code 32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

Exclude avamar processes from SEP scan and see if that helps. Basically files were locked open by application causing these errors. Ensure “freezemethod” in the backup log is not set to none

I believe I already have the Avamar processes excluded from scanning. Currently the backup dataset in question has the following configured:

freezcachesize=50

freezemethod=best

freezetimeout=300

freezewait=4

I excluded the Avamar processes (avtar.exe and avvss.exe) from SEP scanning / protection. This did not resolve the issue.

I downloaded and installed Process Explorer (from sysinternals) and found that all the files that seem to be locked are split between the generic windows 'System' process and the Symantec 'smc.exe' process.

Stopping the SEP service altogether gets rid of some of the errors in the backup logs, but obviously not the ones related to the windows system process.

Any ideas?

From the log can you see if vss is taking snapshots of the volumes successfully? Are there any files getting created and locked after VSS snapshot is taken?

The following is a snippet from the log showing that the VSS process appears to be working fine. I masked some information for sake of security.

I will check into the VSS created / locked files. Thanks.

avtar Info <10793>: Single Instance Store Groveler Service NOT installed - WSS SIS Manager will be not started.

avtar Info <5946>: File system character encoding is 65001 (UTF-8).

avtar Info <8940>: Starting back up at 2012-01-27 09:36:37 Mountain Standard Time as "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" on "XXXXXXXXXXXX" (2 CPUs) [6.0.100-592]

avtar Info <5730>: Entering include/exclude rules.

avtar Info <5438>: Loaded 24 exclude patterns from Windows local machine registry

avtar Info <5374>: 6 user exclude patterns entered.

avtar Info <6555>: Initializing connection (Avamar Deduplication Engine v2.0.0)

avtar Info <5552>: Connecting to Avamar Server (XXXXXXXXX)

avtar Info <5554>: Connecting to one node in each datacenter

avtar Info <5581>: Logging in on connection 0 with Session Ticket

avtar Info <5582>: Avamar Server login successful

avtar Info <5550>: Successfully logged into Avamar Server (Compression enabled)

avtar Info <7563>: Back up of "/" on server "XXXXXXXXXXXX" for /XXX/XXXXXXXXXXXX.domain.com

avtar Info <5586>: Loading cache files from C:\Program Files\avs\var

avtar Info <7324>: Volume Type for "C:\" is "NTFS", Supports Compression=1, Encryption=1, ACLS=1, DataStreams=1, Reparse=1, Sparse=1

avtar Info <6426>: Done loading cache files

avtar Info <7409>: Freeze volume list : C:\ E:\

avtar Info <10967>: Found System Provider GUID. Will be using the System Provider GUID to perform backup

avtar Info <8776>: Creating snapshot set...

avtar Info <8780>: Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ...

avtar Info <8781>: Shadow copy set succesfully created.

avtar Info <8785>: Retrieving volume mappings...

avtar Info <0000>:

Querying all shadow copies with the SnapshotSetID {3c555e62-3c28-44c8-b6d1-75cc9f8272d4} ...

avtar Info <0000>: * SNAPSHOT ID = {ba8595f0-a412-4ce4-81ed-9f7eb0a4fbd1} ...

avtar Info <0000>:    - Shadow copy Set: {3c555e62-3c28-44c8-b6d1-75cc9f8272d4}

avtar Info <8810>:    - Original count of shadow copies = 2

avtar Info <8811>:    - Original Volume name: \

avtar Info <8812>:    - Creation Time: 1/27/2012 9:36:38 AM

avtar Info <8813>:    - Shadow copy device name: \

avtar Info <8814>:    - Originating machine: T

avtar Info <8815>:    - Service machine: T

avtar Info <8819>:    - Not Exposed

avtar Info <0000>:    - Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}

avtar Info <8821>:    - Attributes:  Auto_Release No_Writers Differential

avtar Info <12061>:

avtar Info <0000>: * SNAPSHOT ID = {102a9ae0-a41e-4e14-8c33-0cb0117ad678} ...

avtar Info <0000>:    - Shadow copy Set: {3c555e62-3c28-44c8-b6d1-75cc9f8272d4}

avtar Info <8810>:    - Original count of shadow copies = 2

avtar Info <8811>:    - Original Volume name: \

avtar Info <8812>:    - Creation Time: 1/27/2012 9:36:38 AM

avtar Info <8813>:    - Shadow copy device name: \

avtar Info <8814>:    - Originating machine: T

avtar Info <8815>:    - Service machine: T

avtar Info <8819>:    - Not Exposed

avtar Info <0000>:    - Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}

avtar Info <8821>:    - Attributes:  Auto_Release No_Writers Differential

avtar Info <12061>:

avtar Info <6074>: VSS snapshot set creation successful

avtar Info <7324>: Volume Type for "E:\" is "NTFS", Supports Compression=1, Encryption=1, ACLS=1, DataStreams=1, Reparse=1, Sparse=1

I was not able to find any locked files during the VSS process. Is there anything else I can look for to resolve this?

Sameer,

I tried that already. Stopping SEP and running backups reduces the number of files listed as exceptions in the log file, but there are still about 4 or 5 files that show errors related to files locked by the windows system process.

You can probably use process explorer to find out processes which locked files? If files come under VSS snapshot then they will never be locked and are always backed up.

Further to below suggestion, avamar never implemented Junction support, so we have not yet fixed the issue of backing up junction points. I will recommend checking if there are any junction points in avtar errors.

We are planning to fix this junction point issue in our future release.

If the files get created after and NOT during VSS snapshot, those files will be shown as exceptions. Will suggest stopping antivirus during backup process completely and re-testing backups.

Can you explain more on the junction point issue? Does Avamar follow junction points, or does it ignore them?

Complete support for junction points will come under 6.1

Although I have issues with junction points in other Avamar backups (I'll start another discussion about that), I don't think this relates to my issue. I will run a backup tonight and monitor process explorer for any signs of locked files that are not released.

I was just curious if any updates/fixes for your issue have been found as we are experiencing the same issues with Avamar 6.0.1.65 and Symantec Endpoint Protection and a serious of 5139 errors and locked files.

I was not able to find a resolution to this problem. I eventually gave up and excluded the "c:\ProgramData\Symantec" directory from backups.

1. Select and edit the appropriate dataset.

2. On the 'Options' tab select the appropriate backup method. Mine was 'Windows VSS'.

3. Select the 'More' button at the bottom of the window.

4. Attribute = --[avtar]exclude

5. Attribute Value = "C:\ProgramData\Symantec"

Unless there is a specific reason you need that directory backed up, this should suffice to eliminate the errors.