Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3

Introduction

This article describes the issues that are fixed in Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3. This article also contains the installation instructions for this update.

Note:

 Existing Azure Backup Server customers should upgrade to the latest Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent (version 2.0.9216 or a later version). If the latest agent is not installed, online backups may fail, and no Microsoft Azure Backup Server to Microsoft Azure operation will work.

Issues that are fixed

This update fixes the following issues:

• A stale file entry in the ActiveOwner folder breaks VMware protection.

• Bare metal backups running longer than 24 hours will time out.

  • Registry key added to the protected server to extend the timeout.  See Issue 1 in More information section for additional details.

• Disk Utilization report was not reflecting Modern Backup Storage usage.

• In some scenarios, re-protecting an inactive workload re-calculates the required disk space to be excessively large.

• In SQL Always On configuration with a Failover cluster backup, sometimes the backups might fail because the backup preferences are not honored.

• Hyper-V backups fail intermittently due to issues with agent communication on MABS. 

• MABS crashes when attempting OLR, if the protected server does not have DPMRA (DPM agent) installed.

• SharePoint backup fails when SQL server is in a  different domain than the front-end SharePoint server. See Issue 2 in More information section for additional details.

• Express full backup schedule in the UI getting changed to default value, if retention range in Modify Protection group changes.

• Hyper-V VM protection fails when the total size of the VM file name and MABS mount path is more than 256 characters.

• Restore of Windows Server 2016 NTFS deduped volumes with MABS v3 running on Windows Server 2019 results in corrupted files.

• Modify Protection Group operation might take longer, while protecting large number of client machines in a single protection group.

• Consistency check for deduped enabled NTFS volumes fails with error: ID 30134 and a message Cannot create a file when that file already exists (0x800700B7).

• MABS Management console might crash when navigating to alerts in Monitoring tab or when the job information is getting updated on Recovery wizard.

• MABS console crashes when attempting restore with throttling on clustered VMs.

• Backup fails due to the error: replica couldn’t be mounted or unmounted due to open handle on the replica.

• Create online replica now option doesn't work in offline seeding process.

• MABS UI crashes when datasources  is selected  in case of external MABS.

• Management console might crash when recovering VMware VMs using an External MABS. 

• If the remote MABS UI version is lower than the MABS version, the remote UI might crash.

• MABS console crashes when VhdMountManagerStatePersisted.xml file is being used by any non-MABS process.

• Unable to re-protect the inactive BMR or system protection server workloads because the size calculation in the wizard never completes.

• Backup fails because the protection agent was temporarily unable to respond as it was in an unexpected state.

• MABS Recovery wizard displays that  restored files will be copied to a folder with name VM hostname_Date_Time, but copies to a folder MABS_Date_Time.

• Unable to delete online datasources from MABS Remote UI.

• Consistency check might fail with Access denied error, if there is another open handle by a different process, on the volume to be mounted by MABS.

• Recovery Point schedule is not displayed in the Protection group summary for  file\folder\Volume backup.

• MABS service crash due to DPMRA not connected for node of SharePoint farm.

• If a vCenter server is protected with a Windows agent, and if the same server is added as a VMware server, the console crashes.

Other Improvements and Features

• MABSv3 UR2 also has additional new features introduced. For details on the new features refer to the documentation What's new in Microsoft Azure Backup Server.

Note: A fresh installation of the Update Rollup agent may require a restart of the protected server.

How to obtain Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3

Update packages for Microsoft Azure Backup Server are available from Microsoft Update or by manual download.

Microsoft Update

To obtain and install an update package from Microsoft Update, follow these steps on a computer that has a Microsoft Azure Backup Server component installed:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. In Control Panel, double-click Windows Update.

3. In the Windows Update window, click Check Online for updates from Microsoft Update.

4. Click Important updates are available.

5. Select the Update Rollup package, and then click OK.

6. Click Install updates to install the update package.

Manual download

Go to the following website to manually download the update package from the Microsoft Update Catalog:

 Download the Microsoft Azure Backup Server update package now

For information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services

Virus-scan claim

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses, using the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to it.

Installation instructions for Microsoft Azure Backup Server

To install this update for Microsoft Azure Backup Server, follow these steps:

1. Before you install this update, make a backup of the Microsoft Azure Backup Server database.

2. Install this rollup package on the server that's running Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3. To do this, run Microsoft Update on the server.

3. In the Microsoft Azure Backup Server Administrator Console, update the protection agents. To do this, use one of the following methods.

Note: This update rollup agent update may require you to restart protected servers in order to create or change protection groups.

Method 1: Update the protection agents from the Microsoft Azure Backup Server Administrator Console

1. Open the Microsoft Azure Backup Server Administrator Console.

2. Click the Management tab, and then click the Agents tab.

3. In the Protected Computer list, select a computer, and then click Update on the Action pane.

4. Click Yes, and then click Update Agents.

Method 2: Update the protection agents on the protected servers

1. Obtain the update protection agent package from the following directory on the Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3 server:

      amd64\1033\MABSProtectionAgent_KB5004579_AMD64.msp

2.   Run the appropriate MABSProtectionAgent.msp package on each protected server, depending on the architecture of the agent.

3.  Open the Microsoft Azure Backup Server Administrator Console on the Microsoft Azure Backup Server v3.

4. Click the Management tab, and then click the Agents tab. Select the protected server, update the information, and then verify that the agent version number is 13.0.657.0.

More information

Issue 1

Bare metal backups running longer than 24 hours will time out. To resolve this issue, make sure you install this UR, and then add the  following registry key on the protected server to increase the timeout value.

The default value is 24 hours. You can increase up to 72 hours.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Workloads\System State Writer

Name: PreSnapShotScriptTimeout

Type: REG_DWORD

Value: 48

Issue 2

If the SQL Database server for SharePoint farm is in a different domain than SharePoint farm, the protection of SharePoint farm might  fail. This occurs when the NetBIOS name of SQL server was used during SharePoint installation instead of FQDN.

To resolve this issue,  either you can reinstall SharePoint farm by specifying FQDN of the SQL server or can use the following registry key. 

Ensure you install this Update Rollup package on the MABS Server and then add the following registry key on all the SharePoint Web Front End servers:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent\Sharepoint

Name: AlternateDomainForDatabaseServer

Type: String

Value: <Domain name of the SQL Server>