Hi all,

 We are having a weird issue with our backups. We are currently using StorageCraft ShadowProtect Server v3 for imaging and BackupExec 9.1 for tapes. Most of the time (although not all of the time) whenever we run a shadowprotect backup, it causes the server to pretty much block ALL network traffic coming in and out of the server. I get a call early in the morning that 'the server is down' so when I come in early, I go over to the server and everything seems to be running normal (I have not yet checked which services are running - i am planning on doing that tonight). A restart of the server brings everything back to normal again. Investigation of the event logs shows only two messages that look like they could be related to the problem we are having:

1)
Due to an unexpected error, the service fwsrv stopped responding to all
requests. Stop the service or the corresponding process if it does not
respond, and then start it again. Check the Windows event Viewer for related
error messages.

2)
Due to an unexpected error, the service isasched stopped responding to all
requests. Stop the service or the corresponding process if it does not
respond, and then start it again. Check the Windows event Viewer for related
error messages.

The backup still completes successfully.

Anyone encountered this problem before, or have any suggestions on how to fix it?

Looks like you got ISA 2004 on there... this is a piece of junk that is known to behave erratic when put under load. ShadowProtect is optimized for high throughput and will expose such flaws. Try to uninstall/deactivate the ISA services if possible.

Hmm interesting... we actually use ISA server for reporting etc so I dont think it is something I'd be able to uninstall... is there some way that I can deactivate ISA 2004 when the ShadowProtect backup starts, and then reactivate it when the backup finishes?

Dylan. 

See http://dnn.mssbsfaq.de/SBS2003/ISA2004/ISA2004blockiertServerzugriff/tabid/681/Default.aspx

for some batch file lines (haven't tried them myself). You can run pre and post backup scripts. Look for a button "Advanced" in the "Options" screen when defining a new job. You probably want the "pre-snapshot" and "post-backup" fields. Don't use "post-snapshot" because that will start ISA again already a couple of seconds into the backup run when the snapshot was established and saving of data commenced.
 

Thanks bsdice i set up the workaround with the pre-snapshot and post-backup batch files and that seems to have solved the issue. The problem now is that when the ISA services are shut down, all the network traffic is blocked until the backup completes. As were running the backup at like 2am its no big deal to have the server down for 30 mins-1 hour, but it would be good if the network traffic wouldnt be blocked during this period, as were running exchange on the server and may receive emails around this time (which will probably float around in the internet until the server comes back online, but we can't guarantee that).

Is there some setting in ISA server 04 or Windows Server 2003 which says "block all network traffic if ISA services are stopped"?
 

Gentlemen

I have only ever seen this issue on any ISA 2004 server when the backup jobs (Continous Increments) are not using VSS to back up the partition where ISA is installed. But if you are using VSS and you are using MSDE (for the ISA DB) it is not an issue as long as the snapshots dont take to long, however if you are using SQL 2000 then that could be an issue if the SQL instance is not SP 3 or 4 as SP 2 had memory leaks. Therfore check the ShadowProtect logs to see what your server is up to, and in particular if the snapshot takes to long then the Firewall Service will shut down due to the sector locks in place where the MSDE database resides.  

Final word, if you keep the ISA servers C: drive lean, clean and defraged then it is not an issue due to the shorter (small) time it takes to do a snapshot.

Dylan,

 When you stop any of the ISA2004 services, all internet and INTERNAL network traffic is blocked.  This is by design.

David Benet
Melbourne, Australia