NTBACKUP commmon issue and there fixes

In our company, we are using TAPE drives to backup our data on various servers. It was running successfully since many years, but from past few weeks, it started to create strange issues and backup were failing with multiple errors in logs , for example

Logs Error # 1

Volume shadow copy creation: Attempt 1.
Timeout before function completed
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:0x80042319.
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042319
Aborting Backup.
----------------------
The operation did not successfully complete.
----------------------

Logs Error # 2

Volume shadow copy creation: Attempt 1.
Timeout before function completed
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:0xffffffff.
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:ffffffff
Aborting Backup.
----------------------
The operation did not successfully complete.
----------------------

This error occurs when the creation of the Volume Shadow Copy times out.
This is more common during periods of high disk activity, or on disks that are heavily fragmented.
To solve it, Try following solutions

1- Make sure you have Latest Service pack for windows 2003 Server, If don’t Update it first,
Now Download HOTFIX from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833167/en-us
OR http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%20Server%202003/sp1/Fix67560/3790/free/158865_ENU_i386_zip.exe

After applying, restart your server and try NTBACKUP again. If the problem persists, then continue below

2- Set following services startup type to AUTOMATIC , and start them

– Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
– Virtual Shadow Copy
– Volume Shadow Copy (VSS)
– Remote Procedure Call (RPCSS) – should be enabled as “Automatic”
– COM+ Event System (eventsystem)
– System Event Notification Service (sens) – should be enabled as “Automatic”

Adjust above services accordingly and now try NTBACKUP again.

3- Re-Register few dll’s ,Open command prompt and copy paste following lines.

Net stop vss
Net stop swprv
regsvr32 ole32.dll  
regsvr32 oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 vss_ps.dll  
vssvc /Register
regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 stdprov.dll
regsvr32 es.dll
regsvr32 vssui.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml2.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml4.dll

Now Restart your server and try NT.Backup again. Hopefully it will work fine :), at least in my case, it DID 🙂

Mounting the media . . .

If you run NTBackup from Windows, and it says “Waiting for a previous media operation to finish” but actually there is none. OR if you see MOUNTING THE MEDIA  and it keep stucked on this message. Then Try following . . .

Go to Computer Management -> Removable Storage and check under the Work Queue for any errors. Deleting any jobs that are failing should resolve your problem. However, you may be experiencing hardware issues with the drive or the media, which would be worth checking out.

In some cases restarting the Removable Storage service has worked OR
In some cases, rebuilding the Removable Storage Database has worked for me.

To rebuild RSM Database, Follow below steps

1) Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and find the Removable Storage service.
2) Right click on the Removable Storage service, select Properties, change the ‘Startup type:’ to Disabled and click ok.
3) Restart the machine
4) When the machine is running again open Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:\Windows\system32\ntmsdata\ directory  (or some other variation depending on the operating system, just pick the directory where Windows is installed and go from there)
5) In that directory rename all the files to *.OLD or move them to another temp folder.
6) Go back to the Removable Storage service (see step 1) go to properties and change the ‘Startup type:’ back to Automatic.
7) Restart the machine again

The device reported an error on a request to write data to media.

IF you receive the following error in NTBACKUP logs

Error: The device reported an error on a request to write data to media.
Error reported: Bad data.
There may be a hardware or media problem.

# Clean your tape drive either by using Cleaning Tape or other means (by service technician)

 

Regard’s
Syed Jahanzaib