Challenge
Hyper-V Instant Recovery or SureBackup fail with the error message, “Cannot restore to the backup repository host when storage VSP is enabled.”Cause
In previous versions of Veeam Backup & Replication, Instant Recovery or SureBackup with a specific repository configuration could in some circumstances cause I/O freeze of a volume or hang of the VSS framework on a Hyper-V host. In Veeam Backup & Replication v8, this configuration has been disallowed.The configuration is:
- The repository data mover process is running in a Hyper-V virtual machine.
- The host running that virtual machine is also running the SureBackup virtual lab or is the target host for Instant Recovery.
- The host has storage I/O balancing enabled (this is a default setting in Server 2012 and later).
Solution
There are several solutions available, depending on your circumstances:If another Hyper-V host is available:
Restore to a different Hyper-V host, or create the SureBackup virtual lab on a different Hyper-V host.
If the repository is a CIFS/SMB share or Data Domain Boost repository:
The repository data mover must run on a Windows OS. By default, this “gateway server” will be selected automatically from among all managed Windows servers added to the backup infrastructure without regard for the limitation described in this KB. You can specify a different gateway server in the repository settings.
User Guide: How to specify shared folder repository settings
If you have other storage available:
Copy the backup files to this other storage, then add it to the Backup and Replication console as a repository. When you have verified that you are able to restore from the backup files in this new location, you can delete the old files and map the backup jobs to the new files:
KB1729: How to Move Veeam Backup & Replication Backup Files
In the event of an emergency restore when no other options are available:
Perform full VM restore instead of Instant Recovery.
User Guide: How to perform full VM restore
More Information
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2012 describes I/O balancing:“The virtualization stack balances storage I/O streams from different virtual machines so that each virtual machine has similar I/O response times when the system’s I/O bandwidth is saturated.” The document goes on to describe options for tuning or disabling this setting, but notes: “We do not recommend this advanced tuning option unless you have a specific reason to use it. These registry keys may be removed in future releases.”