First attempt to back up a PST with ShadowSpawn
John Gray
set shadpath=D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
set source="%UserProfile%\Documents\Outlook Files"
set file="My.pst"
set target="D:\Backup\%computername%\My PSTs"
set parms=/copyall /np /r:0 /w:0
%shadpath% %source% q: robocopy q: %target% %file% %parms%
:: originally robocopy %source% %target% %file% %parms%
Result is:
Error: Device format is incorrect: Device = Files"
followed by the Help information.
Craig Andera
That's almost certainly because of a failure to quote sufficiently. I
think you need to do something more like this:
"%shadpath%" "%source%" q: robocopy q: "%target%" "%file%" "%parms%"
You could always throw an echo at the beginning of the line to be sure.
Let us know if that doesn't work.
John Gray
fine when Robocopy is used by itself. There should be no need to
double-quote the %shadpath% variable since it contains no spaces.
When I tried putting double-quotes round the %shadpath% variable I
obtained the same ShadowSpawn error message.
Here's the output:
D:\BAT>"D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe" "C:\Users\John
\Documents\Outlook Files" q: robocopy q: "D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs"
"My account.pst" /copyall /np /r:0 /w:0
ShadowSpawn (c) 2011 Craig Andera. shado...@wangdera.com
Error: Device format is incorrect. Device = Files"
Usage:
shadowspawn [ /verbosity=LEVEL ] .... etc
John Gray
> Error: Device format is incorrect. Device = Files"
>
> Usage:
>
> shadowspawn [ /verbosity=LEVEL ] .... etc
paths, so considers
Files"
to be the second argument, where it is expecting a drive letter plus
colon.
Craig Andera
> paths, so considers
> "C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook
> to be the first argument, and
> Files"
> to be the second argument, where it is expecting a drive letter plus
> colon.
Yep, I'm guessing you're right. The C runtime does a terrible job on
this, so we had to write our own quoted argument handling. We must
have gotten it wrong.
I've entered issue #4 on GitHub
(https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/issues/4) to track this. One
of us will tackle it as soon as we get some time.
In the meantime, if you need a workaround, you could try using the
short name of the source directory. Probably something like
C:\Users\John
\Documents\Outloo~1. If that doesn't work, let us know and we'll try
to come up with something else.
Thanks for trying out ShadowSpawn - the bug report is really helpful!
John Gray
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John
"My.pst" /copyall /np /r:0 /w:0
ShadowSpawn (c) 2011 Craig Andera. shado...@wangdera.com
Shadowing C:\Users\John\Documents\Outloo~1 at q:
Launching command: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs" "My.pst" /
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for
Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Started : Wed Jul 27 20:44:35 2011
2011/07/27 20:44:35 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Getting File System Type of
Source q:\
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
Source - q:\
Dest : D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs\
Files : My.pst
Options : /COPYALL /NP /R:0 /W:0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE : NTFS Security may not be copied - Source may not be NTFS.
2011/07/27 20:44:35 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Accessing Source Directory
q:\
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
Launched command finished with exit code: 16.
Shadowing successfully completed.
Craig Andera
>
> Launching command: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs" "My.pst" /
> copyall /np /r:0 /w:0
>
> Source q:\
> The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
I'm guessing that it's the /copyall that's not working. There might be
something about shadow copies that robocopy doesn't like. Can you try
it with a subset? According to the docs, /copyall is equivalent to
/copy:datsou. If you try dropping one of the options at a time, we can
figure out what the issue is.
John Gray
It presumably depends on what file system the shadow copy presents?
And, out of interest, where is the copy physically located?
Craig Andera
>> something about shadow copies that robocopy doesn't like. Can you try
>> it with a subset? According to the docs, /copyall is equivalent to
>> /copy:datsou. If you try dropping one of the options at a time, we can
>> figure out what the issue is.
>
> I tried /copy:dat and /copy:d., and results identical to .copyall.
Hmm. OK, are you able to get it to work at all? I.e. if you just do
D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
"C:\Users\John\Documents\Outloo~1" q: robocopy q:\
"D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs" "My.pst"
What happens?
> It presumably depends on what file system the shadow copy presents?
Yeah, that's not totally clear to me at this stage.
> And, out of interest, where is the copy physically located?
There is no copy: it would take way too long to actually copy an
entire 1TB volume or whatever. The volume shadow service creates a
snapshot, which is just some bookkeeping magic that says, "Hey, at
such-and-such a time, a snapshot was created." Then, if anyone writes
to the file, it makes additional copies of just the changed parts of
that file. The snapshot gets surfaced at a path that looks like
\Device\SystemShadowSomethingSomething15.
But perhaps I misunderstood your question.
John Gray
exactly the same error messages as before, I'm afraid.
My question about where the 'virtual drive' was located.
Presumably it must exist, if only for a short time, somewhere on a/the
physical disk, and not purely in RAM?
So I'm guessing that Robocopy can't find it, for some reason...
Craig Andera
> Presumably it must exist, if only for a short time, somewhere on a/the
> physical disk, and not purely in RAM?
> So I'm guessing that Robocopy can't find it, for some reason...
So, what happens is that we call CreateDosDevice, and pass it the path
to the shadow copy, which is something like
\Device\VolumeSnapshotSet17. That makes that part of the IO namespace
at the drive letter you specify. We don't dismount it until robocopy
exits. You should be able to do something like this:
shadowspawn C:\some\folder q: notepad.exe
and you'll be able to use Explorer to browse the Q: drive until
notepad.exe exits.
I'm not sure whether that helps you at all, but that's the technical
answer to your question. If any of that doesn't make sense, or if the
notepad experiment doesn't work, let us know and we'll keep working on
figuring it out.
John Gray
shadowspawn d:\software\shadowspawn\w7x64 q: notepad q:\test.txt
and looking at Windows Explorer showed me a Q: drive containing the
contents of the aforementioned subdirectory.
But I also tried, whilst in the same directory:
shadowspawn . <the rest>
shadowspawn .\w7x64 <the rest>
and received in the Notepad window, "The filename, directoryname, or
volume label syntax is incorrect.! and there was no Q: drive visible
in WIndows Explorere.
Craig Andera
> I tried, in the d:\software\shadowspawn\w7x64 subdirectory
> shadowspawn d:\software\shadowspawn\w7x64 q: notepad q:\test.txt
> and looking at Windows Explorer showed me a Q: drive containing the
> contents of the aforementioned subdirectory.
>
> But I also tried, whilst in the same directory:
> shadowspawn . <the rest>
> shadowspawn .\w7x64 <the rest>
> and received in the Notepad window, "The filename, directoryname, or
> volume label syntax is incorrect.! and there was no Q: drive visible
> in WIndows Explorere.
Ah, looks like we're not dealing with relative paths right now. I've
created issue #7 (https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/issues/7) to
track this. Hopefully I'll get some time this Friday to work on some
of the current bugs.
The workaround, obviously, is to use absolute paths for now.
John Gray
Robocopy to work...
Craig Andera
>> created issue #7 (https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/issues/7) to
>> track this. Hopefully I'll get some time this Friday to work on some
>> of the current bugs.
>>
>> The workaround, obviously, is to use absolute paths for now.
>
> Indeed! But even though Notepad works, mostly, I still can't get
> Robocopy to work...
Hmm. We have gotten robocopy to work with ShadowSpawn, so we'll have
to look into this one. I've opened issue #8
(https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/issues/8) to track this.
When you say Notepad works "mostly", what do you mean? Are you
observing anything strange when you use notepad?
Also, can you give us a bit more information to help use repro?
* What operating system are you on?
* What type of filesystem is D:? FAT or NTFS?
Thanks. We'll do our best to get to the bottom of this.
John Gray
not relative ones (as above).
My attempted ROBOCOPY of a PST (held on the C: drive) is on Windows 7
64-bit fully patched, and all my disk drives use NTFS.
I've just tried again, with the same results as above!
Craig Andera
> not relative ones (as above).
>
> My attempted ROBOCOPY of a PST (held on the C: drive) is on Windows 7
> 64-bit fully patched, and all my disk drives use NTFS.
> I've just tried again, with the same results as above!
Kim and I spent today going through and making a bunch of fixes to
ShadowSpawn (changelog here [1]). We weren’t able to reproduce your
error after we had already made a number of fixes: we had a bunch of
successful runs of shadowspawn plus robocopy. We also verified that
relative paths work with all our changes. So maybe you could try
grabbing version 0.2.0 from the download page [2] and try with that.
If it still doesn’t work, we’ll keep digging.
Thanks for helping us find these problems!
[1] https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/wiki
[2] http://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/downloads
John Gray
Robocopy parameters, as previously requested):
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John
Shadowing C:\Users\John\Documents\Outloo~1 at q:
Launching command: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs" "My
account.pst"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for
Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/08/06 09:27:03 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Getting File System Type of
Source q:\
Source - q:\
Files : My account.pst
Options : /COPY:DAT /R:1000000 /W:30
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/08/06 09:27:03 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Accessing Source Directory
q:\
Launched command finished with exit code: 16.
Shadowing successfully completed.
Press any key to continue . . .
Craig Andera
> Robocopy parameters, as previously requested):
First of all, I'm sorry for all the false starts. It must be
frustrating. It certainly is for me!
We've had no trouble getting ShadowSpawn to launch Robocopy, even
using a command line that's as close to what you're doing as we can.
Clearly something is still up, though. So let's try removing RoboCopy
from the equation. That should at least tell us whether the issue is
with RoboCopy or ShadowSpawn. So try this instead:
D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
"C:\Users\John\Documents\Outloo~1" q: xcopy "q:\My account.pst"
"D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs"
If that works, then something is up with RoboCopy, and we can
investigate further down that route. For example, we can see what
happens if you shut down Outlook and run Robocopy without ShadowSpawn.
If that fails, then clearly there's likely going on with the shadowing
process. The test I would do there would be to use ShadowSpawn to
launch notepad, then, from within notepad, do a File->Open to see if I
could poke around in the Q: drive or not. You should even be able to
right-click on files to do a copy and paste back to the D: drive.
Also, did we ever try this with the full path under 0.2.0? I.e. going
back to the path that doesn't have the tilde in it? That shouldn't be
necessary now that we got our quotes handling straightened out, but
it's worth a try.
John Gray
thanks!
I've been using Robocopy to back up my User Profile and AllUsers
Profile for a year or so now without problems. Except that it won't
copy the PST after Outlook 2010 is started, which is the reason to try
ShadowSpawn!
Trying Notepad (hope I've got it right?) gives again the window with
message
"The filename, directoryname, or volume label syntax is incorrect."
with
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe D:\bat m: notepad
m:\$.txt
Shadowing D:\bat at m:
Launching command: notepad m:\$.txt
< now the Notepad window appears with the above error message >
Launched command finished with exit code: 0.
Shadowing successfully completed.
And replacing Robocopy with Xcopy gives similar results:
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John
\Documents\Outlook Files" q: xcopy "q:\My.pst" "D:\Backup\MEDION\My
PSTs\"
Shadowing C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files at q:
Launching command: xcopy "q:\My.pst" "D:\Backup\MEDION\My PSTs\"
Invalid drive specification
0 File(s) copied
Launched command finished with exit code: 4.
Shadowing successfully completed.
Craig Andera
> message
> "The filename, directoryname, or volume label syntax is incorrect."
> with
> D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe D:\bat m: notepad
> m:\$.txt
> ShadowSpawn (c) 2011 Craig Andera. shado...@wangdera.com
Assuming that there actually is a file literally called $.txt, that
should work just fine.
So, it looks like there's definitely some issue with creating the
shadow copy, or at least with mounting it on your machine. I'm pretty
well stumped as to what it might be. I can only think of a few more
things to try:
1) Try it on a different machine (if possible) and see if you have the
same problem.
2) Reboot, assuming you haven't already done so.
3) Try hobocopy [1] instead.
I've been racking my brain trying to think of something else, but
right now that's the best I can come up with.
John Gray
> > Trying Notepad (hope I've got it right?) gives again the window with
> > message
> > "The filename, directoryname, or volume label syntax is incorrect."
> > with
> > D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe D:\bat m: notepad
> > m:\$.txt
> Assuming that there actually is a file literally called $.txt, that
> should work just fine.
>
> So, it looks like there's definitely some issue with creating the
> shadow copy, or at least with mounting it on your machine. I'm pretty
> well stumped as to what it might be. I can only think of a few more
> things to try:
>
> 1) Try it on a different machine (if possible) and see if you have the
> same problem.
> 2) Reboot, assuming you haven't already done so.
> 3) Try hobocopy [1] instead.
>
> I've been racking my brain trying to think of something else, but
> right now that's the best I can come up with.
>
> [1]https://github.com/candera/hobocopy
start "" notepad d:\shadowspawnhelp.txt & :: to hold the file open
d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: notepad m:\shadowspawnhelp.txt
:: now close the new notepad window to let the following run
d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: robocopy m:\ c:\jg shadowspawnhelp.txt
I will try on a Windows 7 32-bit installation I have, but sadly I have
no Windows 7 other than an instance of 64-bit Pro and one of 32-bit
Pro...
Thanks for your suggestions
Craig Andera
>
> start "" notepad d:\shadowspawnhelp.txt & :: to hold the file open
> d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: notepad m:\shadowspawnhelp.txt
> :: now close the new notepad window to let the following run
> d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: robocopy m:\ c:\jg shadowspawnhelp.txt
>
> I will try on a Windows 7 32-bit installation I have, but sadly I have
> no Windows 7 other than an instance of 64-bit Pro and one of 32-bit
> Pro...
>
> Thanks for your suggestions
Hi John. Just wanted to follow up with you to see if you had any luck
with any other configurations. We don’t want to abandon the issue if
there’s still something to try, but at this point it seems like it
might be something on that particular machine. Have you been able to
try it anywhere else, or done any other experimentation that would
shed any new light on the problem?
We gave it another try under both Windows XP and W2K8R2. Here’s what we got:
ShadowSpawn.exe "d:\_personal\_mail" q: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
ShadowSpawn (c) 2011 Craig Andera. shado...@wangdera.com
Shadowing d:\_personal\_mail at q:
Launching command: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
Q:\archive.pst
1 File(s) copied
Launched command finished with exit code: 0.
Shadowing successfully completed.
Shadowing d:\_personal\_mail at q:
Launching command: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
Q:\archive.pst
1 File(s) copied
Launched command finished with exit code: 0.
Shadowing successfully completed.
John Gray
> > The following works fine on XP Pro...
>
> > start "" notepad d:\shadowspawnhelp.txt & :: to hold the file open
> > d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: notepad m:\shadowspawnhelp.txt
> > :: now close the new notepad window to let the following run
> > d:\shadowspawn d:\ m: robocopy m:\ c:\jg shadowspawnhelp.txt
>
> > I will try on a Windows 7 32-bit installation I have, but sadly I have
> > no Windows 7 other than an instance of 64-bit Pro and one of 32-bit
> > Pro...
>
> > Thanks for your suggestions
>
> Hi John. Just wanted to follow up with you to see if you had any luck
> with any other configurations. We don’t want to abandon the issue if
> there’s still something to try, but at this point it seems like it
> might be something on that particular machine. Have you been able to
> try it anywhere else, or done any other experimentation that would
> shed any new light on the problem?
>
> We gave it another try under both Windows XP and W2K8R2. Here’s what we got:
>
> ShadowSpawn.exe "d:\_personal\_mail" q: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
>
> Launching command: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
> Q:\archive.pst
> 1 File(s) copied
> Launched command finished with exit code: 0.
> Shadowing successfully completed.
> Shadowing d:\_personal\_mail at q:
> Launching command: xcopy "q:\archive.pst" "c:\temp"
> Q:\archive.pst
> 1 File(s) copied
> Launched command finished with exit code: 0.
> Shadowing successfully completed.
which is where I am having the trouble? As I said before, XP Pro is
OK, and I tried Windows 7 pro 32-bit without problems, but will try
again with my new BATch file which creates a test text file in
%userprofile% and then uses ShadowSpawn to run Notepad to display it -
the usual message described above results.
The second part of the BATch file is a Robocopy of ntuser.dat.log1.
See results below *(with echo on)...
D:\JG>CLS
D:\JG>echo SStest: ShadowSpawn tests run from D:\JG
SStest: ShadowSpawn tests run from D:\JG
D:\JG>setlocal
D:\JG>set shadpath=D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
D:\JG>set file=SStest.txt
D:\JG>echo This is the content of the ShadowSpawn test text file 1>C:
\Users\John\SStest.txt
D:\JG>type C:\Users\John\SStest.txt
This is the content of the ShadowSpawn test text file
D:\JG>set source=C:\Users\John
D:\JG>set target=D:\JG
D:\JG>set parms=/copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
D:\JG>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe C:\Users\John q:
notepad q:\SStest.txt
Shadowing C:\Users\John at q:
Launching command: notepad q:\SStest.txt
Shadowing successfully completed.
D:\JG>del C:\Users\John\SStest.txt
D:\JG>PAUSE & CLS
D:\JG>set source="C:\Users\John"
D:\JG>set target=D:\JG
D:\JG>set parms=/copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
D:\JG>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John" m:
robocopy m:\ D:\JG ntuser.dat.log1 /copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
Shadowing C:\Users\John at m:
Launching command: robocopy m:\ D:\JG ntuser.dat.log1 /copy:d /np /r:
0 /w:0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for
Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/08/27 19:52:12 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Getting File System Type of
Source m:\
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
Source - m:\
Dest : D:\JG\
Files : ntuser.dat.log1
Options : /COPY:DT /NP /R:0 /W:0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011/08/27 19:52:12 ERROR 123 (0x0000007B) Accessing Source Directory
m:\
Launched command finished with exit code: 16.
Shadowing successfully completed.
D:\JG>endlocal & goto :eof
Craig Andera
> which is where I am having the trouble? As I said before, XP Pro is
> OK, and I tried Windows 7 pro 32-bit without problems, but will try
> again with my new BATch file which creates a test text file in
> %userprofile% and then uses ShadowSpawn to run Notepad to display it -
> the usual message described above results.
I run Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and I've tried it there successfully,
although not against a PST (I don't use Outlook). It doesn't look like
it has anything to do with the file you're trying to copy, though. It
looks more like the shadow copy isn't showing up in the device
namespace the way it's supposed to. I suppose it's possible they did
something to limit VSS on the Pro version of Windows 7. I'll give that
a try when I can build up a VM with a Win7 Pro image. That may take a
little while.
Thanks for continuing to chase this down. Hopefully we'll find the
problem and get it fixed soon.
John Gray
Ultimate!
But I think I have come across something in http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50031.aspx
which says that you can't run both Shadow Protect AND Macrium Reflect.
I wonder whether you can run Shadow Protect together with
ShadowSpawn? I run Shadow Protect for backups!
John Gray
fallen victim to the dreaded "25*n + 1" Google Groups syndrome...!
Craig Andera
> fallen victim to the dreaded "25*n + 1" Google Groups syndrome...!
No, just to the fact that I've been on travel for the last week. :)
I think it's possible that ShadowProtect is somehow interfering with
ShadowSpawn. Do you have an easy way to test the hypothesis?
John Gray
I certainly don't want to uninstall Shadow Protect but I'd be quite
happy temporarily to make some relevant registry changes so I could
try their effect with ShadowSpawn. Can you say which keys/values I
should check/change?
Craig Andera
It was a work trip, but by coincidence it was back to my home town, so
I got to see some friends and family.
> I certainly don't want to uninstall Shadow Protect but I'd be quite
> happy temporarily to make some relevant registry changes so I could
> try their effect with ShadowSpawn. Can you say which keys/values I
> should check/change?
That would depend on Shadow Protect, with which I am not at all
familiar. I did find this [1] which was listed on this page [2]. That
might be of some help. It does look like it's doing some low-level
monkeying with VSS, so Shadow Protect seems like it could be our
culprit.
[1] http://www.storagecraft.com/kb/questions.php?questionid=75
[2] http://www.storagecraft.com/kb/search.php?q=VSS
John Gray
This is the export of the indicated key:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}]
@="StorageCraft Volume Snapshot Software Provider"
"Type"=dword:00000002
"Version"="1.0.0.0"
"VersionId"="{00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}\CLSID]
@="{e4eb5095-f587-4159-a1d8-2710692fd243}"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers\{b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}]
@="Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0"
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Version"="1.0.0.7"
"VersionId"="{00000001-0000-0000-0007-000000000001}"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers\{b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}\CLSID]
@="{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}"
I renamed the GUID starting {24602736- with a hash at the front, then ran my BATch file to use ShadowSpawn with Notepad and with Robocopy, as previous, and it worked fine!
So we have an explanation - but not a solution!
I suspect that anyone running Shadow Protect, Acronis TrueImage or Macrium Reflect on a PC, or BackupExec, BackupAssist, etc, on a server, all of which use VSS will find similar problems to mine with ShadowSpawn... "API days are here again..."
Craig Andera
>
> I suspect that anyone running Shadow Protect, Acronis TrueImage or Macrium
> Reflect on a PC, or BackupExec, BackupAssist, etc, on a server, all of which
> use VSS will find similar problems to mine with ShadowSpawn... "API days
> are here again..."
Good catch! I've re-opened issue #8 [1]. We'll have to look into what
we can do to address this. It's possible that we would be able to
specify the Microsoft provider, and that that might fix the issue.
That's going to take some research and some coding, so it may be a
little while before we can push some bits out.
In the meantime, it looks like the workaround is to temporarily adjust
the registry, run ShadowSpawn, and then put the registry back the way
it was. That's scriptable, so would that serve as a workaround while
we try to sort out the underlying issue?
John Gray
running ShadowSpawn. The only snag would be if ShadowProtect's hourly
scheduled incremental backup cut in while the key was renamed. I
can't think of an obvious way of serialising the two...
Craig Andera
> running ShadowSpawn. The only snag would be if ShadowProtect's hourly
> scheduled incremental backup cut in while the key was renamed. I
> can't think of an obvious way of serialising the two...
Is ShadowProtect scheduled using the built-in Windows Task Scheduler?
If so, there are some facilities in there that might help, like the
ability to not start a new task if the old one is already running. You
could also sort of manually deal with that yourself by writing some
sort of lock file right before you change the registry key, and
deleting it right after you put it back. Then you'd just have to rig
the ShadowProtect job to not run if the lock file is present. It's a
major hack, and there's probably still some tiny possibility of
overlap, but it might get you by for a bit.
Craig Andera
providers" and "vssadmin list writers" on the problematic box? That
might be helpful when we start working on a fix. Thanks!
John Gray
> Also, can you forward on the result of running "vssadmin list
> providers" and "vssadmin list writers" on the problematic box? That
> might be helpful when we start working on a fix. Thanks!
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line
tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Provider name: 'StorageCraft Volume Snapshot Software Provider'
Provider type: Software
Provider Id: {24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}
Version: 1.0.0.0
Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Provider type: System
Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
Version: 1.0.0.7
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line
tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'System Writer'
Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Instance Id: {b1d779c6-f009-4869-a4f9-6decf6c7c565}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
Writer Instance Id: {886786af-a124-416c-bf09-2d4efa8acef0}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
Writer Instance Id: {50572fc0-cd08-4027-bab8-1a902344dcab}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
Writer Instance Id: {23f51e6c-7e79-4c83-8296-2096a36e6019}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
Writer Instance Id: {f279cc18-2b86-4f2f-962c-6af58138aaa0}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer'
Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2}
Writer Instance Id: {10e2912e-f3a3-4c01-84ff-a6fb844b10a2}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Instance Id: {181ba812-cd3e-4781-b460-44a0873038f0}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
Writer Instance Id: {f47edb25-9ee1-4143-907b-8cffe7a89210}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
Writer Instance Id: {835106c5-54f3-4778-baca-57bec98405fe}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
And no, Shadow Protect has its own scheduler of the backup jobs. I
will look at it to see if any serialisation is possible...
Craig Andera
> Provider type: Software
> Provider Id: {24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}
> Version: 1.0.0.0
So I think we have our smoking gun. And I found the API where one
tells VSS which provider to use. We're currently indicating that the
default should be used. I'm guessing that the StorageCraft provider
gets used in that case, which is incorrect. We should be able to
change that code to indicate the Microsoft default provider should be
used. If we're lucky, that'll fix the problem.
We'll see if we can get that change made before too long.
Thanks again for your patience!
John Gray
REG RENAME subcommand....
Craig Andera
> REG RENAME subcommand....
Just FYI, the US holiday this week means I don't get an Open Source
Friday until next week. We'll see if we can fit it in before then, but
wanted to make you aware that it may take a while to get the new
version out.
John Gray
Craig Andera
Give it a try and let us know if it works for you. Or especially if it doesn't!
https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/downloads
John Gray
> OK, 0.2.1 is out with the fix for this issue. We hope!
>
> Give it a try and let us know if it works for you. Or especially if it doesn't!
>
> https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/downloads
it seems that either the parsing is still not working, or I got
something wrong!
See:
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John
\Documents\Outlook Files" q: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonder
PSTs\" "BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
"BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for
Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source - q:\
Dest - D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonder PSTs" BlueYonder\
Files :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Craig Andera
BlueYonderPSTs. The backslash is making the following quote be a
literal part of the argument, rather than closing the corresponding
quotes. So I think you want this:
D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
"C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files" q: robocopy q:\
"D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonderPSTs" "BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np
/r:0 /w:0
You could also omit the quotes entirely, as there are no spaces in the
pathnames in this case.
But this is very encouraging, because it looks like the shadow copy
worked, and now robocopy is complaining.
John Gray
> Try it without the backslash right before the quotes in
> BlueYonderPSTs. The backslash is making the following quote be a
> literal part of the argument, rather than closing the corresponding
> quotes. So I think you want this:
>
> D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe
> "C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files" q: robocopy q:\
> "D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonderPSTs" "BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np
> /r:0 /w:0
>
> You could also omit the quotes entirely, as there are no spaces in the
> pathnames in this case.
>
> But this is very encouraging, because it looks like the shadow copy
> worked, and now robocopy is complaining.
D:\BAT>D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John
\Documents\Outlook Files" q: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonder
PSTs" "BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
ShadowSpawn (c) 2011 Craig Andera. shado...@wangdera.com
Shadowing C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files at q:
Launching command: robocopy q:\ "D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonder PSTs"
"BlueYonder account.pst" /copy:d /np /r:0 /w:0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for
Windows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source : q:\
Dest : D:\Backup\MEDION\BlueYonder PSTs\
Files : BlueYonder account.pst
Options : /COPY:DT /NP /R:0 /W:0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newer 412.2 m BlueYonder account.pst
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 1 0 1 0 0 0
Files : 1 1 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 412.21 m 412.21 m 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:00:10 0:00:10 0:00:00 0:00:00
Speed : 39893282 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 2282.711 MegaBytes/min.
Ended : Sat Sep 17 17:30:52 2011
Launched command finished with exit code: 1.
Shadowing successfully completed.
Well done, and thanks very much!
Craig Andera
Awesome! So glad this worked for you. Thanks again for your patience in tracking this down. I'm quite sure we wouldn't have found this bug otherwise.
Let us know if you run into any other problems!
John Gray
I am now trying COPY, because I want to change the target filename for the PST, so that I can create a number of copies. Can you see what I'm doing wrong from this log?
D:\Software\ShadowSpawn\W7x64\ShadowSpawn.exe "C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files" q: copy "q:\BlueYonder account.pst" "D:\Backup\MEDION\PST backups\BlueYonder account.pst.#1 "
Shadowing C:\Users\John\Documents\Outlook Files at q:
Aborting backup.
Dismounting device: q:
Deleting snapshot.
There was an error calling CreateProcess. Process: copy "q:\BlueYonder account.pst" "D:\Backup\MEDION\PST backups\BlueYonder account.pst.#1 " Error: The system cannot find the file specified.
(Error number 2)
Thanks very much!
Craig Andera
> PST, so that I can create a number of copies. Can you see what I'm doing
> wrong from this log?
copy is not actually a command. It's built into cmd.exe, and is
interpreted directly by the shell.
Try xcopy instead. The command line is somewhat different, but there's
an actual executable.
John Gray
I tried with
CMD /C COPY ...
and
XCOPY /Y ...
and both worked successfully.
All good stuff to put into the FAQ / documentation!
Craig Andera
> CMD /C COPY ...
> and
> XCOPY /Y ...
> and both worked successfully.
>
> All good stuff to put into the FAQ / documentation!
Good idea. I'll update the FAQ.