Has wbadmin changed since 2011 Essentials?
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012 4:21 PM
Ok, I'll explain what I'm trying to do first. Previously we have used Server Backup to backup to multiple disks (not all at one time). We would have Monday1, Monday2, Tuesday1, Tuesday2 etc. I used to use wbadmin to add drives to the backup after I created the backup initially. I would do wbadmin get disks and find the ID of the drive that was currently plugged in. Then I would use the command: wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:{diskID} and the drive would be added to my scheduled backup.
When I try to do this in Server 2012 Essentials I get the error: ERROR - The specified backup location could not be found or is not a supported backup storage location. I cannot add the drives in the GUI because it requires all previously added drives to be plugged into the system. Sorry but I don't have 12 SATA ports. : /
I was running the wbadmin commands from an elevated Powershell prompt. That is another thing, even though I've disabled UAC why do I have to run everything as administrator? It is kind of concerning, as I'm afraid a lot of 3rd party software packages aren't going to work. I'm logged in as the administrative account I set up during the install.
All Replies
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012 4:55 PMI tried using an elevated cmd prompt just now and it gives different results. It appears as though it is going through until I get the error: The system cannot find the path specified
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012 7:22 PM
wbadmin command line (note that Applies to includes Windows Server 2012, thus it includes Essentials)
I'd link the powershell equivalent as well but Technet is having, umm, "issues" and the page won't load.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012 7:57 PM
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the link. I've already been through most of that. Here is a page more specific to what I'm trying to do: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742130.aspx
They have syntax for Server 2008 and 2008 R2 but nothing new for Server 2012. Problem is that I follow those exact steps and I get those errors.
I've got an update on the issue though. It appears as though the device identifiers are changing on my hard drives. I'll run wbadmin get disks and get an ID. I'll run wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:{"the ID that I got*}. It will throw me my error. If I then run wbadmin get disks again, it shows my hard drive with a different ID! Our company is working with two Server 2012 servers at this moment and both of them are having the same issue.
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 1:47 AM
Did you find an answer to this? Getting the same error trying to add multiple USB drives to a backup schedule. Both on 2012 Essentials and on 2012 Standard.
Thanks.
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 11:39 AMModeratorJust to confirm i see the same behaviour. Looking into it now.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:20 PMModerator
right, not straight forward...
PowerShell appears to be the way forward.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee706683.aspx
You need to do it in one go as well it seems, or it is a PITA.
First, Identify your disks.
Get-WBDisk
Work out the disk number you want to work with - in my case it was Disk Number 3
I then create a variable..
$disks = Get-WBDisk
Then a target
$target = New-WBBackupTarget -disk $disks[3] -Label BackupDisk3
(there may be better ways to attach the disk, but this method did work for me so far)
next, we get the Backup Policy, in editable mode.
$policy = Get-WBPolicy -Editable
Now we can add our target.
Add-WBBackupTarget -Policy $Policy -Target $target
Then we commit those changes to the policy.
Set-WBpolicy -Policy $policy
Then if you run a..
Get-WBPolicy
You should see your second disk added.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
- Edited by RobertPearmanMVP, Moderator Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:57 PM
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:48 PM
thanks Robert, I've put your code into a function:
function Add-WBDisk ($DiskName, $DiskLabel) { Get-WBDisk $disk = Get-WBDisk | Where-Object {$_.DiskName -eq $diskname} $target = New-WBBackupTarget -disk $disk -Label $disklabel $policy = Get-WBPolicy -Editable Add-WBBackupTarget -Policy $policy -Target $target Set-WBpolicy -Policy $policy Get-WBPolicy } Add-WBDisk -diskname 'WD Elements 1042 USB Device' -DiskLabel 'Thursday'I'm getting:
Set-WBpolicy : The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-WBpolicy -Policy $policy
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-WBPolicy], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Exception,Microsoft.Windows.ServerBackup.Commands.SetWBPolicy
Which is the same as have been getting and referred to in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2009365- Edited by Marcus Robinson Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:50 PM Missed a bit!
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:56 PM
Looking at the two disks in the policy:
Label : SPHOST 2012_12_20 02:16 DISK_01
WBDisk :
WBVolume :
Path : \\?\Volume{410ef196-394a-4024-8990-8fdeb56a4bb7}
TargetType : Disk
InheritAcl : True
PreserveExistingBackup : FalseLabel : Thursday
WBDisk : WD Elements 1042 USB Device
WBVolume :
Path :
TargetType : Disk
InheritAcl : False
PreserveExistingBackup : FalseI notice the new "Thursday" disk is missing a "Path", could this be the issue?
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 1:31 PMModerator
I hit an issue like that but id been messing with the volumes etc on the disk.
use the Gui Disk manager, and delete any partitions etc from the disk.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 2:59 PMModeratorAlthough i am seeing the same thing when i try to script it - seems to work manually - can you confirm that?
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 3:52 PMModerator
This is _so_ weird,
the instructions i wrote up before worked 100% for me (as i was doing it at the time)
Now, i cant do it, hitting the same error you are.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:36 PMI've opened a support case with Microsoft. Will let you know what they say.
I've given them procmon traces too which shows "NAME NOT FOUND" when vds.exe tries to access the drive. I think the issue is the disk ID changes once formatted... -
Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:46 PMModerator
The weirdness continues, as it seems to be working for me again.. i really wish i could find my glasses.
I wrote a script to do it, which i am getting someone neutral to test and then ill post a link.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Friday, December 21, 2012 10:31 AMModerator
A little more info - i think this is due to the Disk Numbering - as if i keep _all_ disks attached, it works fine assuming the new disk to add is on a unique number - ie if you already have 3 disks, you are adding a fourth and it is disknumber 4.
Just looking into ways around that.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Friday, December 21, 2012 4:03 PM
Latest from MS is that its a "design limitation". They can reproduce the issue.
A code change had already been requested, and has been rejected.
I am awaiting a further update.
I can't believe that if you need to add a new drive into a backup schedule you it is expected that you will bring ALL the other drives back in and plug them all in to reconfigure!
Must be a workaround...
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Friday, December 21, 2012 4:07 PMYes. The bigger problem is when we want to add 12 drives to a backup schedule. How exactly am I supposed to do this? Why is it a 'design limitation' when it worked perfectly in previous versions of Windows Server?
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Saturday, December 22, 2012 8:34 AMModerator
I think a workaround would be to create and attach as many VHDs as you need to move the Disk Number, so if you have 1 USB attached, but you need to simulate having 11 other drives attached.. you could add 11 VHDs - then add the USB as the 12th. Pretty crude but might work for the time being.
It's sadly the time of year when Redmond is shut down, but when the new year hits, ill raise this up with as many people as i can.
Can you guys get onto the Microsoft Connect site? It would be good to open a bug- and if you can link in your support case ID even better.
(actually if you can share your case ID that would help)
Thanks.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP | www.titlerequired.com | www.itauthority.co.uk
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Saturday, December 22, 2012 12:20 PM
Latest is MS support need me to put together a business case to put in a code change request. They want me to describe what "loss" this will cause our business. Although they said a change is unlikely to happen. Apparently this was flagged during TAP (and pothersupport cases), and it was decided not to change the functionality! They did describe that you can create multiple schedules, so one for a different drive each day. But if the wrong drive is in then the backup will fail...
Think we all need to shout to whatever MS contacts we have about this and get as many other people to shout too. It is a major shortcoming in Server 2012 backup, and more of an issues for Server Essentials 2012 who are more likely to rely on the built in backup functionality through the dashboard.
I have created an issue on connect https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/feedback/details/775013/cannot-add-additional-backup-drives-to-existing-schedule .
Hmmph...
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Sunday, December 23, 2012 8:19 AMMarcus? Who are you working with with MS support? Can you email me at susan_at_msmvps.com with that info?
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Monday, December 24, 2012 10:12 AMHi Susan. Replied by email. Marcus
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Tuesday, January 15, 2013 7:51 PM
I'm also stuck with the same problem after upgrading to 2012 from 2KR2 a week ago. We've been quite happily swapping out daily offsite HDD's into the one available SATA port in our small business server. Using USB disks isn't an option - as it is the 2TB backups finish just in time outside business hours.
Tried the command line and Powershell methods of addings disks as described in these posts - but still get the same errors - Path not found.
Been looking at 3rd Party Solutions, and they are slow and expensive compared to the Windows Backup I've relied on for the past 3 years. I'm currently trying to see if I can get the Hyper-V replication working (which is also a mission, as the host can't be the domain - DC is a virtual).
At some stage I'm going to get tired of messing around with this and just go back to good old 2KR2 - the folly of being an early adopter....
Getting there
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Tuesday, January 22, 2013 5:57 PM
Marcus,
Allow me to describe the "loss" that presents the business-case for fixing this broken code:
Our data protection policy (and common sense) dictates that all copies of our data (data on the servers plus any backups) NEVER be in the same physical location at any one time. The reason why is pretty obvious: If the place burns down while all backups are present along with the original server, the data will be totally lost.
Requiring ALL existing backups be brought on-site puts the business' data at risk and in my opinion is something done only by the unprofessional and foolish network administrator. Arbitrarily requiring all of them to be present is evidence of either broken code or a broken understanding of the purpose of backups (we know this is an arbitrary requirement because the wbadmin enable backup -AddTarget:{DiskID} command worked fine in Server 2008 R2, albeit even that was a workaround).
Compounding the inability to add disks are two other situations I've encountered:
- Clients of mine that use SATA disks for backup targets are only able to add to their backup schedule the number of backup disks for which they have available hot-swap SATA ports. Unlike USB, it's not often possible to expand the number of available ports. On a perfectly typical small business server with 6 SATA ports, there may be only one available port after a RAID 10 HDD array and DVD-ROM drive.
- The requirement that all backup targets be present cripples one's ability to modify the backup schedule. Again, given the purpose of backup to protect business-critical data from loss, it's unthinkable to justify a "feature" that requires all backups to be on-site in order to add a folder to the server's backup selections.
I hope someone at Microsoft who truly understands data protection is able to work some sense into this process of correcting this broken code.
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Monday, February 11, 2013 10:46 PM
Of course, this is double-impossible when you hardware-encrypt your SATA backup drives. To attach all encrypted drives at once would mean a copy of the key and a frame capable of decrypting for each drive!
I'm absolutely amazed MS didn't test this, when nearly half of the WBAdmin questions/problems since Win2008 (including R2) have been about the struggle of adding multiple disks.
The above powershell example yields the same result as doing the old-fashioned wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:{} for me.
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Thursday, March 14, 2013 10:06 PM
Hallo!
Does anyone have any news about this. This is a serious issue that has to be resolved by Microsoft! The really bad thing about this is that it is very porly documented limitation and the error produced is very easy to miss and is unclear. We have therefore missed the error and assumed that everything has been working fine (as it did in Windows Server 2008 R2), i.e. that backups were made to the second disk as well as the first. In our case we change disks every week and therefore we missed that a backup was not made to the second disk for a week!
I have now tried the "workarounds" and none of them work:
- Adding a VHD to increase the disknumber (USB drive number did indeed increase from 1 to 2) results in no change at all (i.e. same error as before "The system cannot find the path specified.").
- Using powershell as described above produce the error "Set-WBpolicy : Object reference not set to an instance of an object." in the step "Set-WBpolicy -Policy $policy". This seems strange since we can see that the policy exists and contains the correct information when we type "$policy" and press return. We get the same result evan if the disknumber is increased.
I would also want to provide an obvious"business example":
- Replaceing a disk that is damaged or lost and therefore cannot be used when you for security reasons do not have access to the other drives (for example: because they are stored on a remote secure location).
Microsoft; PLEASE FIX THIS AT ONCE! A NEW VERSION OF WINDOWS SERVER SHOULD ADD FUNCTIONALLITY, NOT REMOVE OBVIOUSLY NEEDED FUNCTIONALLITY!
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Thursday, March 14, 2013 10:16 PM
I haven't found a solution for this, other than changing the situation. For all our servers not using DPM and such, we've gone to a scheduled tasks with wbadmin start backup commands. To 'prep' the drive, we just set it to a pre-defined drive letter in our batch file like Z:.
It's far from ideal, but it isn't the end of the world.
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Thursday, March 14, 2013 10:25 PM
Hallo Rock!
This looks promesing, but I have some questions:
- Can you provide an example of how you do this (i.e. what script you run in the schedule)?
- Will this give create a "delta copy" (only changes are stored, but you can do a full restore for any version on the disk that is currently attached)?
- How do you know what disk to use for restore if all files are backed up to "z:", for example, is there any way to retreive the label of the disk from the backup history?
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Friday, March 15, 2013 4:23 PM
Sure.
1.) wbadmin start backup -allcritical -include:"c:,e:" -backuptarget:z: -vssfull -quiet
This will create a backup of those drive letters to my Z:, including bare-metal restore requirements. (It will auto-create a folder called WindowsServerBackup on that drive.) -quiet removes the prompt, which is necessary for unattended scripting.
2.) Yes, Windows Server Backup / WBAdmin is supposed to always do incremental backups when the disk is local to the OS (not a network share). The incrementals are unique to the disk, so it doesn't require previous disks for a restore.
3.) The disk label is shown in the restore GUI, and I just call them 'Backup-1' and 'Backup-2' and such. When I go to restore and pick it time, it shows 'location' as Backup-1 or whatever my disk label is.
I actually use this method for Win2008 and R2 as well, since adding or removing backup source letters or keeping labels consistent (after Backup-2 fails, I want to make a new Backup-2, not a SERVER-TODAYSDATE-TODAYSTIME-DISK7) are both problems using the GUI scheduling method.
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Thursday, May 09, 2013 11:46 AM
I have also just discovered this "enhancement". The connect link does not work for me.
Nightmare situation. I use wbadmin all the time for small sites with Exchange - buy a host with lots of disk, copy everything to the exchange server and backup from there - y nice single incremental back and exchange logs are cleared. If the users forget to change the disk (small sites, no IT, no robots) then the backup continues on the same disk. Wonderful.
Since 2012 really hard to implement and maintain, especially with encrypted media.
CarolChi
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