Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) based backup of Exchange Database or Active Directory (using the Active Directory Granular Restore Option) to a Backup to Disk (B2D) Folder on NetApp NAS device fails.

Article:TECH66534  |  Created: 2009-01-08  |  Updated: 2011-03-30  |  Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH66534
Article Type
Technical Solution


Problem



Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) based backup of Exchange Database or Active Directory (using the Active Directory Granular Restore Option) to a Backup to Disk (B2D) Folder on NetApp NAS device fails.


Error



V-79-57344-33967 - The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

V-79-57344-33928 - Unable to complete the operation for the selected resource using the specified options for the following reason: VFF Open Failure. This can be caused by low memory or disk resources.


Solution



When backing up an Exchange database or Active Directory to B2D created on NAS device with GRT option enabled, backups fail with the above error. Backup Exec writes the data to the B2D but it fails during the verification operation as it is not able to read the data from that B2D on NAS. The configuration of the NAS device is as follows:

Name: NetApp FAS 2050
Operating System : Data Ontap 7.3 ( Emulating Windows OS)
Protocol : CIFS Protocol

When the backup fails with the above error,SGMON logs shows the following error:

BEREMOTE: [11/19/08 12:09:37] [5664]        
        DeviceIoControl:FSCTL_SET_ZERO_DATA failed, lastError = 00000001
BEREMOTE: [11/19/08 12:09:37] [5664]        
         Session aborted prematurely (3)

Cause:

This error comes up because this NAS device  does not support the command FSCTL_SET_ZERO_DATA. This is found in the Netapp documentation. Abstract of this documentation is as follows:

Bug Type CIFS  
Description
Formatted  Data ONTAP does not support the IOCTL calls required for NTFS sparse files. These calls include FSCTL_SET_SPARSE, FSCTL_SET_ZERO_DATA and FSCTL_QUERY_ALLOCATED_RANGES.

Workaround:  

1. Run the backups without the Granular Restore Technology(GRT) option enabled.
2. As suggested by NetApp, formatted Windows clients can use iSCSI protocol instead of CIFS for connecting to the filer and then start using NTFS sparse file functionality.

Supplemental Materials

SourceUMI
ValueV-79-57344-33928
Description

Unable to complete the operation for the selected resource using the specified options for the following reason: VFF Open Failure. This can be caused by low memory or disk resources.

 



Legacy ID



317257


Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH66534


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