Fix For: Doubletake Server Protection - Start Failed!

If you use Doubletake disaster recovery solution in your environment, this notorious error is something you will see again and again, when you try to create and start a new protection job.

This is what the support guys say about the error.

The first is having .net 4 installed on the server.  You would need 5.2.2 to be able to work effectively with .net 4 as there are some other issues you can encounter.  If you cannot use 5.2.2 just remove .net 4.

The other is a bad route selected in the job workflow.  On the confirmation screen of the workflow you have the option to change configuration on 2-3 settings.  the top one (not sure what the section is called) but it has compression and such in it...  at the bottom you need to make sure that you select an actual IP address on the target to route to.  Sometimes by default the wizard picks 0.0.0.0 as the IP - and well that won’t work.

Doubletake Protection Job- Start Failed!

Well, he is partially correct. This indeed happens because of a bad route. But even after you delete the old job and recreate it again with the correct routing interface the job will still fail to start. After many failed attempts this is how i got it to work.

Start Fresh , If you can. If you have other healthy protection jobs running side by side  then this option will not be viable. In that case you can remove whatever files associated with the failed job instead of all jobs.

1. Delete the failed Job. 

Select the failed job from the Doubletake Recover now -> Monitor Jobs and trash it.

Stop the Double take service in the Source server. This will complete the trash job process.

2. Delete all configuration/log/temp files in the source server

In the source server go to Doubletake installation directory

C:\Program Files\Vision Solutions\Double-Take

Delete all files not related to the actual installation. If you know the installation date of the application, then remove all other files created after that installation date. 

Go to C:\Program Files\Vision Solutions\Double-Take\Service\Data

And delete all files in this directory

3. In the target/repository server, go to Doubletake installation directory 

In the source server go to Doubletake installation directory

C:\Program Files\Vision Solutions\Double-Take

Delete all files not related to the actual installation. If you know the installation date of the application, then remove all other files created after that installation date. If you have other healthy jobs running then, be careful not to delete files associated with those jobs.

Files to remove : <source server name>.db ,  <source server name>.shr , <source server name>.xfp

Go to C:\Program Files\Vision Solutions\Double-Take\Service\Data

And delete <Job*>.dat and  <Job*>.xml file associated with the failed job. If you are starting fresh , then delete all files in this directory

4. Remove the old, mirrored copy of the source server from the repository.

You may need to log in as the local administrator, take the ownership of the whole folder/sub folders and then delete everything.

5. Start the Doubletake service in the Source server

Once you have removed all references to the old job, create the protection job again.

In the last window of the Server protection wizard, provide the actual main IP address of the repository server.

Cross your fingers and press finish to start the job.

This may work in some instances or may not. Job will sit on "Starting Protection...” stage for some time and then fail.

If the job fails again try the steps below.

1. Stop the Doubletake service in the Source server.

2. Go to the repository and browse to the place where the failed job stored its mirrored copy of the failed job.

3. There should be a file called VRASSM.xml in the root of that directory under the source server name folder.

4. Open this file using notepad and remove all interfaces leaving just the network interface you are planning to use. This is the same interface you have selected in the last step of the protection job creation wizard.

 

Remove rouge interfaces from the VRASSM.xml file

5. Save the file and restart the Doubletake service on the target  server and then on the source server.

6. Check Doubletake Recover now console and see if the status of the job has changed from "Communication Error" to "Calculating"

Alternatively you can stop puling you hair trying to get it working and call the superb customer support service line for a consultant to have a look at the mess  you have created and fix it remotely.

Netgear ReadyNAS 104 -RN10400-100AJS - Tips and Tricks

Bought one of these NAS device 2 weeks back with 3 TBx4 Configuration.  Sales person remarked  “Jesus! That’s plenty of storage”. I smiled. Storage can and will never be plentiful.  But that is not the story I’m going to write in here. If you like you can read about my storage woes over the years from here. (Not published yet) 

Device is okay. Not too good. Hardware design has its own problems and the software it runs on (Debian Linux, 7.0 Wheezy) is not the most stable system as I have found out. But I still love it and 2 days back went and bought another one with 2TB x 4 configurations. Yes!  I did run out of space on my 1st one. 

Issues:

1. Placing the Drives in to the screw less caddies
This can be easy or can become a pain in the arse.  Out of the box, the plastic plates that holds the drives can be in stuck position and sliding them down can be challenging or next to impossible. You might not want to put too much force on these fragile slips as they can break easily. 

Fix: 
There is a small slit on the side of the metal caddy. Put a blunt/flat screwdriver through it and derail the plastic slip slowly, first from the corner. Once you de-railed and got the plastic slip out of the caddy, scrape it’s top with a sharp knife to lower it so that it slips easily in and out of the metal rail.

Once you are happy with the amount of gray plastic scraps on the table put back the slip in to caddy and test.


2. Using used/unsupported Disk Drives.

If you have inserted used/unsupported Disk Drives, System will not boot up. It will throw up "ERR: Could not mount Root RAID device" warning.

Fix:  
Restore the system to Factory default.

Steps:
- Switch off the system. I just pulled the plug because for the life of me I couldn’t find a way to switch it off.
- Power On the system and press the Reset button in the back
- Press back up Button and choose from the menu -> Factory Default
- Press the Reset Button (in the back) to choose the option.

This will reset the storage system to factory settings, erases all data, resets all defaults, and reformats the disks to X-RAID5.

Incase you are looking, the default credentials for the web console after the reset is: admin, password.


Fixes we describe from now onward require shell access to the devise. Enable SSH access to the device by going to 
System->Settings->Services->SSH in the web console.

Once enabled, Use PUTTY or other SSH client to access the devise. Login as root and the password will be the admin password you have set up during the initial setup.


3. Sometimes External USB drives will not mount. Even if they got mounted, their contents will not show up.

Fix:
SSH in to the device and manually mount them. Once mounted, they will show up in the web interface.

Example Command: mount -t ntfs /dev/sde1 /media/USB_HDD_1

4. Bulk Transfer data to the devise. 
Transferring contents from a  high capacity external drive to the NAS over the network will take weeks and might fry your switch.  Not to mention that the web interface is a pain to use when it comes to moving files around.

Fix:
Use terminal to copy files across.

External USB devices are mounted in /media
Main NAS storage is located in /data

Copy files across these locations using Linux cp command.

Example Command: cp -R /media/USB_HDD_1/MyFolder /data/NASStorage/ 


Once copied, you need to reset permissions. Otherwise you will not be able to do any files/folder operation due to lack of permissions. 

Example Command: chown -r Tiraj:Creators /data/NASStorage/MyFolder


5. Moving Contents from one NAS devise to the other.

In this case you will have to use the network. Use SCP command to directly transfer files from one devise to the other with out involving a PC in the middle. 

Example Command:  scp -r /media/USB_HDD_1/MyFolder root@NORIKO:/data/NASStorage/ 


You will not be able to get Gigabyte LAN speeds with the supplied LAN cable. They are susceptible to too much interference thus degrading the speed. To get the maximum thru output, use short, Cat6e, triple Shielded LAN cables.

Happy NASing.

Expanding VMware ESXi Guest Virtual Disk Drives

We had few ESXi hosted guest servers that were running out of disk space at an alarming rate.  Here is the simplest way to  expand the drive capacity , Including C (System) drive.

Applies to:
VMware ESXi , 5.0 , 5.1
Windows Server 2008 , 2008 R2

Steps:
1. Shut down the Guest operating system.
2. In vSphere client , go to virtual machine properties and increase the size of the disks. Provide new values in the Provisioned Size: field. (Image 1)
3. Save changes and power on the Guest virtual machine.
4. Go to disk management in the host machine. You will see newly added space as "Unallocated"
5. Right-click on the partition and select "Expand Volume" (Image 2)

Image 1 - Virtual Machine Disk Properties

Image 2 -Disk Management , Expand Volume