ERROR in creating Shadow Copy: VSS_E_HOLD_WRITES_TIMEOUT

Question

Hi,
We have custom VSS HWProvider and I am trying to create a shadow copy on x64 windows 2k3 server,
using following command:
C:\> vshadow.exe  -p -nw -t =test1.xml J:
VSHADOW.EXE 2.2 - Volume Shadow Copy sample client
Copyright (C) 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
(Option: Persistent shadow copy)
(Option: No-writers option detected)
(Option: Transportable shadow set. Saving xml to file 'test1.xml')
(Option: Create shadow copy set)
- Setting the VSS context to: 0x00000039
Creating shadow set {6654de2c-5000-48e6-afb9-64e22565acbc} ...
- Adding volume \\?\Volume{f0afe5a5-4a2f-11dc-bb12-001143de30f2}\ [J:\] to the s
hadow set...
Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Error during the last asynchronous operation.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042314
- Error text: VSS_E_HOLD_WRITES_TIMEOUT
- Please re-run VSHADOW.EXE with the /tracing option to get more details
here J:\  is a 100 MB NTFS partition, protected by custom backup application.
Event viewer has following error in Application Log:
"Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The I/O writes cannot be held during the shadow copy creation period on volume \\?\Volume{f0afe5a5-4a2f-11dc-bb12-001143de30f2}\. The volume index in the shadow copy set is 0. Error details: Open[0x00000000], Flush[0x00000000], Release[0x80042314], OnRun[0x00000000]"
(Note: It works for win32 server.)
Though there is some information regarding this bug on MSDN, I could not proceed.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/support/ee/transform.aspx?ProdName=Windows%20Operating%20System&ProdVer=5.2.3790.1830&EvtID=12298&EvtSrc=VSS&LCID=1033
Kindly help me.
Thanks,
VNY.

Answer 1

If SnapDrive 6.4 or 6.4.1 is in use, consider upgrading to 6.4.2 due to a known issue in bug 631829, which results in unnecessary VSS_HOLD_WRITES_TIMEOUTS errors,
due to a new ZAPI call workflow during a wafl-sync multicreation snapshot. This issue is fixed in SnapDrive 6.4.2 and higher.
If issues persist after the upgrade, or the version of SnapDrive is earlier than 6.4 or later than 6.4.2, the error is generally related to either full volumes or a potential performance bottleneck on the storage controller, and there might be a considerable
delay in SME backup time.
If the volume is full, resize the volume to ensure it has enough space. For more information, see
2013016: SnapDrive fails to mount LUN because it tries to enable LUN space reservation
2014096: SnapManager for Exchange backup fails with error code: 0xc00402b5
The delays and timeouts can be related to SnapDrive for Windows (SDW) Transport Protocol Settings on HTTP/S protocol with a domain account rather than using a local privileged account on the storage system.  Using a domain account for HTTP authentication
can result in significantly reduced performance. To avoid this issue, use a storage system account for authentication (for example, root (7-mode), vsroot (Clustered ONTAP), or another privileged account created on the storage system(s)), instead of a domain
account for the Transport Protocol Setting on all DAG nodes.
If the issue still persists, call the NetApp support hotline and be prepared to gather some storage system-side performance data using the Perfstat tool.
For information on how to use the perfstat tool, see article 1010551: How to collect Perfstat data over RSH or SSH. The perfstat MUST
be collected during a backup where this problem is encountered to be useful for troubleshooting.