Operating System Error 999

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Operating System Error 999

JohnnyDBA

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Points: 6355
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June 27, 2009 at 8:31 am

#135752

We have a customer that uses a snap server as storage for their SQL Server 2000 databases. Lately we've been getting issues creating the backups, especially on two of the very large databases (450 GB and 500 GB).
The error that I see (among others) is the following:
Operating system error 999(Error performing inpage operation.)
I haven't been able to find much explanation online regarding this error. The only two possibilities I've found are
1) Not enough disk space - I don't think this is the issue, it looks like there is plenty of space
2) Bad blocks on the drive - I don't know how to verify this.
Please advise.
John

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734449 More actions · Answer 1

I don't know what a snap server does, but I can think of two things. The bad block you've mentioned, and you'd need vendor tools to check this at a low level on the disk.

The second is possibly the snap server is locking or moving a page as SQL Server is trying to read or write it and it's causing an error. The backup process isn't very tolerant of any interruptions.

skersey3 SSC Journeyman Points: 78 More actions · Answer 2

I have had issues with older snap server models doing the same thing. And I am going to assume that these are not Windows Based models. I ended up sending them emails and they gave me the codes and instructions on how to check and fix bad sectors. Make sure that you have good backups bc if it does not work or if it does your data my end up corrupted. Also these models tend to go out after about 4 years in my experience so check the age and maybe look for something new.

Nice Marmot SSCrazy Points: 2278 More actions · Answer 3

Hi,

A SNAP Server is a NAS device http://www.snapappliance.com/[/url]. We store backups on ours.

Is SQL Server happy to have databases on mapped drives? I had always assumed that database files had to be on a local drive, but a quick scan through BOL doesn't turn up any mention of local versus mapped drives.

The NAS will have a management page at http://_hostname_/ - the 'admin' user should have a password on it. :w00t:

HTH.

Edit: fixed link formatting.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734449 More actions · Answer 4

By default SQL Server does not allow databases on mapped drives. You can get around this, but it is not recommended. The reason is that network IO can have latencies and cause issues.

JohnnyDBA SSCertifiable Points: 6355 More actions · Answer 5

It's not housing the data files, just the backups. All of the errors are related to creation of backup files and restores (for log shipping).

Nice Marmot SSCrazy Points: 2278 More actions · Answer 6

Sorry for picking you up wrongly about the type of files you are storing on the NAS. All I can suggest is using the device's home page: Administration -> Monoitoring -> Event Log. (The site layout may differ depending on your model.) As 'skersey3' said, these do seem to have a finite life - we have 2, and our older one seems to be on its way out. Good NASes, though. 🙂

HTH.

Edit: Thanks for the info, Steve.

JohnnyDBA SSCertifiable Points: 6355 More actions · Answer 7

Thanks for all the input guys, I'll work with the customer and see what we can figure out.

- John

aditib SSC Enthusiast Points: 197 More actions · Answer 8

Hi,

Even we ahve same issues on taking backups on DataDomain from EMC (Similar to SanpServer from Netapp). Did you find any solution to this?