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        Dealing with Common Hyper-V backup failures

Section(s): Management
Published on Jan 07, 2010.
Last Modified on Jun 22, 2009.
Last Modified by Robert Larson.
Rating: Not Rated

You are backing up a Hyper-V server and running into backups that are failing or getting stuck? Here is the solution.

Hyper-V backups using the Hyper-V VSS writer can get into three states that could cause backup issues

1) Backup might fail if you are backing up multiple volumes. You receive event ID: 10104 regarding the failure to revert a snapshot.

2) Backup failures might cause the VSS writer to go into a unstable state. If you look at the list of VSS writers, the Hyper-V VSS writer is not listed. Restarting the VSS Writer can return the VSS writer to a stable state.

3) You get failures trying to restore a VM that has a legacy network driver.

Microsoft has created an undate that addresses these issues. Refer to KB - 959962 for updated files that should resolve the issue. Note that you must update the Integration Services in the virtual machines after you apply the updates.

About Robert Larson

Robert Larson is the co-author of the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Resource Kit, and the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Resource kit, both published by Microsoft Press. Robert has over 20 years experience in the engineering and IT field. Currently an architect with Microsoft Consulting Services, Robert focuses on helping customers design and deploy optimized data center and server infrastructures using physical and virtual approaches. Robert has been working with various virtualization technologies for over 4 years and is a regular speaker at Microsoft TechEd conferences in the US and Europe on the Microsoft virtualization stack. Robert has also written whitepapers and delivered webcasts on virtualization technologies. You can visit Robert's blog