MSDN article KB955078 - System state backups failing in MSCS environment

[Former Member]

Hello,

We have a an MSCS cluster running on Windows 2008 with SQL server 2008.

When we run a system state backup on the Passive node we get the error mentioned in Microsoft article KB955078 because of the SAP executables installed onto one of the shared disks.

Has anyone else encountered this and if so what did you do to resolve it?

Symantec have suggested we install the SAP executables on a local disk but if we do that then the cluster won't really work smoothly because the ASCS instance willl have to shut down. I'm not even convinced SAP would support this kind of install.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Regards

Garry Bayford

[Former Member]

Hi Garry!

Possibly, as SAPinst installs the binaries on the shared drive in the cluster, those binaries will be listed as protected binaries.

The fact is that, neither in Windows Server 2003 nor in 2008 you can access a shared drive that is attached in one node from any other node in the same cluster, in a similar way that you cannot access a local drive of a computer from another computer. So the message is obvious: "the files (and the path) do not exist", as the drive indicated "do not exist" in the passive node.

In any case, if you want to access the SAP folders from the passive node you can do it without any troubles through the virtual network address associated to the SAP cluster group by means of the SAPMNT resource, i.e.

sapmnt.

This is what you should do if you want to backup any files. However I do not think that it is necessary to constantly back up the SAP binaries, as these do not change at all, until the moment that you update the kernel (and so, you can take a backup of the binaries just at that moment).

I hope that this sheds some light into your concern. Cheers!

-Jesú