creation of the shadow copy on the backup destination

Support Notes in using Windows Server 2008

creation of the shadow copy on the backup destination

Postby stephen » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:38 am

Windows Server 2008 backup fails with this error

Status Failed
the creation of the shadow copy on the backup destination


I have 3 Volumes C:, E:, I:
and these are showing as backup completed.
However if one tries to restore from that backup there is no backup showing for that period.
So there is a serious problem here.

The disk Volume in Share and Storage Management is showing Capacity 931Gb and free Space 808 Gb


Research:
http://blogs.technet.com/configmgrteam/archive/2009/04/21/how-configuration-manager-backup-uses-the-volume-shadow-copy-service.aspx
The vssadmin.exe command line utility is used to create or modify VSS storage associations. So staying with the three volume scenario I described earlier, to change the VSS storage association for the C drive to use the D drive, you use the Add ShadowStorage command like so (remember that the minimum size supported for the MaxSize value is 300MB and the size you use should be equal to at least 50% of the size of the data to be backed up):

Vssadmin Add ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=D: /MaxSize=30000MB

To view the newly created shadow copy storage association information, you use the List ShadowStorage command:

Vssadmin List ShadowStorage

If you've reviewed the size of the backup snapshot and discovered that you actually need more than the 30 GB you initially dedicated for the storage association, you can just resize it by using the aptly named, Resize ShadowStorage command:

Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=D: Mazsize=50000MB

This would now give you 50 GB of dedicated space for the storage association.

If you then decide that you want to move the storage association because the D drive is filling up with data for some reason, you can use the Delete ShadowStorage command before recreating the shadow storage association on a different volume:

Vssadmin Delete ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=D:

In addition to viewing and changing VSS shadow storage asspociations, Vssadmin.exe can also be used to check the health of the Configuration Manager VSS backup components. The SMS Writer is used to backup site data and the SQL Server writer is used to backup the site database. To verify these components, the List Writers command is used:

Vssadmin List Writers

The output of that command will list the installed VSS writer components, their current state (hopefully ‘stable') and what their last error was (hopefully ‘No error').

I've given some examples of how you can use vssadmin, but for more information about the supported commands, you should check out the official reference here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 54968.aspx.
stephen
 
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Brisbane

Return to Windows Server 2008

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron