Unable to run a consistency checkand inconsistent replica

Diana Piloya 205 Reputation points

I am trying to run a consistency check and create online recovery point for a server though it is failing with the errors below; This is an image from the azure MABS server. I am backing up vmware virtual machines, how can i navigate past this process?

How do i backup a physical server on a MABS server?

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Answer accepted by question author

Sina Salam 30,166 Reputation points • Volunteer Moderator

Hello Diana Piloya,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

I understand that you are unable to run a consistency check and inconsistent replica.

I discovered that the protected VMware VM replica being in an inconsistent state. In MABS/DPM, new recovery points, including online recovery points, cannot be reliably created until the replica is synchronized successfully through a consistency check. Microsoft guidance confirms that replica inconsistency can be caused by failed replica creation, change journal issues, unexpected shutdowns, synchronization log overflow, disk/space problems, or network/connectivity issues. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-mabs-troubleshoot, https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/backup/backup-azure-scdpm-troubleshooting

What you should do is to:

  • Validate MABS, MARS agent, SQL Agent, services, storage space, and antivirus exclusions.
  • Validate VMware connectivity, supported vSphere version, certificate trust, and VMware credentials.
  • Run a successful Consistency Check on the affected VMware VM.
  • Create a local/disk recovery point first, then create the online recovery point.
  • If consistency check continues to fail after prerequisites are fixed, remove and re-add the affected VM to the protection group to rebuild the replica.
  • For a physical server, use the MABS protection agent and create a Servers protection group, not VMware agentless protection. VMware VM backup is agentless through vCenter/ESXi, while physical Windows Server backup requires the MABS protection agent. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-backup-server-vmware, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/back-up-file-data

After the VMware connectivity, MABS health, storage space, and replica state are corrected, the consistency check should complete successfully. Once the replica becomes consistent, the disk recovery point and online recovery point can be created normally.

Use the below official Microsoft resources for more reading and step-by-step guideline:

I hope this is helpful! Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions, steps or clarifications.

Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful.

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1 additional answer

  1. Lakshma Reddy Vattijonnala 830 Reputation points • Microsoft External Staff • Moderator

    Hi @Diana Piloya

    Thank you for sharing the screenshots and error details. Based on the information provided, the issue appears to involve two related conditions in Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS):

    • Replica is inconsistent
    • Online recovery point creation failed for the protected VMware VM

    According to the documentation, when online recovery point creation jobs fail because MABS encounters an issue retrieving VMware Change Tracking information, the recommended actions include:

    1. Reset the CTK (Changed Tracking) information on the affected VMware VM.
    2. Run a Consistency Check (CC) on the affected VM.
    3. Verify that no independent disks are configured on the VM.
    4. If the issue persists, consider stopping protection and reprotecting the VM after refreshing protected objects.

    In addition, Microsoft recommends running a Consistency Check whenever a replica becomes inconsistent. This can be performed from the MABS console by selecting the protected workload and running a consistency check operation.

    I would also recommend verifying the following:

    • Sufficient space is available in the MABS storage pool and recovery point volumes.
    • The replica volume is healthy and not experiencing space-related issues.
    • The VMware VM does not contain unsupported or independent disk configurations.

    Once the Consistency Check completes successfully, please retry the Online Recovery Point creation job and monitor whether it completes successfully. The issue can only be considered resolved after a successful consistency check and successful creation of a new online recovery point.

    Regarding your additional question about protecting a physical server with MABS, Microsoft provides guidance for protecting physical Windows servers by installing the MABS Protection Agent, creating a protection group, and selecting the workloads to protect.

    Please refer relevant microsoft documentation for more details:

    If you find the answer helpful, please click "upvote" and accept it. This will help others in the community with similar questions easily find the solution.

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