Virtual SLES 11 SP3 on HV 2012R2 freezes when creating VSS

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Virtualization
1

I have a physical Hyper-V Server (2012R2) running a virtual instance of SLES 11 SP3.

I also have a physical backup server running Veeam B&R 9.

I want to backup the VM using Veeam with Hyper-V quiescence. That works roughly like this:

[LIST=1]
[]Veeam tells Hyper-V it wants to backup SLES
[]Hyper-V tells SLES that it wants to grab a snapshot using VSS integration services
[]SLES uses an agent to prepare a shadow copy and handing it to the Hyper-V VSS
[]Hyper-V returns the backup to Veeam
[/LIST]

My problem is that at step 3 SLES freezes short after initiating the backup and I have no idea how to further troubleshoot the issue!

I made sure package ‘hyper-v’ is installed and up2date:

[QUOTE]BOOSTER:~ # zypper info hyper-v
Refreshing service ‘nu_novell_com’.
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

Information for package hyper-v:

Repository: SLES11-SP3-Updates
Name: hyper-v
Version: 5-0.11.1
Arch: x86_64
Vendor: SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany
Support Level: Level 3
Installed: Yes
Status: up-to-date
Installed Size: 46.0 KiB
Summary: Microsoft Hyper-V tools
Description:
This package contains the Microsoft Hyper-V tools.[/QUOTE]

I made sure the system is up2date:

[QUOTE]BOOSTER:~ # zypper lu
Refreshing service ‘nu_novell_com’.
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
No updates found.[/QUOTE]

I made sure the services ar running:

[QUOTE]BOOSTER:~ # /etc/init.d/hv_vss_daemon status
Checking for service Hyper-V VSS daemon running
BOOSTER:~ # /etc/init.d/hv_kvp_daemon status
Checking for service Hyper-V KVP daemon running
BOOSTER:~ #[/QUOTE]

I checked the system usage with “iostat -x 1” before and during the backup. The system is almost idle before and while the backup is running up to the point where it freezes. Which is like after some minutes of it running.

I looked in /var/log/messages but was unable to find anything related to any hyper-v tools, except for that the service mentioned above were started successfully and are running.

I contacted the Veeam technicians and provided all the logs. They try to help me, but basically say that the issue is within the virtual machine and not related to Veeam.

I tried to create a normal snapshot using the Hyper-V console, but that also makes the VM freeze.

Upgrading SLES unfortunately is not an option.

2

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3

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem. SLES 11 SP3 VM on Hyper-V 2012 R2 freezes when creating a snapshot, doing a Backup of the Hyper-V host or when I try to live migrate the VM from one Hyper-V node to another.

Is there any solution? I am not very experienced with SLES on Hyper-V (and to be honest not very experienced with SLES at all ;-)). I would be very glad if someone could point me in the right direction…

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Dominik

4

Hello all,

Same problem here : SLES 11 SP3 VM on Hyper-V 2012 R2 freezes when running a backup…

Each night the SLES VM freezes and do not respond anymore until we manually force shutdown the VM and then reboot it. From my research it seems to happen when the physical server backup (made with Windows Server Backup) is attempting to make a VSS snapshot of the SLES VM through the buit-in Hyper-V integration services.

On the same physical server we are also hosting two other VM (a Windows 2012 R2 and another Linux distribution). None of them is affected by this problem, so basically it is located inside the SLES VM.

Of course both the physical host server and the SLES 11 SP3 VM are fully updated. Unfortunately updating the SLES 11 to SP4 is not an option.

Despite that the SLES 11 SP3 VM has been updated with latest patches using “Update System” utility, I get some logs on the HYPER-V :

System Logs (when booting the VM) :

  • (Event ID 6 - Source : storvsp) A storage device in ‘OpenScape’ loaded but has a different version from the server. Server version 6.0 Client version 5.1 (Virtual machine ID 8DB992C8-1AD1-43DB-9A56-E5B69312E94C).
  • (Event ID 27 - Source : Hyper-V-VmSwitch) Networking driver in OpenScape loaded but has a different version from the server. Server version 5.0 Client version 3.2 (Virtual machine ID 8DB992C8-1AD1-43DB-9A56-E5B69312E94C).

Windows Server backup log :

  • Component OpenScape(Online) was skipped from volume shadow copy. Error Message : The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur.

Here is another thread which may (or may not) be related to that problem : https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7014585

Sadly I am not a Linux expert so I am a bit lost to further troubleshoot the problem inside the Linux VM : that’s why I need some help :slight_smile:

Thanks !