The Flush and Hold Writes Operation on Volume

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Hi All,

I'm having trouble with our DC (Server 2003 R2) backups failing.  On the DC I'm getting volsnap errors:

5:

The shadow copy of volume E: could not be created due to insufficient non-paged memory pool for a bitmap structure.

8:

The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: timed out while waiting for a release writes command.

And Backup Exec is talking about VSS errors and to make sure that all provider services and tasks are running.

Also, on thr DC is I run 'vssadmin list writers' one is Stable but all others are State [9] Failed with no errors.

I'm pretty lost with this stuff, I've found a hot fix for the volsnap 5 error but a little hesitant to run it until I know more.  Any suggestions while I pick through Google?

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13 Replies

Thanks for the reply, I'll take a look at the reg edits before trying this hotfix.  It works as our main file server as well so I'd rather not risk bringing it down for too long!

BrandonH75

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May 12, 2014 at 20:35 UTC

I had a similar issue with a server and Yosemite Server Backup a couple years ago.  The two registry settings in the eventid.net link above fixed it for me.

I also had to set all drives to unlimited space for shadow copies, even the drives that had it disabled.

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Often a reboot will clear these type of errors so schedule some time to get the server fully patched and rebooted

BrandonH75 wrote:

I also had to set all drives to unlimited space for shadow copies, even the drives that had it disabled.

This can actually cause backups with certain applications to hang, and lock the writers in a "waiting for completion" state. I would definitely recommend checking the space limitations on each drive's shadow copy settings. Whether or not the drives keep shadow copies locally, the backup software uses this and needs at the very least 10% of the drive's total space allowed.

Thanks for the further suggestions.  Unfortunately a reboot didn't rectify the problems last week so I'll have to look into the reg keys and patches I think.

As luck would have it the team where I work has been knocked down to just myself and I've not got a great deal of experience server side yet!  Hence my hesitation...

But thanks again, I shall continue to look into it all!

first you check the event viewer if any error on their  next you to trouble shoot.

ashok9406 wrote:

first you check the event viewer if any error on their  next you to trouble shoot.

The title of the post has the Event IDs the OP pulled from the Event Viewer.

rmcnabb wrote:

BrandonH75 wrote:

I also had to set all drives to unlimited space for shadow copies, even the drives that had it disabled.

This can actually cause backups with certain applications to hang, and lock the writers in a "waiting for completion" state. I would definitely recommend checking the space limitations on each drive's shadow copy settings. Whether or not the drives keep shadow copies locally, the backup software uses this and needs at the very least 10% of the drive's total space allowed.

I wonder if that might have something to do with it... Looking in Backup Exec itis backing data up but failing towards the end.  It's certainly not short on data and seems to be similar values to past successful backups.  I'll dig for it it, but where do I find the the settings for this?

Right click one of your drives, select properties.

Select the "Shadow Copy" tab, and view the individual drives on that tab.

You can select them one by one, and then select "Settings" in order to configure the space allocated for Shadow Copies, without actually enabling shadow copies on the drives.

http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Configuring_Volume_Shadow_Copy_on_Windows_Server_2008

I'm going to see about installing this hotfix tonight as I'm getting both VolSnap errors 5 & 20.  Am I being over cautious worrying that it might screw something up horribly and at present I don't have a recent full backup I know is 100% safe?  Or should it be ok?

Thanks for the pointers above btw, I did manage to find it and I've adjusted the size limitations to 512GB on all drives to begin with.

I have some good news!  An incremental backup completed last night!

I couldn't install the hotfix I was going to due to being a higher service pack that it was for.  However I did install a 'volsnap rollup' update and I made the PoolUsageMaximum reg change, down to the recommended 60.

Fingers crossed we'll be OK looking forwards.

Thank you all for your help!

Sorry, forgot to mention I've also disabled Shadow Copies for now as well.  But set a limit on the size.  Once I've got another full backup I'll look to re-enable them.

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The Flush and Hold Writes Operation on Volume

Source: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/492496-volsnap-errors-5-8

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