IBM Support

Backup-Archive client backs up VM drives using numbers instead of letters

Troubleshooting


Problem

A Tivoli Storage Manager client running on a proxy machine, mounts VM drives using numbers instead of the drive letters.

Symptom

A Tivoli Storage Manager client on a Proxy machine, used to backup VM machines, does not backup the VM machine drives using their drive letters, but it instead uses numbers, like 3$ instead of Z$. The following output is an example of this :

Searching for VM 'VMGUEST' volumes for backup at location:
\\vmguestvcb\2$
\\?\vstor2-mntapi10-shared-16186738000010000000000003000000
Searching for VM 'VMGUEST' volumes for backup at location:
\\vmguestvcb\g$
\\?\vstor2-mntapi10-shared-17186738000010000000000004000000

Cause

In this case, the system ran out of drive letters, so that the Tivoli Storage Manager client can no longer uses drive letters to identify drives.

Resolving The Problem

The problem can be resolved by reducing the number of concurrent backups of VM machines. The problem occurs because of a Windows limit on the number of drives that a VM could concurrently have mounted.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSSQWC","label":"Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Component":"Client","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"Version Independent","Edition":"Standard","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
17 June 2018

UID

swg21615866

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