Server 2003 Unresponsive with SQL Backup

[Neaz A.]

Hello all, first time posting.

I'm trying to find some pointers and ideas as to how to troubleshoot a
problem that cropped up in the last 24hours.

We have a dedicated SQL 2005 server on a Dell 2950 (4gb ram) on 2k3 Server.
Everything has been running smoothly except yesterday when the server just
became unresponsive and wouldn't allow RDC or VNC connections. System Manager
connection also locked up. Pinging worked fine but the database stopped
responding to our in-house application.

We have a Symantec backup server which backs up the database every hour, and
also has Continuous Backup running.

In Event Viewer, I don't see anything major, only the following (notice the
time gap):

Event Type: Information
Event Source: ESENT
Event Category: ShadowCopy
Event ID: 2003
Date: 10/2/2007
Time: 3:17:58 AM
User: N/A
Computer: HOMER
Description:
certsrv.exe (728) Shadow copy 6 freeze stopped.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 3197
Date: 10/2/2007
Time: 4:00:28 AM
User: ENDEAVORDC\backup_service
Computer: HOMER
Description:
I/O is frozen on database ReportServerTempDB. No user action is required.
However, if I/O is not resumed promptly, you could cancel the backup.

Above these notes are several other Information logs until the backup tries
to start, at which point it throws up some error logs. However, there is a
lot of these I/O errors and I'm wondering what is causing this problem all of
a sudden.

In SQL, there is error related to "Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 10".
I looked that error up in KB but there is state 11 and 16, nothing related to
10. I know the backup server and our application are using good
authenticated accounts, so this could be happening after the server has
already locked? I'm not certain. Trying to follow the time logs I see these
State errors with Login Failed for user 'sa' errors. I think these are
results of the server lockup.

Can anyone point me to any particular KB or resolution or give me some hints
as to where I should look?

One important note, the server does NOT have SP2 on it yet.

Thanks a lot for any help, Neaz

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Re: Server 2003 Unresponsive with SQL Backup

Hello Neaz,

Check out this one:
http://forums.webhostautomation.com/showthread.php?t=16748

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

> Hello all, first time posting.
>
> I'm trying to find some pointers and ideas as to how to troubleshoot a
> problem that cropped up in the last 24hours.
>
> We have a dedicated SQL 2005 server on a Dell 2950 (4gb ram) on 2k3
> Server. Everything has been running smoothly except yesterday when
> the server just became unresponsive and wouldn't allow RDC or VNC
> connections. System Manager connection also locked up. Pinging worked
> fine but the database stopped responding to our in-house application.
>
> We have a Symantec backup server which backs up the database every
> hour, and also has Continuous Backup running.
>
> In Event Viewer, I don't see anything major, only the following
> (notice the time gap):
>
> Event Type: Information
> Event Source: ESENT
> Event Category: ShadowCopy
> Event ID: 2003
> Date: 10/2/2007
> Time: 3:17:58 AM
> User: N/A
> Computer: HOMER
> Description:
> certsrv.exe (728) Shadow copy 6 freeze stopped.
> Event Type: Information
> Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
> Event Category: (2)
> Event ID: 3197
> Date: 10/2/2007
> Time: 4:00:28 AM
> User: ENDEAVORDC\backup_service
> Computer: HOMER
> Description:
> I/O is frozen on database ReportServerTempDB. No user action is
> required.
> However, if I/O is not resumed promptly, you could cancel the backup.
> Above these notes are several other Information logs until the backup
> tries to start, at which point it throws up some error logs. However,
> there is a lot of these I/O errors and I'm wondering what is causing
> this problem all of a sudden.
>
> In SQL, there is error related to "Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State:
> 10". I looked that error up in KB but there is state 11 and 16,
> nothing related to 10. I know the backup server and our application
> are using good authenticated accounts, so this could be happening
> after the server has already locked? I'm not certain. Trying to
> follow the time logs I see these State errors with Login Failed for
> user 'sa' errors. I think these are results of the server lockup.
>
> Can anyone point me to any particular KB or resolution or give me some
> hints as to where I should look?
>
> One important note, the server does NOT have SP2 on it yet.
>
> Thanks a lot for any help, Neaz
>

 

[Neaz A.]

Re: Server 2003 Unresponsive with SQL Backup

Hi Meinolf, thanks for the reply.

My situation is a little different from that scenerio as I am using Symantec
and instead of doing a daily backup, I've got two different backups going on
the SQL server. An hourly full backup, which also clears out the trans logs.

Now there is the SQL server's own maintenance happening which is making a
different backup and getting rid of trans logs. However, the two times when
this problem occured were not during the SQL maintenance but just random
times off-peak. At 8pm and 4am the server stopped responding, so I'm trying
to figure out why it happens then.

The full backup is about 10GB and takes about 15mins (with a 10min verify).

"Meinolf Weber" wrote:

> Hello Neaz,
>
> Check out this one:
> http://forums.webhostautomation.com/showthread.php?t=16748
>
> Best regards
>
> Meinolf Weber
> Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
> no rights.
>