On Windows 2012 Server Host Machine:
I had occasion to restore a 118 GB VHDX from backup. However, although it shows in the WSB Recovery Wizard, and neither the Event Logs or the Windows Backup Log Files show any errors, the file restores as zero size. I tried from several previous days' WSB backups as well.
The file is a *.VHDX that is mounted and shared for all machines on my network. It is not attached to a virtual machine.
WSB is set up to backup the Hard Drive letter of the partition the VHDX is stored in (along with a few other files).
When I recover that partition from WSB, the other files restore fine, but the VHDX is restored as size=0. All the VMs (on other partitions) seem to restore OK.
I also had an external Wbadmin backup where I backed up that VHDX file explicitly instead of using the drive letter, and it restored fine.
If I have to backup VHDX files explicitly, then fine. But WSB should not list a file as backed up successfully and available for restore if it cannot, in fact, be restored. I have to wonder if there are any other files that will not restore either. Also, the log files (C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsServerBackup\Backup-dd-mm-yyyy_hh-hh-ss.log) should have reported this problem, rather than record success as "Backup of volume T: succeeded."
The only thing I can think of at this point, is that perhaps it remained locked by a network machine somehow. Even still, WSB should have backed it up in a crash consistent state, or at least give a warning or error.
I review my backup logs and events regularly and there was nothing to indicate any issue at the time of backup. Obviously, WSB is not capable of reliably reporting success and failure, and cannot be trusted.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks,
Bob.