NVP: VM SQL App Consistent backup failing with "unable to validate VSS Metadata"

Summary: NetWorker VMware Protection (NVP) App consistent (MSVMAPPAGENT) backups of a Microsoft SQL server Virtual Machine (VM) fail. The MSVMAPPAGENT Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS) snapshot is unable to validate metadata due to the databases not being considered as "local." ...

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Symptoms

  • A Microsoft SQL VM is configured for backup using the NetWorker VMware Protection (NVP) vProxy appliance.
  • The backup action for the VM is configured with App Consistency so that MSVMAPPAGENT backups are performed.
  • During the initial backup of the SQL server, the backup fails. The VM's C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs\msvmcatsnap.log shows that the databases are not local to the server:
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR info The database msdb is not local(Hostname\InstanceName). Skipping the save set APPLICATIONS:\SqlServerWriter\Hostname\InstanceName\msdb from the supported save set list of MICROSOFT_SQL manager."
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR info The database model is not local(Hostname\InstanceName). Skipping the save set APPLICATIONS:\SqlServerWriter\Hostname\InstanceName\model from the supported save set list of MICROSOFT_SQL manager."
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR info The database master is not local(Hostname\InstanceName). Skipping the save set APPLICATIONS:\SqlServerWriter\Hostname\InstanceName\master from the supported save set list of MICROSOFT_SQL manager."
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR critical Failed to verify if save set MICROSOFT_SQL is supported. The supported save set list of APPLICATIONS:\SqlServerWriter manager is empty."
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR info Unable to validate the APPLICATIONS:\SqlServerWriter save set. The save set is not supported by any of the application managers and will be skipped."
"msvmagentcatsnap NSR critical Unable to validate the save set list. The save sets are not supported by any of the application managers."
"169524:msvmagentcatsnap: Unable to validate VSS metadata."
"102333:msvmagentcatsnap: Exiting with failure."
 
Where Hostname: The VM's hostname
Where InstanceName: The instance name of the SQL Database
  • SQL backups performed using the NetWorker Module for Microsoft (NMM) fail with similar errors.

Cause

The SQL server has a mismatch between its Hostname and the Client node name. This causes NetWorker to view these databases as "not local" and prevents the backup from completing.

This can also appear due to misspelling of the hostname or client node name.

Resolution

The SQL database administrator must investigate. Carefully review the SQL server's hostname and SQL configuration. 
The systems hostname and SQL server instance must match:

SSMS and command prompt showing matching names

Affected Products

NetWorker
Article Properties
Article Number: 000218191
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 04 Dec 2025
Version:  2
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