Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
7 Posts
0
2181
Avamar Backs up Win2K8 twice
(Originally Mis-posted on the Networker forum, Re-Posted here)
Hi,
We recently setup our first Win 2008 server in Avamar (server 5.0). It seems to be running one backup each for the Windows File System Plugin
AND the VSS plugin. We do have both plugins listed in the dataset, which is a Windows-specific dataset that includes those 2 plugins ONLY.
In the datsets for all our Windows machines, I've always included both VSS and Windows Filesystem plugins, and have never seen any other machine back up twice, (one for each plugin) until this 2K8 box came along. But looking back at the Activity Monitors, it doesnt look like any of the existing server's previous backups used the VSS plugin at all. (Until now, this Win 2K8)... (OK ...why then did I have VSS in the dataset??? I'm not a Windows admin... but it seems that the previous windows backups (win 2K3 , etc...) were running VSS snaps prior to avtar's work. So I thought I needed the VSS plugin... but I guess not... So when is the VSS plugin used??)
Has anyone seen this Avamar behavior with Win 2008 Server? Should I just remove VSS altogether from all the datasets? ... and why does 2K8 handle this any differently.
Any insight is appreciated,
Thx,
Dave
alias23122
139 Posts
1
May 5th, 2010 08:00
The second backup using VSS is to backup the system state. But, that system state cannot be restored successfully, so it is useless. I have removed the VSS from the datasets and only backup the files.
For Windows 2008 system state, I follow the instructions in the Windows 2008 System State tech note which can be found in Powerlink under Avamar documentation.
crashball
5 Posts
1
May 13th, 2010 13:00
The VSS plugin is specifc for 2008 OS. For 2003, you had to check the box for backing up the system state in the advanced properties. For 2008, that checkbox does nothing and you need to use the VSS plugin.
If this is your first 2008 OS, that is why you've never seen it before. If you have a group with both 2008 and 2003 servers, just have both plugins selected as well as having the checkbox selcted, the client will know which to use.
The issue with 2008 system state backups the other poster is referring to is supposed to be resolved with SP2 (according to our EMC rep).
KSchiss
13 Posts
0
April 21st, 2011 14:00
I am experiencing the same issue with my Win2k8 servers, when backing up system state. I was aware that the VSS plugin was only used by Win2k8 servers, however I am getting what the original poster has seen - the issue where Avamar backs up the server "twice".
I understand that since I have the 2 plugins included in my dataset (the Windows File System and the VSS plugin) two jobs are actually being run when the schedule is launched. It appears to do the Windows File System Backup first, while the VSS job is queued. Once the file system backup completes, the VSS job is launched.
After all is said and done, I have two completed backups, both showing pretty close to the same amount of data being backed up in the "Progress Bytes" column. This made me wonder whether I was choosing redundant data in my datasets? Since it is not a good idea to mess with the VSS Plugin, should I be excluding anything in my Windows File System dataset that is already being backed up by the VSS plugin?
I guess I'm just trying to get some confirmation on how these backup are supposed to look, once they're being run. You can follow all the steps in the Avamar docs, but they still don't really give any examples on how this is supposed to look, once they're running.
Anybody else get confirmation from Avamar support on this?
Thanks in advance for any info!
crashball
5 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2011 07:00
I had done some investigating to this when we uncovered it as well. This is do to how Windows 2008 captures system state. If you backup with Windows Backup tools it does the same thing. The system state includes any drive(s) that has system state related data on it. This always includes the drive that windows is installed. In our evironment, it also includes any drive that has any DFS links or targets. unfortuneately for us, that drive is almost 1.5TB as get backed up as part of the VSS.
This link has some good info to know.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverManagement/thread/ee0ea82b-5b71-42e8-b94b-c1673368e1b4
dantoch
7 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2011 09:00
Hi Karl,
We ended up creating a Win2008 specific dataset whose source data is the VSS plugin only, (we removed the default All local Windows Filesystems plugin)
-Dave A
KSchiss
13 Posts
0
April 25th, 2011 09:00
Thanks Steve and Dave A. - I have a case open with Avamar support, to see if they can also confirm this.
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
•
274.2K Posts
0
November 24th, 2011 17:00
Hi Karl,
Did you manage to get an answer back from Avamar Support on this? Is there a way to avoid the duplicate backups and still have both DR and file-level restores?
Regards
Paul