CommVault v10 SP14 – Issue with Synthetic Full Backups

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I recently upgraded my CommCell from v10 SP13 to SP14. As usual, the upgrade was easy. Centrally deployed, no issues.

The next set of scheduled fulls kicked off a few days later, and soon after there appeared to be an issue with Synthetic Full backups.

In the Job Controller they appeared to be normal. Throughput data was there, there were no errors, and the jobs were not pending or waiting, but rather in the running state. I was concerned though, as they appeared to be still running well after I would have expected them to be complete.

Clicking on the job details showed the “Last Update Times” were over 1 day, where ordinarily these should be a maximum of 5 minutes between updates..

2-08-2016 12-12-02 AM

My first action was to Suspend and then Resume the jobs, which sometimes “wakes” them up if they have stalled. This worked initially, but later on they would again show the extended update times. Cycling the services on the Media Agents or Clients had no effect.

When I checked initially, there was no info regarding anything similar on the CommVault forums or on the Knowledge Search on Maintenance Advantage.

31-07-2016 9-15-52 PM

However, checking again today showed there has been a HotFix released on the 21st July. HotFix 2, to be precise.

31-07-2016 9-16-19 PM

The conditions weren’t a 100% hit, but seemed close enough for a try.

Once the HotFIx was added to the Cache and then applied to the CommCell, Media Agents and then the remaining clients, jobs completed within the expected timeframes and CommVault goes back on it merry way.

31-07-2016 9-17-06 PM

The DataLookAhead reader is a particularly common setting to have added to assist with Synthetic Fulls, Aux copies etc. While the info didn’t mention Synth Fulls, I had a hunch their was a match.

Check if you are using this setting by going into a Media Agent’s Properties, then Advanced Settings then Additional COnfigurations;

31-07-2016 9-21-25 PM

31-07-2016 9-21-15 PM

Data is too important to risk, so if you have upgraded to V10 SP14, install this hotfix to avoid any dramas with Aux copies and Synthetic Fulls.

Adios.

 

 

 

 

 

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8 thoughts on “CommVault v10 SP14 – Issue with Synthetic Full Backups

  1. Thanks for the info, Commvault have actually also sent out a Monthly Update Alert notice regarding this Hotfix this morning, with little detail around symptoms and causes.

    We installed SP14 a couple of weeks ago, since installation Aux Copies have been stuck on 99% and CVD reports the data transfer is not progressing.

    As you mention Suspending and Resuming was the workaround we were using, although I was getting increasingly frustrated with it and was about to log a support ticket with CommVault when the hotfix became advertised.

    Interestingly enough we do not have this DataLookAhead reader in additional settings on the media agents but are definitely suffering from the same symptoms since installing SP14. The only additional setting we have on one of our MA’s is IgnoreUnsupportedDisks for our VirtualServer agent.

    So to summarise, the issue may be experienced even though this DataLookAhead reader is not in use according to the MA and you may need to install the hotfix to resolve the issue without this additional setting in place.

    1. Thanks for the comment Simon. Hotfix is certainly doing the trick for me, so it obviously fixes more than they are listing in the notes and info !

  2. Thanks for the info, Commvault have actually also sent out a Monthly Update Alert notice regarding this Hotfix this morning, with little detail around symptoms and causes.

    We installed SP14 a couple of weeks ago, since installation Aux Copies have been stuck on 99% and CVD reports the data transfer is not progressing.

    As you mention Suspending and Resuming was the workaround we were using, although I was getting increasingly frustrated with it and was about to log a support ticket with CommVault when the hotfix became advertised.

    Interestingly enough we do not have this DataLookAhead reader in additional settings on the media agents but are definitely suffering from the same symptoms since installing SP14. The only additional setting we have on one of our MA’s is IgnoreUnsupportedDisks for our VirtualServer agent.

    So to summarise, the issue may be experienced even though this DataLookAhead reader is not in use according to the MA and you may need to install the hotfix to resolve the issue without this additional setting in place.

    1. Thanks for the comment Simon. Hotfix is certainly doing the trick for me, so it obviously fixes more than they are listing in the notes and info !

  3. Hi Brett

    Great article, thank you. However, Hotifx 2 didn’t fix the issue for us. CommVault have now released Hotfix 7 and Hotfix 8 and we’ve applied them to our server and MAs and they have helped a great deal, although gut feeling is that our aux copies are still not running as fast as they were pre-SP14 – we won’t know about synthetic fulls until next week.

    1. Hi Brian, haven’t seen any further hotfixes yet, am nearly ready to go to V11. Hopefully, nice and smooth.
      Good luck

  4. Hi Brett

    Great article, thank you. However, Hotifx 2 didn’t fix the issue for us. CommVault have now released Hotfix 7 and Hotfix 8 and we’ve applied them to our server and MAs and they have helped a great deal, although gut feeling is that our aux copies are still not running as fast as they were pre-SP14 – we won’t know about synthetic fulls until next week.

    1. Hi Brian, haven’t seen any further hotfixes yet, am nearly ready to go to V11. Hopefully, nice and smooth.
      Good luck

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