Starwind HA target with hardware VSS provider and Veeam

[Martin]

Hello,
I've run into some issues with your hardware VSS provider.
I have the following setup:
2 node Hyper-V cluster, with Starwind Native SAN with HA targets. On top of this target I have CSV storage with bunch of VMs. I'm also using Veeam for backups.
Every time I run backup, Veeam is unable to use your hardware VSS provider and defaults to Microsoft software, what results in CSV being in I/O redirected mode. I also get these two event log entries:

Event id 22
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: A critical component required by the Volume Shadow Copy service is not registered. This might happened if an error occurred during Windows setup or during installation of a Shadow Copy provider. The error returned from CoCreateInstance on class with CLSID {b319214a-c160-4689-ac7c-4d0d65359e11} and Name HWPRV is [0x80040154, Class not registered
].

Operation:
Creating instance of hardware provider
Obtain a callable interface for this provider
Check If Volume Is Supported by Provider
Add a Volume to a Shadow Copy Set

Context:
Provider ID: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Provider ID: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Class ID: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Snapshot Context: 0
Execution Context: Coordinator
Provider ID: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Volume Name: \\?\Volume{3a84ae59-46dd-11e1-8e64-001b21d8de57}\
Execution Context: CoordinatorVolume Shadow Copy Service error: Error creating the Shadow Copy Provider COM class with CLSID {b319214a-c160-4689-ac7c-4d0d65359e11} [0x80040154, Class not registered
].

and

Event id 12292
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error creating the Shadow Copy Provider COM class with CLSID {b319214a-c160-4689-ac7c-4d0d65359e11} [0x80040154, Class not registered
].

Operation:
Creating instance of hardware provider
Obtain a callable interface for this provider
List interfaces for all providers supporting this context
Query Shadow Copies

Context:
Provider ID: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Provider ID: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Class ID: {b319214a-c160-4689-ac7c-4d0d65359e11}
Snapshot Context: 9
Snapshot Context: 9
Execution Context: Coordinator


Volume \\?\Volume{3a84ae59-46dd-11e1-8e64-001b21d8de57}\ is CSV.

I was talking to your tech guy, but I can't really come to any definitive conclusion on this. It seems as your hardware VSS provider is for use with your backup software only, or it works with CDP targets only.
Can someone clarify this?

My ultimate goal is to have HA storage, with Veeam backups riding on top of it. Is that setup possible using Starwind software?

[anton (staff)]

Our hardware VSS provider is for anybody in need of use hardware VSS provider. It's not somehow limited to our own software (CDP, backup of whetever). So...

1) Whom did you talk to inside StarWind support?

2) Where do you run hardware VSS provider? Hyper-V nodes? Machine running VEEAM backup?

3) Are you sure hardware VSS provider is set up, launched and operational?

[Martin]

1) I don't really want to share names in public forum, I can send you private message.

2) Hardware provider is installed on Hyper-V nodes, not on virtual machines or Veeam server. Hyper-V nodes are used as Veeam processing proxy.

3) I'm sure. I installed hardware provider only, the service VssHWProviderStarWind service is running and set to automatic start. Below is output from vssadmin list providers:

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Provider type: System
Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
Version: 1.0.0.7

Provider name: 'StarWind VSS Hardware Provider'
Provider type: Hardware
Provider Id: {ca6fbd59-0d58-420d-962f-2778e4ec8583}
Version: 1.0

Every time I set Veeam to use StarWind provider it fails, and two error messages in my first post appear in event log.

Below is a message that appears in Veeam:

2/1/2012 2:12:09 PM :: Unable to create snapshot (StarWind VSS Hardware Provider on haclus02) Details: Failed to add volume [\\?\Volume{3a84ae59-46dd-11e1-8e64-001b21d8de57}\] to the VSS snapshot set
The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.
--tr:Failed to add volumes to the snapshot set.
--tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.

[Martin]

One more thing.
I also tried your Hyper-V backup plugin as suggested by support staff, with exactly identical result as Veeam. Both errors show up in event log.

[anton (staff)]

OK, first of all I'd like to say "I'm sorry" as looks like we've confused each other all around... Here are some statements:

1) StarWind has both software VSS provider and hardware VSS provider. They are identical from the functionality scope of view and the only need of software one is lack of support for hardware providers from the Microsoft side in context of non-server OSes.

2) Our VSS providers should run @ initiator side (as all of them actually do).

3) Our VSS providers are not proprietary in any way so any application being VSS-aware should work with them just fine.

4) StarWind supports multiple types of underlying storages. Some of them do support snapshots (CDP & De-duplication engine) and some don't (RAW images hosted on client disks - you cannot snapshot them as they are one-dimension addressed).

5) We do support some functionality in HA configurations and we don't support some subset of functionality in HA configurations.

Now comes the problem: HA supports RAW devices only, no snapshots (for now, we'll add this in V6 version we should publish in March 2012). VSS needs either CDP or deduplication as lower end to create a snapshot, for RAW devices it fails and passes snapshot job to system provided VSS (software VSS from Microsoft). That's why you either need skip using HA and use CDP with hardware VSS provider (bad idea as you represent SPOF to your hypervisor cluster) or just wait for us to add CDP/dedupe features to HA config. That's all...

Sorry once again for not being able to meet your needs in config you use YET.

[Martin]

Thanks for the explanation. I'll be waiting for v6 then.

[anton (staff)]

Thank you for your patience and sorry for misinforming you initially.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll be waiting for v6 then.

[jeffhamm]

To summarize, when using HA Targets, you cannot currently in Version 5.8 use the Starwind Hardware VSS Provider on a Hyper-V host, correct?

Thanks,
Jeff

[anton (staff)]

You can. But it's not going to do any good to you as VSS will find you're using RAW storage instead of snapshot capable one and will effectively pass his job to system provided software snapshot engine...

To summarize, when using HA Targets, you cannot currently in Version 5.8 use the Starwind Hardware VSS Provider on a Hyper-V host, correct?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Martin]

Ok, version 6 is out, but it absolutely doesn't solve my issue. Veeam is still unable to use your Hardware VSS provider.
Has this been addressed in this version?

[Anatoly (staff)]

Do you mean that you cannot run HA+CDP storage? If yes then I must tell you that you can, but this feature is currently experimental.

[Martin]

Ok, I figured out how to do it, but that doesn't solve the problem. I need to convert live production images, not create a new ones. I don't have storage space available, nor I'm licensed for that much to do migration.

I need to be able to convert existing HA images to CDP without the loss of data.

[Anatoly (staff)]

If I understood you correctly and you want to covert the device type on the fly I must say that this feature is not available in current release.

Stay tuned.