www.aiscl.co.uk

Hello folks.
This problem started a few months ago, shortly after I installed Smartdefrag, but continues even after I uninstalled it. If I sit and watch the backup and close AISB as soon as the backup is finished, there is no problem. But if I go to do something else while the backup is running, when I come back the AISB window is nothing but a series of "empty boxes," (screenshot below) and the window won't close. I have to use CTRL-ALT-DELETE to stop the program before I can close the window. Then when I restart AISB, it shows no sign that the backup has been run. I'm using WinXP Home sp2, AISB 2.7.0.346. I'm doing backups from my first physical hard drive to a second physical hard drive.


Any ideas?

What happens if you watch AISBackup past the point it finishes , does anything happen before the hang?

There may be an indication in the log files, please use the bug report option to make a zip file containing this job and the summary log file - or just e-mail aisbackup.log and \database\<jobname>.log

Barry

I hate to admit this, but I never thought to watch it and see. I'll do that.
I've sent the bug report.
Thanks.

Well, I guess I found at least part of the problem. But why isn't the Volume Shadow Copy service initializing? I went to the control panel and it was set to Started, Manual. I changed it from Manual to Automatic and that didn't fix the problem. So I re-started the service and re-ran the backup, but now it doesn't try to backup "opened exclusive files" or initialize Volume Shadow Copy, and the backup completes successfully. I guess, in order to run a good test backup, I need to have some "opened exclusive files" to backup? I don't even know what "opened exclusive" means.

Build 348 of AISBackup contains a routine that repairs some problems with Microsoft's Volume Copy Shadow Service (VSS):

Tools / Extra Tools / Register Volume Copy Shadow Service Modules

Opened exclusive files are files that are opened by a process and locked by that process so that no other process running on the system can open the file. The files of the Windows Registry are opened exclusive by the Windows operating system, however there are other ways of backing up the registry so we do not have to reply on VSS working.

Only one instance of VSS can run at a time so if another process is using VSS then AISBackup cannot use VSS. We have another product called AISFAM that does the same job (quicker too) but that is for an extra charge.

Barry

Well, it's taken me a while to look at this because we're getting ready to move.

Barry wrote: Opened exclusive files are files that are opened by a process and locked by that process so that no other process running on the system can open the file. The files of the Windows Registry are opened exclusive by the Windows operating system, however there are other ways of backing up the registry so we do not have to reply on VSS working.
Barry

So if AISB is backing up opened exclusive files, does that mean I've left some program running while I do the backup?

On Windows Vista some files are opened exclusive by the operating system, e.g. some log files in the folder c:\windows\system32\config

Barry

Well, I'm running build 348 now, but I forgot to run the VSS routine and it still backs up exclusive-opened files just fine! I've run 4 backups (with opened exclusive files) since downloading 348, and it hasn't failed yet.
Does that make any sense to you?
Thanks

Barry,

I've been having VSS problems too, I suspect it's because I also have an online backup service running and that probably has VSS tied up. Will AISFAM over come that i.e. can it handle locks from different Apps? Presumably it needs to be smart enough to wait until a lock is released so it can proceed?

Patrick

Changes were made in build 348 but these were to do with error correction and to eliminate the ‘hang’ that could sometimes occur.

VSS can only work with one application at a time, if you have a resident program that is always using VSS then I should remind the vendors of this as they could be causing more than just AISBackup to malfunction. AISFAM will overcome this problem.

By way as an experiment please check the Volume Shadow Copy service after starting AISBackup but before the Opened Exclusive phase starts (e.g. during the calculation phase), if the service is STARTED select it and stop the service (this will interfere with the program using VSS). The service should be set at MANUAL before AISBackup initialises it. Just as VSS starts initialising refresh the services page to see if the Volume Shadow Copy service is still in a stopped state – the resident backup program may have reinitialised VSS. If this causes AISBackup to work with VSS then we could add an option to allow AISBackup to stop VSS if it is started, however this will cause problems with the other applications using it. I will get an option added to AISBackup to check VSS status before it is started – why didn’t I think of that before?

AISBackup does not initialise VSS until needed and finishes with VSS as soon as possible as to minimise the impact on other programs that may wish to use this interface.

Barry