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Iscsi connections and corrupted backup databases RRS feed

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    This is rather far afield from whatever vision Microsoft has for a windows home server, but I was hoping someone would have some insight into my problem. And if it solves it, then maybe this will be helpful for someone else.

    I have been troublelshooting constant backup database corruption issues ever since I installed WHS 2011 - a problem I never faced in WHS1. Looking back over the last few months, the chronology of the corruption of the backup database leads me to believe it may be due to using an iscsi connection.  I have a NAS connected via an iscsi connection (in WHS1 it was connected via firewire). When the server reboots, I think there is insufficient time between the initilization of the "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service" and the "Windows Server Client Computer Backup Service" to allow my pokey DroboPro to start servicing requests (60 milliseconds may be a bit much for it to wake up - it powers down when it senses the iscsi connection is closed).  I copied in some of the logs from the event viewer that lead to my reasoning below. The drive paths that are unavailable to the backup service are always reachable by the time I log into the server, so I assume the NAS just needs more time.

    I would like to delay the start of the windows backup service to give the NAS more time to... well, do whatever it does to wake up. The "delayed start" setting in the services manager does not create a reliable enough additinal delay -- if it does at all.  I wondered if anyone had an idea of how best to delay the start of the backup service.  Should I define a dependency on some service that always starts last? Or would it be better to set the start up type to manual and then create a task in task scheduler to start the service a few minutes after boot up (I cannot imagine that the backup service is needed within seconds of the server booting up).

    Thanks for any insight!

     

    Log Name:      System
    Source:        Service Control Manager
    Date:          10/16/2011 10:33:38 PM
    Event ID:      7036
    Task Category: None
    Level:         Information
    Keywords:      Classic
    User:          N/A
    Computer:      BackupServer
    Description:
    The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service service entered the running state.


    Log Name:      System
    Source:        Service Control Manager
    Date:          10/16/2011 10:34:02 PM
    Event ID:      7036
    Task Category: None
    Level:         Information
    Keywords:      Classic
    User:          N/A
    Computer:      BackupServer
    Description:
    The Windows Server Client Computer Backup Service service entered the running state.


    Log Name:      WSSG
    Source:        Windows Server
    Date:          10/16/2011 10:34:03 PM
    Event ID:      271
    Task Category: Backup
    Level:         Error
    Keywords:      Classic
    User:          N/A
    Computer:      BackupServer
    Description:
    The Windows Server Client Computer Backup Service encountered the following error: Error code: 0x2 API name: GetVolumePathName File: H:\ServerFolders\Client Computer Backups Error: The system cannot find the file specified.


    Log Name:      WSSG
    Source:        Windows Server
    Date:          10/16/2011 10:34:03 PM
    Event ID:      267
    Task Category: Backup
    Level:         Error
    Keywords:      Classic
    User:          N/A
    Computer:      BackupServer
    Description:
    The Windows Server Client Computer Backup Service failed at (297) of (d:\wssg_src\hsbs_colorado\backup\pc\util\datafile.cpp).

     

     edited - woops, fixed a typo.


    • Edited by Rutlet Monday, October 17, 2011 12:31 PM
    Monday, October 17, 2011 5:01 AM

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    Woah, I had to dig for this one!  It's been a while (2007!) since I set up an Equallogic array and ran into this issue myself.

    You need to bind your targets.  Check out step 7 of this article:  http://www.zdnetasia.com/how-to-install-configure-and-use-microsofts-iscsi-initiator-62030894.htm 

    "Step 7: Bind the targets
    Now, you have successfully connected to a shared target on your iSCSI array. If you selected the Automatically Restore This Connection When The System Boots check box as explained in the previous step, you can now add the target to the iSCSI service's binding list. By doing so, you make sure that Windows does not consider the iSCSI service fully started until connections are restored to all volumes on the binding list. This is important if you have data on an iSCSI target that other services depend on."

    Good luck!  And yes, the iSCSI initiator is complex, convoluted and far from intuative!

    • Proposed as answer by Eric E Eskam Tuesday, March 13, 2012 2:42 PM
    • Marked as answer by Rutlet Friday, March 16, 2012 4:32 AM
    Tuesday, March 13, 2012 2:19 PM

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    Not a straight answer to your issue, but isn't Drobo (or the company behind it) hiring people for working with WHS 2011 add-ins?

    Try issuing the same question to Drobo, maybe they have a solution.

     

     

     

    WHS 2011 RTM up and running, v.1 gone to meet its maker...
    Monday, October 17, 2011 6:50 AM
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    So, I'm having the exact same problem with the exact same error message (well, close enough). The client backup service won't start. I'm configured to save the files to an ISCSI drive also (NetGear ReadyNAS). And no luck. Can anyone from Microsoft chime in on this? Seems crazy that SBS 2011 or WHS 2011 can't backup to a network drive of some type.

    Jeff Levinson | ALM MVP
    Author, "Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010"

    Tuesday, March 13, 2012 10:50 AM
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    Woah, I had to dig for this one!  It's been a while (2007!) since I set up an Equallogic array and ran into this issue myself.

    You need to bind your targets.  Check out step 7 of this article:  http://www.zdnetasia.com/how-to-install-configure-and-use-microsofts-iscsi-initiator-62030894.htm 

    "Step 7: Bind the targets
    Now, you have successfully connected to a shared target on your iSCSI array. If you selected the Automatically Restore This Connection When The System Boots check box as explained in the previous step, you can now add the target to the iSCSI service's binding list. By doing so, you make sure that Windows does not consider the iSCSI service fully started until connections are restored to all volumes on the binding list. This is important if you have data on an iSCSI target that other services depend on."

    Good luck!  And yes, the iSCSI initiator is complex, convoluted and far from intuative!

    • Proposed as answer by Eric E Eskam Tuesday, March 13, 2012 2:42 PM
    • Marked as answer by Rutlet Friday, March 16, 2012 4:32 AM
    Tuesday, March 13, 2012 2:19 PM
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    Sigh. This was a dumb one. It turns out that SBS2011 doesn't use the same settings as in the article (but it did help point me in the right direction). My DNS went down the other day and for some reason the NAS didn't have a static IP address. The iSCSI target was the IP address of the NAS, not the name of the NAS so the backup stuff basically lost it.

    Thanks Erik.

    Jeff Levinson | ALM MVP
    Author, "Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010"

    Wednesday, March 14, 2012 2:25 AM
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    Interesting article - I had not realized the service dependency could be solved by binding as well as setting up a persistant connection.

    I had solved the problem by setting the "Windows Server Client Computer Backup Service", "Windows Server Backup Service", "Windows Server Health Service",  and "Windows Server Client Computer Backup Provider Service" to manual start up only, and then created a batch file which essentially ran the following commands 5 minutes after boot :

    net start WSS_ComputerBackupSvc
    net start ServerBackupSvc
    net start HealthAlertsSvc
    net start WSS_ComputerBackupProviderSvc

    It would be interesting to see if the binding would prevent those services above from starting until all iscsi volumes were available.

    Now, for grins and giggles, I have WHS 2011 running as a virtual machine on windows 2008 r2 with hyper-v, and utilize the iscsi disks as a pass through disk for the WHS 2011 guest, so it is not as important - the virtual machine wont load if its missing disks!

    Friday, March 16, 2012 4:32 AM