VSS Troubleshooting and Error Handling

Troubleshooting

Errors are displayed by DiskShadow or the third party VSS requester software. Event log entries are reported by the VSS system and the VSS Hardware Provider. If an error message is received, see the Windows Application Event Viewer for more detailed error descriptions and information. Errors reported by the VSS Hardware Provider indicate an error based on the configuration or connectivity issues.

When reporting an incident, attach the log file named VssLog.txt to the incident. By default, the location is C:\Program Files\DataCore\Host Integration Kit.

Error Handling

When an error occurs, the VSS Hardware Provider attempts to clean-up any residual configuration elements created as a result of the failed command. In some cases, the software is unable to clean up, such as when a network failure occurs. When cleanup does not occur automatically, it can be performed manually.

Steps to Perform a Manual Cleanup

When a manual cleanup is required, steps will need to be performed on the DataCore Server. Snapshots created from shadow copy sets when the failure occurred may be in a partially completed state.

Do not perform a partial cleanup — doing so may lead to unpredictable results during follow-up shadow copy operations.

On the DataCore Server:

1. Identify all snapshots created from the failed shadow copy set. The shadow copy set may consist of one or more virtual disk snapshots.
2. Unserve any snapshots created from the failed shadow copy set and delete them.