Orphan Snapshots

I am running Server 2008 R2 and over the last 9 months we have had two of the VMs crash and have to be rebuilt. I set up a new VM with the same configuration and attached the old hard drive. I have two snapshots, one from each of the VMs that crashed,
that haven't been accessed in months and do not show up in Hyper V manager. Is it safe to delete these files since they don't seem to be used at all or is there a method to merge these?

FYI - the PowerShell cmdlets did not come into existence until the 2012 release.
Point 2 - there is more to a snapshot than the AVHD. The AVHD is a differencing disk with a special file extension. Nothing more. It will always contain a link to its parent disk (since it is a differencing disk).
The detail that the cmdlet Get-VMSnapshot would return is contained in the VM configuration. If the VM configuration has been lost due to creating a new VM configuration, then this cmdlet would return nothing.
Quite honestly, the devil is in the details of the lifecycle of the VM. And knowing what happened and how it got to its current state.
That said; Sandor has some good ideas about verifying if the files are indeed being used by the currently running machine.
It would not impact a branch, but it would let you know if t it affected the current state.
Brian Ehlert
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.
Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

Similar Messages

Hyper V VMMS Event ID 10172 server 2012 R2

Hi,
Recently setup a brand new 2012 R2 server, using hyper v to host 3 VM's, backing up with backup exec 2014.The backups are failing, backup exec stating...
V-79-40960-38521 -
Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "VRTSRV::\\UKBNHV01.ProCam.local\Hyper-V?Virtual?Machine\UKBNDC01". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
A virtual machine snapshot could not be created. Use the Event Viewer on the Hyper-V host to identify the cause. If the virtual machine is not properly configured, it may be necessary to use the Event Viewer in the virtual machine to
identify the cause.
Looking at the Hyper V VMMS event viewer I get the error:
VSS writers inside virtual machine 'UKBNIT01' failed to perform BackupComplete to its shadow copy (VSS snapshot) set: Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFFF). (Virtual machine ID 7C31CD39-FFAD-4E04-BF92-223BC120BE1B) event ID 10172
I see there are other posts relating to this, with random answers suggesting fixes relating to disk speeds and all sorts. If i restart the hyper v's and physical server the backup will run maybe 2 or 3 times successfully before failing again. Clearly buying
a server to restart it every 2 days isn't an option.
It seems apparent this isn't just a problem relating to server 2012 R2, but has carried across in all newer versions of windows server.
My Vss Writers list as follows:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.
Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {89a328b7-87eb-48e2-a3e6-9d04b164ba32}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer'
   Writer Id: {66841cd4-6ded-4f4b-8f17-fd23f8ddc3de}
   Writer Instance Id: {baa1e068-a50f-4d2e-898c-a54920ae4117}
   State: [8] Failed
   Last error: Retryable error
Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
   Writer Instance Id: {4986e692-ea2c-454e-813e-9e5f71854adf}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {f7f18f2b-660b-4e18-9aa1-5caa5115045e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {bfa584a7-72b3-47c1-90d7-87e71074e875}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {954a91e4-8c93-4f21-9ceb-53f2df3fefc5}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {a254fab5-d160-4a2d-9f8f-e43e7ea0708e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {d01d076a-aa1b-4998-8a5b-91b993895405}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {1e7cb515-f73d-4146-838d-74605a77628c}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Is anyone able to explain how to trace why the Hyper-V VSS Writer gets the retryable error?
Thanks
Nick

Hi Nick,
You could use diskshadow command to clean up the orphaned snapshots to bring the Hyper-V VSS Writer back to a stable condition.
Diskshadow (press enter)
delete shadows all (press enter)
Firstly, please check if you can do a backup with Windows Server Backup. In additional, please check if there is a Read Only Volume attached to VMs. If so, removed the flag read only volume to check if the backup works.
Best Regards,
Mandy
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Intermittent NDMP backup failures in NetBackup 7.5.0.4

All, We have full backups during weekends and we are getting error 99 intermittenly. Below are the message.
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Error ndmpagent (pid=20656) nas1a: DUMP: Too many active dumps/restores currently in progress.
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Info ndmpagent (pid=20656) nas1a: NDMP_OP_ERRORCODE is 'EMAXBACKUPS'
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Info ndmpagent (pid=20656) nas1a: DUMP: Dump failed to initialize.
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Info ndmpagent (pid=20656) nas1a: DUMP: DUMP IS ABORTED
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Error ndmpagent (pid=20656) nas1a: DATA&colon; Operation terminated: EVENT: INTERNAL ERROR (for /vol/vol1)
07/11/2015 12:08:40 - Error ndmpagent (pid=20656) NDMP backup failed, path = /vol/vol1
This is due to multiple streams/jobs/snapshots running at the same time and this will go away if i uncheck multiple streams in netbackup.
Checked NetApp forms and NetBackup forums and did not get any solution. Looking to see a way where i can increase the number of concurrent snapshots for a particular filer or an option on NDMP.
Thank you very much for your time.

Hi, Try restarting the NDMP services and clear the orphan snapshots. Also,The amount of concurrent NDMP streams is limited to the amount of memory the controller has. You can see the amount in the command output "sysconfig -a".Based on that you can reduce concurrent backup jobs Thanks

Hyper V Snapshot Issue

Hello All,
I had one Hyper-V VM in that i took 5-6 snapshot's (Weekly). Due to this my physical HDD space is increased. So, i have deleted 2 snapshots and deleted some .avhd's.
After this process i have logged into the VM and found one drive was missing. Did checked the snapshot settings->IDE Controller-> Inspect-> "The differencing chain is broken." I lost all the files, but i have rebuilt the server from backup
data's.
Now i have 3 snapshots and one running vm, suppose if i delete the snapshot's it will merge to parent disk ?
Also please find below, in my 1st snapshot(12/14/2013) i have 3 .vhd's , in my 2nd snapshot (4/17/2014) i have 3 .avhd's , in my 3rd snapshot (4/18/2014) i have 2 .avhd's and in my running vm i have 3 .avhd's.
Time Office Virtual Machine – (12/14/2013 – 3:05.54 PM), it has 3 .vhd drives mapped.
(Backup Drive.vhd,
Time Office Virtual Machine.vhd,
D Drive.vhd)
2 Time Office Virtual Machine – (4/17/2014 – 9:32:30 AM), it has 3 .vhd drives mapped)
(BackUp Drive_154CE002-11AD-4112-A951-9782E04C79E2.avhd,
Time Office Virtual Machine_D6A28FAE-8890-4B0A-9DC8-EA38DD782DC8.avhd,
D Drive_3E797CBA-FB64-42E1-A728-BAB6A7998153.avhd)
3 Time Office Virtual Machine – (4/18/2014 – 11:23:23 AM), it has 2 .vhd drives mapped)
(BackUp Drive_5EEA291E-1336-4C3D-A9B0-7E9DFF4776BE.avhd,
Time Office Virtual Machine_CDFA9194-0BDF-4659-8FF4-1B1692E7E0BB.avhd)
4 Now, Running Virtual Machine, it has 3 .vhd drives mapped)
(BackUp Drive_A5343054-3B38-49B1-8716-34FBD60AAC4D.avhd,
Time Office Virtual Machine_415E3759-F7AE-4F7E-9084-F30F13DED681.avhd,
D Drive.vhd)
Can anyone tell me which one is best method to merge the snapshots, because in one snapshot i have 2 .avhd and in another i have 3 .avhd .
Please guide me.
Thanks,
Sankar

Hyper-V 6.1 = 2008 R2 (if I recall my versions properly)
When a snapshot is taken all virtual disks attached to the VM end up with a new AVHD attached to them.
You should only manually merge in a panic, no other way, situation.
The problem that you now have is, you manually deleted a snapshot disk instead of allowing Hyper-V to manage it for you (by shutting down the VM).
Thus you describe another snapshot disk that is now an orphan, because you deleted its parent.
You have not answered if you have powered off the VM to allow Hyper-V to perform the merge that it can.
You have not stated if there is a backup where you can recover the deleted AVHD.
If you have deleted all snapshots from the VM - power it off an let Hyper-V merge what it can and recover space. There will be events in the event logs that identify the missing AVHD and corresponding failures.
You can manually merge -
http://itproctology.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-manually-merge-hyper-v-snapshots.html
Read the entire article, all comments too.
Please be aware, that you have lost data. How that impacts your VM is unknown, what change has been lost is unknown.
Brian Ehlert
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.
Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

Snapshot Logs not being purged

Hi All,
I have a problem where my snapshot logs are not being purged due to materlized veiw dropped from the remote site.
I have looked at DBMS_SNAPSHOT.PURGE_SNAPSHOT_FROM_LOG porcedure to remove the orphaned entries in materialized view logs.
I want to execute this procedure based on the snapshot ID from SYS.SLOG$ using the snapshot_id parameter. Since the target snapshot is not listed in the list of registered snapshots (DBA_REGISTERED_SNAPSHOTS).
Please find the results of the below query to determine which entries in SYS.SLOG$ at the master site are no longer being used.
SELECT NVL (r.NAME,'-') snapname
, snapid
, NVL (r.snapshot_site, 'not registered') snapsite
, snaptime
FROM SYS.slog$ s
, dba_registered_snapshots r
WHERE s.snapid = r.snapshot_id(+) AND r.snapshot_id IS NULL;
SNAPNAME     SNAPID     SNAPSITE     SNAPTIME
-     435     not registered     27/09/2010 22:11
-     456     not registered     27/09/2010 22:11
Please let me know if there is any other method to purge the logs safely?

DBMS_MVIEW.PURGE_MVIEW_FROM_LOG is overloaded.
If you have the MVIEW_ID, you do not hvae to specify the (MVIEW_OWNER, MVIEW_NAME, MVIEW_SITE) parameters.
Check the PLSQL Procedures documentation on DBMS_MVIEW.
Hemant K Chitale
http://hemantoracledba.blogspot.com

Can not refresh snapshot changes after importing data of master site

Hello !
I have two database computer,one as master site,one as snapshot site.Because the error of the hard disk of master computer,I use the exporting data file to recover my database.after importing ,I found I can't refresh the refreshgroup on snapshot,who can tell me why?
thinks in advance!
(exp system/manager full=y inctype=complete file='/home/save/backdata/xhsdcomp.dat')
(imp system/manager inctype=system full=Y file='/home/save/backdata/xhsdcomp.dat'
imp system/manager inctype=restore full=Y file='/home/save/backdata/xhsdcomp.dat')
null

You haven't listed the errors that you're receiving when attempting to refresh your refresh group, but if your snapshots are attempting to fast refresh, I suspect it's because the creation timestamp of the snapshot log on the master site is newer than the creation timestamp of the snapshot. In this case you will need to do a complete refresh of the snapshot (or drop and recreate the snapshot) before you will be able to fash refresh it again.
If this is not the case, please post the errors you are receiving when you attempt to refresh the refresh group.
HTH,
-- Anita
Oracle Support Services
null

I am trying to print a snapshot taken from a PDF multiple times on one page.

Reader Will not print multiple copies of a snapshot on one page. I read the help files for Acrobat itself and all it said was take the snapshot and print it. Does anyone know if Acrobat can print multiple copies of the snapshot on one page?
From some reading in another forum page it looks like Acrobat can do it by saving the snapshot repeatedly with different names and the printing all of them at once. I really hate that workaround as I need to do this often.
Message was edited by: duckles10

I tried to do it using Reader. I have a one page PDF document with a UPS shipping label on one side and a special box label with a barcode on the other. This is designed to print on a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. There are many times when I need to be able to print the box labels more than once. At home, I do it by taking a snapshot of the box label and printing it to a Label printer as many times as I need it. The distributor who also ships items for me only has a full page printer but he can print 4 on a page labels on UPS provided stock. Reader won’t print a snapshot multiple times, the option is grayed out. What I wanted to know is if Acrobat itself can print that snapshot multiple times. I don’t think it can without being able to cut and save that PDF multiple times as separate files. That would be a slow and cumbersome operation. If it would take a snapshot or a single cut and save and print that PDF 4 times on a page it would be a reason to spend the money to buy the program because we need to perform this operation OVER and OVER on a regular basis. On some shipments we might need to print 12 or more extra box labels. We tape smaller boxes together for one UPS label and need to make sure EACH box gets a separate label. Otherwise they sometimes get lost on the other end.
Doing the save 4 separate PDFs process we might actually need TWO copies of Acrobat unless reader can print 4 on a page if it has 4 PDF’s to work from. I have not yet found a good way to save those snapshots from reader. I have tried since I found that it was possible to cut and save them in other formats but not PDF’s as reader can’t save them. The quality of the saved items in other formats is not acceptable. I recently discovered that Microsoft publisher which I have can save a document as a PDF. I’m going to see if I can import to that program next.

Creation of Database link and access the same plus Snapshot creation

i want talk between two oracle server. i decided to go for snapshot creation with periodical refresh. For which i am having two oracle server's with different ip address located inside our office setup.
I have created a database link between two servers.
first server name global
userid scott
password tiger
second server name asil
userid scott
password tiger
both the user have been given dba rights.
in both the server the services and listners are all started. i gave the following command to create database link.
from asil server
create public database link global connect by scott identified by tiger using 'global'
the command was successful and the link was created. Now i tried to access a table of the scott user of the global server.
select * from emp@global;
now it is giving error. I want to know how the link can be created and how it can be accessed. i refered the 8i online documentation and done the things based on that. i expect valuble solution from all possible persons
null

A reason for this problem could be that your database is configured that a database link has to have exactly the same name like the global name of the database instance it should connect to.
Can you please provide the oracle error code / message ? With this information there might be more hints I can give you.

2nd snapshot

I am using 2008 R2 enterprise
when i tried to take the 2nd snapshot of a database, it says the logical filename doesn't exist in the source database.
any work around ?

Can you show us how you take a snapshot?
CREATE DATABASE dbname_morning ON
( NAME = db_Data, FILENAME =
'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL12.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\db_data_morning.ss' )
AS SNAPSHOT OF dbname;
GO
Best Regards,Uri Dimant SQL Server MVP,
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Can I save data in a snapshot from signal express 2013 LE?

Can I save data (in txt or excel format) from a snapshot from signal express 2013 LE? My data buffer is too larege to export to excel. When I try to take a snapshot, I do not see any data. Are snapshots supported in the LE mode? This is the free version that comes with the USB 6009 ADC.

Yes, the snapshot function is available for SignalExpress 2013 LE. Does the snapshot function as intended when you try other projects?
Daniel P.

Updateable Snapshot changes not getting propagated

Hi,
I am using Oracle 8.1.7 with Updateable snapshot replication. When I do a dbms_snapshot.refresh as the repadmin user from the snapshot site, the changes I made to the table I am refreshing are not pushed to the master site. Also, the update is actually overwritten by the value that exists on the master site.
Here is the actual refresh call sql:
EXECUTE dbms_snapshot.refresh('scpa.dag', 'F', NULL, TRUE, TRUE, 1, 0, 0, TRUE);
What table can I look in to see whether or not my update on the snapshot site is queued.
I get no errors when I do the refresh.
Thanks,
Chris

Try check deferror view on master site. When you call refresh procedure you set parameter refresh_after_errors to True, so there can be same unresolved replication conflict. In DBA studio it is tab Errors for node
DB->Replication->Administration
If there are no record in deferror on master site, check if you snapshot is a member of snapshot group. If not changes is not propagated.

Snapshot replication slow during purge of master table

I have basic snapshot/materialized view replication of a big table (around 6 million rows).
The problem that I run into is that when I run a purge of the master table at the master site (delete dml), the snapshot refresh time becomes slower. After the purge the snapshot refresh time goes back to the normal time interval.
I had thought that the snapshot does a simple select so any exclusive lock on the table should not hinder the performance.
Has anyone seen this problem before and if so what has been the workaround?
The master site and the snapshot site both are 8.1.7.4 and are both unix tru64.
I don't know if this has any relevence but the master database is rule based while the snapshot site is cost based.
thanks in advance

Hello Alan,
Your problem is, to know inside a table-trigger if the actual DML was caused
by a replication or a normal local DML.
One way (I'm practising) to solve (in Oracle 8.1.7) this is the following:
You can use in the trigger code the functions DBMS_SNAPSHOT.I_AM_A_REFRESH(),
DBMS_REPUTIL.REPLICATION_IS_ON() and DBMS_REPUTIL.FROM_REMOTE()
(For details see oracle documentation library)
For example: a trigger (before insert of each row) at the master side
on a table which is an updatable snapshot:
DECLARE
     site_x VARCHAR2(128) := DBMS_REPUTIL.GLOBAL_NAME;
     timestamp_x      DATE;
     value_time_diff     NUMBER;
BEGIN
IF (NOT (DBMS_SNAPSHOT.I_AM_A_REFRESH) AND DBMS_REPUTIL.REPLICATION_IS_ON) THEN
IF NOT DBMS_REPUTIL.FROM_REMOTE THEN
IF inserting THEN
     :new.info_text := 'Hello table; this entry was caused by local DML';
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
END;
By the way: I've got here at work nearly the same configuration, now in production since a year.
Kind regards
Steffen Rvckel

Can a read-only snapshot site be refreshed from a read-only database?

Hi,
Here is the database configuration.
Database 1: master site
Database 2: has materialized views (read-only snapshot site)
If DB1 becomes read-only, is it possible to refresh the materialized views in DB2? I was told that it is not possible because some m$log tables in DB1 need to be updated when the DB2 is refreshed . If it is DB1 is read-only, the meta data tables can not be updated so the refresh will fail.
Does anybody have experience with a scenario like this?
Thanks very much.

Why do you need to put the database in read only mode anyway. Why not control "readability" through security, ie roles. Then it won't really matter.

Why can't the snapshot be refreshed properly?

I have created a snapshot(read_only) but it can't be refreshed with the master table properly. I found that after I created the snapshot, any change made in the master table was not reflected in the snapshot table.
Here is my SQL statement for creating the snapshot.
CREATE SNAPSHOT testing
TABLESPACE XXX
STORAGE (INITIAL 32K NEXT 32K)
REFRESH NEXT sysdate+1
WITH ROWID
AS SELECT *
from master_table@master_site_database;
The SQL statement is to create the snapshot. and refresh the snapshot with master table every day.By executing the SQL,the snapshot is created successfully,but seem not to be freshed properly. The master_site_database, which the master_table locates, is Oracle version 7. The snapshot site database ,which the snapshot is created in, is Oracle version 8.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Helena

Please see our guidelines for accessing remote ejbs from clients in our EJB FAQ :
https://glassfish.dev.java.net/javaee5/ejb/EJB_FAQ.html
--ken

New rows become deleted from snapshot sites after refresh

Hi buddy
I am facing problem in snapshot at snapshot sites.
I have oracle 8.0.5 4 database server machines.
all servers machines have O.S windows 2000 advance server
all servers machine have same oracle version ( 8.0.5 ).
there is Site A ( Master site ) site B ( snapshot site ) Site C ( snapshot site).
snapshot has been created at all snapshots sites ( B,C and at D)
snapshot log against each table are also present at master site ( Site A )
refresh group is present at snapshot site.
these are working since feb-2002 successfully. now problem occur in these sites if some miner issues comes then it has been resolved successfully.
Replication parameter in init.ora all all sites are as follows
global_names = true
job_queue_processes = 2
job_queue_interval = 60
job_queue_keep_connections = false
distributed_lock_timeout = 60
distributed_transactions = 16
open_links = 4
snapshot_refresh_interval = 60
snapshot_refresh_keep_connections=false
snapshot_refresh_processes = 2
few days ago one problem occurs in master site A. it become crashed. we did its recovery from previous night backup ( cold backup).
Now all branches are working. but my current problem is that we have 20 tables in replication.It is a snapshot replication old version of materialized view.
when site B start refresh procedure then it show message procedure successfully completed.
it show no error message.
but when we check no of rows at snapshot site ( site b )
all new rows which were inserted at snapshot ( site b ) after previous refresh has been deleted.
mean all data which is inserted after previous refresh command has been finished. but data which is inserted at master site is present at snapshot site after refresh.
this problem is present at all the snapshot sites ( site B, Site C and site D).
database link is also present from master to snapshot site anf from snapshot to master. but problem is still suspended.
i have checked at all snapshot site and master site there is no invalid procedure or package.
there is no error message in alert file at all site.
if any body has its solution kindly told me.
thanks in advance
Abdul Hameed
[email protected]

This is still going on when the page fails the call to getCurrentRow().refresh(Row.REFRESH_REMOVE_NEW_ROWS) goes out to lunch and stops processing for the rest of the function. I tried adding a try catch around it but nothing is caught and the function still fails.
getSiteMealLogsV().getCurrentRow().refresh(Row.REFRESH_REMOVE_NEW_ROWS);
---Stops working here -----
getSiteMealLogsV().clearCache();
getDBTransaction().commit();
Jim

Orphan Snapshots

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