You may know, but there is a Microsoft hotfix rollup that addresses many known issues with VSS. After testing we made the decision to push them out to all of our servers.
Thank you, ~Rick -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ads...@vm.marist.edu] On Behalf Of Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 11:59 AM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Windows client just hangs Thanks, Andy. Forwarded this on to my Windows techs........ Zoltan Forray TSM Software & Hardware Administrator Virginia Commonwealth University UCC/Office of Technology Services zfor...@vcu.edu - 804-828-4807 Don't be a phishing victim - VCU and other reputable organizations will never use email to request that you reply with your password, social security number or confidential personal information. For more details visit http://infosecurity.vcu.edu/phishing.html From: Andrew Raibeck <stor...@us.ibm.com> To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Date: 06/16/2010 09:41 AM Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Windows client just hangs Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU> 1. Make sure you have the prerequisite hotfixes installed for Windows 2003 (see the client requirements web page for which hotfixes to install if you are not already familar with them). If the hotfixes are not installed, your first step should be to install them. After verifying the hotfixes are installed, see if the problem continues. If it does: 2. Try installing and testing the admin command line interface (dsmadmc) to see if it can connect to the TSM server. This would help determine whether connectivity between TSM client and server is at issue. Assuming that connectivity is not the issue, then: 3. Start the backup-archive CLI (dsmc.exe). Observe the process in Task Manager. Do you see it using an CPU? Does memory utilization change? How about disk I/O (you may need to turn on those columns in the Task Manager display, as some of these are not enabled by default). If there is CPU activity, changes in memory utilization, and/or disk I/O, then the client is probably not "hung", but something in the initialization routines may be slowing it down. My first though is possibly an issue with VSS initialization. In this case, try the following: 4. Run the Windows command "vssadmin list writers". Do you get results fairly quickly? If that command seems to hang, there this would indicate a problem with Microsoft VSS, in which case assistance from MIcrosoft support would be the logical next step. If the vssadmin command works okay, then: 5. Search for article 1412250 (or "vshadow") at the IBM support page (see my sig) and follow the steps there to obtain the Microsoft SDK which includes a useful tool called vshadow.exe. Run vshadow like this: vshadow -wm2 > vswm2.out It will generate a lot of output data. It should run to completion in a minute or two. If it seems to take forever, then again, this would appear to be a problem to take up with Microsoft support. If none of the above seems problematic thus far, then: 6. Start the client like this from the TSM baclient directory (where dsmc.exe lives): dsmc -traceflags=service -tracefile=tsmtrace.out and let it sit. Over time, do you see the trace file growing? If it grows rapidly (say, to hundreds of MB), then this might be indicative of some kind of loop. Kill the dsmc.exe process, open a PMR, and provide the trace. The trace file will have *some* amount of data in it. But after, say, an hour, if you see no additional growth, then use the Microsoft userdump tool (see KB article 241215 at support.microsoft.com) to create a dump of the dsmc.exe process. Kill the process, open a PMR, and provide the trace and dump file so we can see where it is stuck. Best regards, Andy Andy Raibeck IBM Software Group Tivoli Storage Manager Client Product Development Level 3 Team Lead Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Hartford/i...@ibmus Internet e-mail: stor...@us.ibm.com IBM Tivoli Storage Manager support web page: http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Tivoli/Tivoli_ Storage_Manager The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. The command line is your friend. "Good enough" is the enemy of excellence. "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu> wrote on 2010-06-15 11:09:11: > From: Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU <zfor...@vcu.edu> > To: ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu > Date: 2010-06-15 11:13 > Subject: Windows client just hangs > Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu> > > Got a strange problem with a Windows 2003 server and the latest client. > > This Windows server was having VSS errors. The admin went through the > VSSWriter/list processes and all seems to be good. > > However, the client simply hang and wont do a thing. This was a working > client and the user decide to upgrade to 6.2.1. > > I have his rework his dsm.opt so it has the bare minimum - NODENAME, > TCPSERVERADDRESS, VERBOSE and DOMAIN. Even added -systemstate to DOMAIN > thinking it might be having problems with that. > > Running the CLI/dsmc produces nothing. It starts and just sits there. I > even tried introducing errors in the opt file and it would recognize them > and issue error messages and fail, so I know syntax checking is working. > > Can successfully ping the TSM server via both IP and DNS name, so > connectivity isn't the problem - besides, it used to work and there are > existing backups. But now, it never gets as far as trying to connect to > the TSM server. > > Client has been uninstalled/deleted/reinstalled. System has been > rebooted. > > What can we do to further diagnose/resolve where the hang is? Are there > processing/startup options/traceflags to show where it is and what it is > doing? > Zoltan Forray > TSM Software & Hardware Administrator > Virginia Commonwealth University > UCC/Office of Technology Services > zfor...@vcu.edu - 804-828-4807 > Don't be a phishing victim - VCU and other reputable organizations will > never use email to request that you reply with your password, social > security number or confidential personal information. For more details > visit http://infosecurity.vcu.edu/phishing.html
