Synchronization failures

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

This alert is generated in Data Protection Manager (DPM) when synchronization jobs have been failing on protected computers since the specified time. To help you determine whether the issue is critical, the alert specifies the number of synchronization jobs that have failed. DPM automatically reports this alert as inactive after the next successful synchronization job.

Note

For application servers, every synchronization is a recovery point creation. If an application server synchronization fails, the “Recovery point creation failed” alert appears.

Causes

DPM displays this alert only for synchronization failures of protected file servers and workstations.

There are multiple causes for synchronization failures. The alert details in DPM list the error conditions and recommended action associated with the most recent synchronization failure. For more information, see How to Display Alert Details.

Some possible causes include:

  • The DPM server cannot communicate with a protected file server or workstation.

  • The replica has run out of disk space in the DPM storage pool.

  • A recovery job was started while a synchronization job was running. Recovery jobs take priority over other DPM jobs, so the synchronization job was canceled.

  • The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer did not work correctly.

  • When creation of a recovery point volume for the protected computer fails.

Resolutions

The error conditions and recommended actions associated with each “Synchronization failures” alert are provided in the alert details.

If the cause of the synchronization failure was a network issue, do the following:

  1. Resolve the “Agent not reachable alert.”

  2. Rerun the synchronization job.

For information about possible causes of communication issues between the DPM server and the protected computer, see Agent not reachable.

To resolve failures related to update sequence number (USN) change journal errors, do the following:

  • Use the Modify disk allocation command in the Protection task area to increase the change journal to more than 300 MB, which is the default. For more information, see How to Modify Disk Allocation.

  • To resolve failures related to inadequate disk space for the replica, do the following:

  1. Compare the disk space used to the disk space allocated for the associated replica. You can use the data in the Disk Utilization Report to help you with the comparison. For more information, see Disk Utilization Report.

  2. If the “Disk Used” size is nearly as large as the “Disk Allocated” size, you should increase the disk space allocated for the replica. For more information, see How to Modify Disk Allocation.

To resolve failures related to a canceled synchronization job, do the following:

  • You can manually synchronize the replica, or you can wait for the next scheduled synchronization to occur. For more information, see How to Synchronize a Replica.

    DPM automatically reports the “Synchronization failures” alert as inactive after the next successful synchronization job is completed.

To resolve failures when the VSS writer is in a bad state or when a recovery point on a protected computer fails, do one of the following:

  • Restart the network.

  • Check the event logs for any VSS writer errors.

  • Run a consistency check on the replica.

Resolved when: A synchronization task succeeds.

For an overview of how data protection works in DPM, see How Does Data Protection Work?.

For additional information about monitoring and managing replicas, synchronization jobs, and managing disks in the storage pool, see the DPM 2007 Operations Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=66738).

See Also

Tasks

How to Display Alert Details
How to Modify Disk Allocation
How to Schedule Consistency Checks

Concepts

Agent not reachable
Disk Utilization Report
Monitoring Alerts
Resolving Alerts
How Does Data Protection Work?