Windows Server 2003 Archives

[Solved] -> Missing Previous Versions Tab on Windows Server 2003 Explorer Properties Box

So you think your missing the Previous Versions Tab when you open windows explorer, right mouse click and select properties on a Windows 2003 server. The reason for this is that Windows Server Explore only supports the Shadow Copy “Revert” feature when connecting to a local drive using Windows Explorer. To get the “Previous Versions Tab” you should access the the drive as a UNC path in Windows Explorer. The “Previous Versions Client” is not installed under that properties feature so it does not show up until you browse using a UNC path. See examples below.

vss-explorer — Accessing VSS using Explorer and local drive path

When you use a UNC path in explorer it provides the Previous Versions client into the properties box for you to be able to mount and restore files as needed.

vss-unc — VSS access via UNC Path in Explorer

So access the files using \\servername\Share or \\servername\D$\folder to see the “Previous Versions Tab“.

[Solved] – Unable to take VSS Snapshot and transfer data for ‘C:’ Unable to take VSS Snapshot of volume(s) because the VSS subsystem is in a bad state.

AppAssure Replay backup reports Errors, ‘Unable to take VSS Snapshot of volume(s) because the VSS subsystem is in a bad state.’ or ‘Error taking snapshot of volume(s): AddToSnapshotSet failed when trying to add volume ‘C:’ – VSS Provider is not registered’

I found this to be a fairly common issue when deploying new Replay agents out to Windows 2003 servers. There are several things that should be addressed when deploying Replay agents to Windows 2003 Servers including repairing LSP, refreshing and / or verifying VSS states and removing conflicting software. I have had great success resolving these types of issues by following these simple steps.

#1 Remove Offending Software Conflicts

Offending Software:

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent

Symantec Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows

any 3rd party backup software

#2 Reset VSS Writers

I use a simple bat file that re-registeres all my VSS writers and then I follow that up with a reboot. Below is the bat script commands, copy them to a file, name the file vss.bat, then run the file. It should shutdown a few services and re-register the VSS writers. reboot is needed after this has completed.

net stop “System Event Notification”
net stop “COM+ Event System”
net stop “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”
net stop “Volume Shadow Copy”
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s Vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
net start “COM+ Event System”

#3 Repair the Layered Service Providers

Layered Service Provider (LSP) is a feature of the Microsoft Windows Winsock 2 Service Provider Interface (SPI). A Layered Service Provider is a DLL that uses Winsock APIs to insert itself into the TCP/IP protocol stack. Once in the stack, a Layered Service Provider can intercept and modify inbound and outbound Internet traffic. It allows processing of all the TCP/IP traffic taking place between the Internet and the applications that are accessing the Internet (such as a web browser, email client or Replay agent.).

This is a common problem in Windows 2003 especially if you use Kaseya agents on these systems. The kaseyasp.dll causes some issues with transferring the file across the network. Luckily this is a really easy fix. Download and run LSPFix.exe on the Windows 2003 Server system. It will find the Kaseya Dll issue and repair it for you.

#4 Verify no Disk Errors are present

This often overlooked but a simple “CHKDSK C:” at the command prompt will scan your disk and verify if there are any errors on your disk. Using the “/F” switch you can fix the errors. Make sure you have clean disks.

By following these steps you should resolve 98% of your common backup issues with Replay clients failing snapshots or not transferring the snapshot once it has been taken.

I hope this helps fellow AppAssure users out there in cybertown.

Enjoy

Cubert 😎

[Solved] Appassure Replay snapshots or base image fails to copy from Agent to Core on or after new installs

So you may have a Windows 2003 server or servers that after installing the agents, configuring permissions and setting system to Protect on your core keeps failing to grab the first snapshot from your system.

This is quite common in Windows 2003 but may see it in 2008 as well. The issue is that the Winsock is messed up. Download and run LSPFix.exe on the client system and restart the agent services afterwards. Then go back to the core and select to force new snapshot to start the download. You should see the system start the download with in 5 minutes and no more errors in events.

I am using Replay version 4.7.2 at the time of this post

Error that may show up when fix is needed:

Logger: tevolib.txtrack
Context: PG=VolsWithInterval60Minutes Volume=\\?\Volume{741d2f02-3eb0-11dd-8e1a-806e6f6e6963}\ DriveLetter=C:
Source Location: TransmissionTracking.cpp:115
Details:
Transmission of volume ‘C:’ started when another transmission of that volume is already in progress

Logger: tevoSource.snapshotHandler
Context: PG=VolsWithInterval60Minutes Volume=\\?\Volume{741d2f02-3eb0-11dd-8e1a-806e6f6e6963}\ DriveLetter=C:
Source Location: SnapshotHandler.cpp:992
Details:
Transfer failed on volume: C: Epoch: 204 Target: CNSCOLO-BDR Port: 8001 – Unspecified error

Logger: exceptions.seh
Context: PG=VolsWithInterval60Minutes
Source Location: exceptions\SehHandler.cpp:151
Details:
Encountered a serious error EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. Exception dump logged to C:\Documents and Settings\cns\Application Data\AppAssure\ErrorDump-TevoSource.exe-2012-02-28-11-43-41-0625-41.dmp.bz2

Enjoy

Cubert 😎

W32Time Error : No valid response has been received from manually configured peer time.windows.com

Time, I don’t need no stinking time!!

You won’t here Windows saying that, Microsoft relies on time for Active Directory to work correctly so if you start to drift you will see access errors. Have you seen the following eventlog in your system logs resently?

The time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources, however none of the sources are currently accessible. No attempt to contact a source will be made for 60 minutes. NtpClient has no source of accurate time.

Or maybe this one?

Time Provider NtpClient: No valid response has been received from manually configured peer time.windows.com after 8 attempts to contact it. This peer will be discarded as a time source and NtpClient will attempt to discover a new peer with this DNS name.

This is a sure sign that your having issues getting and setting time correctly. By default the setting for w32tm is to get it’s time from time.windows.com. There are many people out there having trouble getting time from that source since the DST change. So how do you fix it? You can use the w32tm /config options to change the time server you are using. This will then allow Windows to get time from a more reliable source.

In a DOS shell run the following lines.

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org,0x8 /syncfromflags:MANUAL
net stop w32time
net start w32time
w32tm /resync

This will set the new time server as pool.ntp.org and then force a resync of the time across the domain.

Enjoy

Cubert