VM backup has started failing on one VM

MSP360 Backup
1

Have a VM job that has been running fine for a few months and now it keeps having issues with one of the VMs, a Windows 7 VM. The errors we’re seeing in the event log of the VM are:

Event ID 8 from source Volsnap: The flush and hold writes operation on volume \?\Volume{da4583cd-0000-0000-0000-100000000000} timed out while waiting for a release writes command.

Event ID 8 from source Volsnap: The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: timed out while waiting for a release writes command.

Event ID 12298 from source VSS: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The I/O writes cannot be held during the shadow copy creation period on volume \?\Volume{da4583cd-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}. The volume index in the shadow copy set is 0. Error details: Open[0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.
], Flush[0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.
], Release[0x80042314, The shadow copy provider timed out while holding writes to the volume being shadow copied. This is probably due to excessive activity on the volume by an application or a system service. Try again later when activity on the volume is reduced.
], OnRun[0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.
].

Operation:
Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
Current State: DoSnapshotSet

Was hoping for some pointers as the only thing I found related to Server 2003.

Thanks folks!

Mark

2

[reply=“Mark;d367”] If you’ve only recently started seeing these disk I/O messages then it may indicate hardware problems, it’s probably time to check the HDD health.

More info on the event ID 12298 can be found here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc734401(v=ws.10)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/dd364875(v=ws.10)

3

Thanks for the reply and the links Matt. I ran a sfc /scannow and that found and repaired some corruption so we’ll see if that helps. I also ran a chkdsk and it came up clean. I would think that if there was a hardware issue, some of the other VMs would have issues as well as they’re all on the one datastore but who knows. I know that if I reboot the VM, it will succeed on the backup for the next run but then it will fail after that.

Thanks again,

Mark

4

[reply=“Mark;1246”] Thanks for the update.

In general, those I/O errors are simply caused by a heavy load on the system, so running the backups during non-business hours should help.

5

[reply=“Matt;1247”] Well the backup was successful yesterday. Not sure if it will continue that way or not but for now it looks like the sfc /scannow worked. That’s twice in 15 years that sfc /scannow worked for me now!

6

[reply=“Mark;1255”] Glad to hear that! In case you encounter any other technical issues you can write to [email protected] for further assistance.