backed up server, I get "access denied" and have to provide the credentials, even though I've set the option to store credentials.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Kim
davidb - No resolution yet. Acronis support finally answered my email, but, even though I stated that the shared folder I'm trying to backup is part of a DFS replication group, his answer indicated that he thought I said GFS, as in Grandfather, Father Son. He suggested I delete the backup job and recreate it. I'm not using a GFS scheme, and I've already tried deleting the job and recreating it (a few times). So I told him that. I imagine it will be another 2 or 3 days before I get another reply.
In the meantime, my full backup that was scheduled to run Friday at 5:30pm is now sitting here stuck at 0%, and I can't stop it. I'm going to have to stop the services on the server I'm trying to backup. Previously, the full backups were succeeding, but I believe it was only because I was deleting the entire archive before it ran. Last week, I decided to just leave the external drive in place, with the previous week's full backup on it, and see what happens. So now I'm thinking it must have something to do with the archive/vault. I'm going to mess around with that over the next couple of days and see if I can come up with a resolution.
I contacted support about this issue as well, and the recommendation they gave me was to back up to a different vault to see if the problem persists. I did so and am still having the problems. I am now getting this error on a lot of backups, but the vault seems to make no difference as several machines successfully make the incremental backups to the same vault (this occurs in 4 or 5 vaults i have set up) while others fail. I found that if i create a new archive sometimes they will work for a while before they start getting this error. I am planning on testing making a new full backup in the same archive and seeing if it can make incrementals off of that as well.
I have not heard back from support since i reported that i am still having the issue after following their suggestion. Hope for a resolution soon!
I'm persistent so waited the half hour for the livechat support representative to connect.
Solution: uninstall/reinstall
Will let you know how it goes.
I've had a few emails back and forth with support. Still no resolution. After they looked through the AcronisInfo file, they thought it might be a permissions issue and wanted me to make sure the user set to run the Acronis Management Server Service had access to the share that I'm trying to back up, or change the user to a domain account that does have access. If this were the problem, I wouldn't have been able to get the first full backup and an incremental, but I played along and changed the user on the service to the domain administrator account. Same thing. One good full, one incremental, then the next incremental hung at 0%.
They also want me to install a utility to check the network connectivity. I can do this, too, but if it were an issue with the connection, I would think that it would bomb out randomly, not produce the same exact thing every time.
I already tried uninstalling and reinstalling, and tried deleting and recreating the jobs. The only thing that seems to work, at least for one full and one inc. is to delete the archive. However, once the archive has been created, I can't just delete it. That also hangs at 0%. So I have to use windows explorer to browse to the external drive and delete it that way.
I have another backup on another server that runs every time with zero issues. That other server is our primary domain controller, and instead of just backing up one folder, I'm backing up the entire disk. Everything else is the same, though. Same backup scheme, going to the same external drive (although a different archive, of course). I may try deleting the problem job and setting it up so it backs up the entire disk rather than just the folder. I didn't want to do this because of storage space, but it may be worth it just to test.
We were very persistent with support on this issue because this renders backups unusable. I finally received a response to the last attempt to get this resolved (see below). Sounds like there is no solution, but at least it is now registered as a legitimate problem and maybe will be addressed later on:
We wish to inform you that the fix for this issue will be available in the future build of the Acronis product.
Please subscribe to the Acronis newsletter to know whenever the build becomes available for download.
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1658
Please let us know if you have any other questions. We will leave the case open until the issue is resolved.
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Best regards,
Manish.Kumar Gupta | Support Professional