Summary
An advanced backup of a whole node (including BMR or ExpressDR object) fails if system boot requirements cannot be discovered or read. When a system reserved volume is offine, errors occur during the job resolution period and the job fails. The system reserved volume must be online to perform the backup. Other system artifacts such as a system with multiple active partitions may also lead to improper boot requirement discoveries and backup failures.
Symptoms
The following error message displays:
java.lang.Exception: getDRSystemVolumesN: GetSystemVolumes failed, rc (-100), reason (The boot files cannot be accessed on system volume [\\?\Volume{7a2dec3e-06c2-11df-9944-806e6f6e6963}]. Please make sure it's online and accessible)
This error indicates that DPX cannot back up all of the components needed for BMR. A backup task for BMR is looking for volumes with boot, system, and active attributes. If any volumes with boot, system, or active attributes are not available due to offlined status, or there are many volumes with active attributes set on a node, the above error message indicates that the job cannot back up BMR components successfully.
This occurs in the following situations:
A system reserved volume on a Windows 2008 node is offlined.
- Run diskpart, then run list volume. If the system reserved volume is offlined, the output of list volume displays the volume as offlined. If the volume is online, contact Technical Support for a fix. You may need a hot fix or patch if your system has multiple partitions with the active attribute set.
- This is a Microsoft operating systems and/or virtual machine specific error that usually occurs on virtual Windows 2008 nodes. See Microsoft KB article 2419286. Please see a KB article from Microsoft: support.microsoft.com/kb/2419286
Multiple volumes on a DPX node has system, boot, or active attributes turned on.
- This usually occurs in a Windows 2003 environment.
Resolution
Offlined volumes must be online before a backup occurs. For an offlined system reserved volume on a Windows 2008 machine:
Method 1: Online the system reserved volume using Microsoft KB article 2419286: support.microsoft.com/kb/2419286. This procedure keeps the system reserved volume online permanently.
Method 2: Map the system reserved volume to a volume letter. This procedure keeps the system reserved volume online temporarily. Once you reboot the node, the volume returns to offlined.
For a Windows node where multiple volumes have system or boot attributes turned on:
Contact Technical Support for a fix. If there are multiple devices or partitions marked as active, only the real boot volume should be marked active.