Views:

Summary

Microsoft deprecated various cluster management interfaces that are needed for DPX to discover cluster resources during backup. The Windows 2012 client installs properly to a Windows 2012 cluster, but the backup fails when these deprecated interfaces are invoked. This article describes how to recognize Windows 2012 cluster backup errors that arise due to this issue, and how to install the components necessary to resolve them. Please see Additional Information" below for comments on DPX 4.2 and above."

 

Symptoms

The Windows 2012 client software will install as expected.

The first symptom you may see is missing BMR objects when you expand the physical nodes while building the cluster backup job.

Once the job is saved and run, the job log will print an error similar to:

java.lang.Exception: getDRSystemVolumesN: GetSystemVolumes failed, rc (-1), reason (Failed to instantiate ClusDisks classes error -2147221164)

The failure to instantiate occurs when DPX attempts to use cluster management COM objects that are not installed by default on Windows 2012.

 

Resolution

The resolution requires that each node of the cluster be modified in the following way:

  • Install updated Catalogic Software ah_config.xml (see additional notes below)
  • Install Microsoft RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer feature
  • Restart all cluster and physical Catalogic Software CMagent services

To acquire the Catalogic Software client fix, please call Catalogic Software Data Protection Technical Support and request the ah_config.xml hotfix available from JIRA issue DPSUST-1818. This file must be installed into the Catalogic Software product 'bin' directory on each cluster physical node.

Each Windows 2012 failover cluster physical node requires the following Microsoft feature to be installed:

RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer

There is a complete description of cluster installation and available features in the following Microsoft knowledge base article:

blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/04/06/10291601.aspx

The easiest way to resolve this issue is to install the required RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer via PowerShell. You will need to update each physical node of the cluster individually. From the Windows 2012 desktop, do the following:

  1. Invoke a PowerShell
  2. Enter the following: get-WindowsFeature RSAT-Cluster*
    You will see output similar to:

    Display Name Name Install State
    ------------ ---- -------------
    [X] Failover Clustering Tools RSAT-Clustering Installed
    [X] Failover Cluster Management Tools RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt Installed
    [X] Failover Cluster Module for Windows ... RSAT-Clustering-Powe... Installed
    [ ] Failover Cluster Automation Server RSAT-Clustering-Auto... Available
    [ ] Failover Cluster Command Interface RSAT-Clustering-CmdI... Available

    The 4th option from the top is the feature needed.
  3. Enter the following: Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer
  4. Enter the following again: get-WindowsFeature RSAT-Cluster*
    You will see output similar to:

    Display Name Name Install State
    ------------ ---- -------------
    [X] Failover Clustering Tools RSAT-Clustering Installed
    [X] Failover Cluster Management Tools RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt Installed
    [X] Failover Cluster Module for Windows ... RSAT-Clustering-Powe... Installed
    [X] Failover Cluster Automation Server RSAT-Clustering-Auto... Available
    [ ] Failover Cluster Command Interface RSAT-Clustering-CmdI... Available
  5. The feature should now be installed. Once each physical node of the cluster has been updated, rerun the backup job and it should complete as expected.

Alternatively, you can use Windows 2012 Server Manager to install the required component. See the Microsoft link above for specific directions. You will need to go to "Add Roles and Features Wizard", select the node to install features, navigate to the Features screen, and then choose to install the Failover Cluster Automation Server. An example screen shot is shown here:


Once each physical node has the required ah_config.xml and RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer feature installed, restart the CMagent processes on each cluster node, and then run your backup job.