When SQL Server and file share backups begun failing on a Windows 2008 SQL server I started investigating. There were also SQL Analysis server issues which our Sage support provider claims to have dealt with.

The Proliant ML360 G6 seems to be operating normally apart from the backups - which verify as corrupt in the case of SQL, and fail on the backup of a share because "directory not found" when it's actually there and the data is good.

HP Array Diagnostics show no problem. The lights on the server indicate that there's an issue with bay 1 and 2 which is not the same drive but rather the C drive.

So I'm in a position of not being able to back up the data to tape and not having much to go on with fault diagnostics.

Tim Gowen

Hi
We last week moved data from a HP EVA SAN to a HP 3PAR SAN and we ran into a little problem....or not so very small actually.

The problem we had was with a SQL MS-cluster and when was preparing for the move. According to the HP white paper you can this procedure and nothing will happens. This was what we did:

1. In an MS-DOS window, run the diskpart.exe command or click on the PowerShell button and then, at the PowerShell prompt, run the diskpart.exe command.
2. At the DISKPART prompt, type: SAN policy=onlineall and then press Enter.
3. Verify that the SAN policy is set to onlineall, type SAN, and then press Enter.
4. Exit the diskpart.exe application, type exit, and the press Enter.

Now the HP 3PAR LUNs will not be marked offline following an HP 3PAR array firmware upgrade.

On Windows Server 2012, the new SAN policy setting is applied on the fly and a reboot is not necessary.

On Windows Server 2008, the new SAN policy setting will take effect onlyafter the server is rebooted.

Taken from:
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03290621/c03290621.pdf

Now, what happend was that we lost the disks for cluster and one database became corrupted.
So, was this a cause of what we did or just a coincident of something else?

This is a Windows 2008 x64 cluster with SQL 2008 R2.
HP EVA 6400 to HP 3PAR.

Cheers!

yaro

I've been running Hyper-V 2012 Server core for some time and using ReFS for the disk that contains my VM / VHDX files.

Recently I've been trying to get Hyper-V Replica working.  It seems as though there is some bug in ReFS that caused me to lose a folder and all the VHDX files in that folder?  The VM that lost the folder was running Windows Home Server 2011 (which is based off Windows Server 2008).

My system has a RAID6 data drive using six Western Digital 3 Tb (WD30EFRX) drives.  (My boot drive is setup as NTFS.)  I had this one VM that didn't come up after rebooting Hyper-V.  I found that the VM Snapshots and Virtual Machines folders were still present, but the Virtual Hard Disks folder was gone.

Because I was testing Hyper-V Replica it is possible that I manually deleted the VHDX files by mistake, but had I done that I would have also deleted the Snapshots and Virtual Machines folder at the same time.  And if this VM had been deleted from the Hyper-V Manager I would have expected the Virtual Machines folder to be empty.  (I don't recall the exact filenames, but there were two files in this folder.  I think .bin and .bsv?)

The other thing that makes me think ReFS ate this folder is that if I do a DIR command I only see 5 Tb of available disk space.  I rebooted the system just in case something had to happen for the missing space to show up, but that didn't make any difference. I still see only 5 Tb of free space.  Yet if I use diskpart it shows this volume is 10 Tb in size.  I have one VM with a 1.5 Tb VHDX and there are a few VMs that have a few hundred Mb VHDX files.  But that leaves 3-4 Tb of space unaccounted for from the DIR command output.  The WHS Virtual Hard Disks folder that is missing had a 4 Tb VHDX and two smaller VHDX in it.  Although I can no longer see this folder given the amount of free space it seems that ReFS thinks that space is in use on the RAID6 drive ... and also seems to point at ReFS as the reason the folder is missing?

In checking I've found a couple people who mentioned VHDX should not be used in a clustered (CSV) configuration.  But no one else who seems to have mentioned these same symptoms.  I have not seen anything from Microsoft saying that ReFS should not work in the configuration I've been using.

Given the enhancments in ReFS I would prefer to use it over NTFS, but I'm wondering if ReFS is not stable ... or at least not stable for this type of configuration?

Anyone have any insight on this topic?

Thanks.

Theokrat

I have a Windows 2008 R2 Server that I am using for RDS. I have enabled Offline Folders on the server but have not configured it.

After enabling It breaks Drive mappings to my remote plant File Server. The Error is    " (Driveletter) Refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the internet or your network, and then thry again. If it still cannont be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.

Drive shares to local servers work. Drive shares to other servers at the remote plant work. But this one gets an error unless I Disable Offline Files then it works again. Any Ideas.

I have already applied the following Hotfixes with no results.  KB2610379, KB2715922, and KB2761645.

HI

I think I found a bug. On a fresh windows 2012 Server with installed updates and installed FileServer Resource Manager, the MMC crash after click on "Configure Options..."

FX:{f8abd46c-1297-4474-9cdf-831ebb245f49}

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

   at Microsoft.Storage.SrmMmc.ClassificationGlobalSchedulePage.LoadFsrmClassificationWmiObject()
   at Microsoft.Storage.SrmMmc.ClassificationGlobalSchedulePage.InitializeSrmSpecific(RemoteManager remoteManager, HostFlags hostFlags)
   at Microsoft.Storage.SrmMmc.SrmSettingsPropertySheet.InitializeSrmSpecific(RemoteManager remoteManager, HostFlags hostFlags)
   at Microsoft.Storage.SrmMmc.SrmSnapInRootNode.OnConfigureSrm(Object sender, SyncActionEventArgs eventArgs)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.ScopeNode.DoAction(Int32 actionId, IRequestStatus requestStatus)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.NodeSyncManager.ProcessRequest(NodeRequestInfo info, IRequestStatus requestStatus)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.SnapIn.ProcessRequest(Request request)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.SnapInClient.Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.IMessageClient.ProcessRequest(Request request)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.IMessageClient.ProcessRequest(Request request)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.RequestStatus.BeginRequest(IMessageClient messageClient, RequestInfo requestInfo)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.SnapInRequestOperation.ProcessRequest()
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.Operation.OnThreadTransfer(SimpleOperationCallback callback)

Is this reproducible?

I have to test this on a Windows 2012 Server without any update...

Hi

I have an instance of windows server 2012, with an sql server and a web application, but for now it's ok, but in the future when my information will grow up my storage capacity don't will be enought for this.

Now I have 1TB  in RAID 10 with 4 disk of 500GB, my server just support disk of 2TB, I think to buy 4 disk of 2TB, for now I fix the problem but in the future how can I solve this?

Regards, Stanley

Hi,

I have a 2012 cluster. On this FSRM is running.When I goto test the email funtionality I get the eventID 12306

Error: IFsrmEmailExternal::SendMail, 0x8004531c,
The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated.
The server response was: 5.7.1 Client was not authenticated

So I did this on the hubtransport server

Add-Adpermission -Identity "backup" -user "Domain\Clusternode1$" -extendedrights "Send-as"

This went through without error.

Tested it again and it failed again.

Is there something I did wrong?

Phil

Hi,

We have WS2008 domain and one big file server (on windows machine) with a lot of data and a lot of folders, subfolders, and subfolder. I'd like to get list of of subfolders listed under main root share and their user permissions. At the moment script "get-acl\\share_folder_name | select -exp access" provide me useful result for selected folder, but I need list of all subfolders under\\root-share and their permission. Is it possible to get this by poweshell script?

Export data to CSV will be nice, but also GUI software will be prefered.

What do you suggest?

thnx

Installed file server resource manager roll on new 2012 file server.   When I attempt to run a dup report on the local volume, I received an error message: "the report generation task failed with the following errors: Error generating report job with task name".  "

Event ID 8242 and 602 are logged in the event viewer.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        SRMSVC
Date:          6/24/2013 11:11:03 AM
Event ID:      8242
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Description:
Reporting or classification consumer '' has failed.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="SRMSVC" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="32772">8242</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-06-24T16:11:03.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>1276</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>xxxxxxxxxx</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>

Error-specific details:
   Error: (0x80131501) Unknown error</Data>
    <Binary>2D20436F64653A20434E534D4D4F444330303030303234332D2043616C6C3A20434E534D4D4F444330303030303231322D205049443A202030303030333036302D205449443A202030303030333734382D20434D443A2020433A5C57696E646F77735C73797374656D33325C73726D686F73742E657865202D20557365723A204E616D653A204E5420415554484F524954595C53595354454D2C205349443A532D312D352D313820</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Log Name:      Application
Source:        SRMREPORTS
Date:          6/24/2013 11:11:03 AM
Event ID:      602
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Description:
Error generating report job with the task name ''.

Context:
 - Exception encountered = System error.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="SRMREPORTS" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">602</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-06-24T16:11:03.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>1277</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>xxxxxx</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>Error generating report job with the task name ''.

Context:
 - Exception encountered = System error.
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

When I click on schedule a new report task, I get an error "Class not registered".

nada

Hello,

I'm running into an issue with a Windows 2008 R2 (with SP1) server sharing a folder.

Recently, I've started having problems with some of the files in one of the fileshares getting locked. I was able to determined using Process Monitor that the locking process is the system process (ID: 4).

I can try to end the handle using process monitor, but I get an error that the handle is invalid. I've verified in the File and Storage manager that none of the files are open by users. I've even manually closed all the sessions on the folder and unshared it, but the locks stay in place.

I've disabled the antivirus (ESET) on the server, but the issue remains. The only way to get the files to unlock is to reboot the server. I've even tried unsharing the shared folder, I am able to unshare it, but the lock stays in place.

The issue seems to start at some point after the file is created, as I can often get a copy of the file from a prior volume shadow copy.

Any help or suggestions on the issue are appreciated!

Thanks

Hi,

I have enabled directory/file auditing on a Windows 2003 server.  There is a Microsoft Access database that repeatedly gets set to read-only which keeps users from being able to access it.

I've gone through several articles such as this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300549

but none of them go into details about what to look for when diving into the event log.  I've pulled thousands of lines relating to access of this file, but they all look the same.

I even just cleared the event log, set the file to read only, then cleared the flag, and exported the event log.  There are still hundreds of events that are of type 560.  I've searching through and I can't determine any difference between them.

Can someone tell me what specifically to look for in the event log when a file is set to read-only?

Thank you!

--Kent

I have a very specific configuration for DFSr that appears to be suffering severe performance issues when hosted on a cluster, as part of a DFS replication group.

My configuration:

3 Physical machines (blades) within a physical quadrant.

3 Physical machines (blades) hosted within a separate physical quadrant

Both quadrants are extremely well connected, local, 10GBit/s fibre.
There is local storage in each quadrant, no storage replication takes place.

The 3 machines in the first quadrant are MS clustered with shared storage LUNs on a 3PAR filer.
The 3 machines in the second quadrant are also clustered with shared storage, but on a separate 3PAR device.
8 shared LUNs are presented to the cluster in the first quadrant, and an identical storage layout is connected in the second quadrant. Each LUN has an associated HAFS application associated with it which can fail-over onto any machine in the local cluster.

DFS replication groups have been set up for each LUN and data is replicated from an "Active" cluster node entry point, to a "Passive" cluster node that provides no entry point to the data via DFSn and a Read-Only copy on it's shared cluster storage.
For the sake of argument, assume that all HAFS application instances in the first quadrant are "Active" in a read/write configuration, and all "Passive" instances of the HAFS applications in the other quadrants are Read-Only.

This guide: http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/06/29/deploying-dfs-replication-on-a-windows-failover-cluster-part-i.aspx defines how to add a clustered service to a replication group. It clearly shows using "Shared storage" for the cluster, which is common sense otherwise there effectively is no application fail-over possible and removes the entire point of using a resilient cluster.

This article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773238(v=ws.10).aspx#BKMK_061 defines the following:
DFS Replication in Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 includes the ability to add a failover cluster as a member of a replication group. The DFS Replication service on versions of Windows prior to Windows Server 2008 R2 is not designed to coordinate with a failover cluster, and the service will not fail over to another node.

It then goes on to state, quite incredibly: DFS Replication does not support replicating files on Cluster Shared Volumes.

Stating quite simply that DFSr does not support Cluster Shared Volumes makes absolutely no sense at all after stating clusters are supported in replication groups and a technet guide is provided to setup and configure this configuration. What possible use is a clustered HAFS solution that has no shared storage between the clustered nodes - none at all.

My question:  I need some clarification, is the text meant to read "between" Clustered Shared Volumes?
The storage configuration must to be shared in order to form a clustered service in the first place. What we am seeing from experience is a serious degradation of performance when attempting to replicate / write data between two clusters running a HAFS configuration, in a DFS replication group.

If for instance, as a test, local / logical storage is mounted to a physical machine the performance of a DFS replication group between the unshared, logical storage on the physical nodes is approaching 15k small files per minute on initial write and even high for file amendments. When replicating between two nodes in a cluster, with shared clustered storage the solution manages a weak 2,500 files per minute on initial write and only 260 files per minute when attempting to update data / amend files.

By testing various configurations we have effectively ruled out the SAN, the storage, drivers, firmware, DFSr configuration, replication group configuration - the only factor left that makes any difference is replicating from shared clustered storage, to another shared clustered storage LUN.

So in summary:

Logical Volume ---> Logical Volume = Fast
Logical Volume ---> Clustered Shared Volume = ??
Clusted Shared Volume ---> Clustered Shared Volume = Pitifully slow

Can anyone explain why this might be?
The guidance in the article is in clear conflict with all other evidence provided around DFSr and clustering, however it seems to lean towards why we may be seeing a real issue with replication performance.

Many thanks for your time and any help/replies that may be received.
Paul

Hello everyone,

A warning appears in the system log:
===
Log Name:      System
Source:        disk
Date:          2/20/2013 1:00:28 PM
Event ID:      153
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      STRANGE.aqa.com.ru
Description:
The IO operation at logical block address af7ff for Disk 7 was retried.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="disk" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="32772">153</EventID>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-02-20T09:00:28.199176700Z" />
    <EventRecordID>12669</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>STRANGE.aqa.com.ru</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\Device\Harddisk7\DR142</Data>
    <Data>af7ff</Data>
    <Data>7</Data>
    <Binary>0F01040003002C00000000009900048000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020828</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

===
This warning occurred in several seconds after the Windows Server Backup start. Our backup job finishes successfully. That server is in provisioning without a heavy workload, and we have not experienced any problem yet. But we do not want to face any problems due to this error in the production environment.
All disks of the server are managed by the LSI MegaRAID controller, which doesn’t report any errors in the disk system.

it is Windows Server 2012 with the latest updates.

I have 3 drives in a thin provisioned 2 way mirror storage pool running in Windows Server 2012 Essentials.  The pool has 6.36Tb of capacity and is provisioned for up to 8Tb.  Manage Storage Spaces shows 4.26Tb of used space, yet the Dashboard shows 535Gb of Used Space.  I can confirm the Size on Disk is 535Gb by using Explorer to check properties of the drive.

Screen shots are attached, any ideas?  Should I try an optimize-volume with defrag or retrim or something?

Thanks, Jeff

Jeff

When users are connecting to our file server for their home drives and department shares they are getting poor performance when they attempt to sort either by date or name etc. The green bar moves along the top of the explorer window and it takes around 30 seconds for the folder to sort.

The file server is running Server 2008. I have kind of ruled out windows indexing. The issue is there if I disable the windows search service and also the performance bad if I map to the C drive on the file server which is not indexed.

It is specific to the file server as if I map to any drives on any other servers they work fine.

There is no performance issue on the file server. If I RDP onto the server itself and test sorting the folders they work fine it is only when you connect to them over the network. I am thinking there could be a DNS or DFS issue here because, interestingly if you map to the shares on the file server using the servers IP address they work fine. It is only when you map to them using the servers name that the problem occurs.

The issue does happen on the file server however if you map its own drives as network drives effectively looping back to itself.

The only difference I can see here is that the when the name is used the client machines have to talk to the DNS server first to rsolve the name to IP???

Can anyone offer any advice here?

I run propagation tests/reports from  each DFSR servers once a week to insure the health of our DFSR environment.  Recently the propagation reports keep coming back with errors, and it's the same error and server causing them on every report.  That server name is FILE1.  All propagation tests are initiated from FILE1, but they aren't all tests of FILE1.  If the propagation test is for FILE1, I don't get any errors.  If the report is for another server, it always comes back with the error below.

Error: Member File1.domain.local : Cannot read values from WMI provider on the member. WMI query Select * from DfsrIdRecordInfo where ReplicatedFolderGuid = "05662022-3646-4AB5-A15D-C1A26A027C69" AND Fid = 562949953427650 failed. Not found (Error code 0x80041002)