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Unable to allocate processing resources

KB ID: 1857
Product: Veeam Backup & Replication | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12.1
Published: 2014-02-13
Last Modified: 2024-01-30
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Challenge

A job within Veeam Backup & Replication fails with an error that starts with:

Unable to allocate processing resources.

In the section below is a list of the most common permutations of this error.

Troubleshooting

Below are different endings to the error "Unable to allocate processing resources." They have been grouped by relative topic and are ordered in no specific way. Click on the error to view the error-specific information.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. If the error you have observed does not appear below, please collect logs and create a support case.

 

Some variations of the "Unable to allocate processing resources" error do not have a simple, straightforward solution. Instead, many factors of the environment may need to be considered. In the sections below, Veeam Support has compiled advice based on past cases.

If you would like assistance investigating the error you are facing, please do not hesitate to contact Veeam Support. Our Technical Support Engineers are well-versed in investigating this issue.

VMware Backup Proxy Related

No backup proxy is able to process this VM due to proxy processing mode restrictions.

An expanded definition of this error would be:

Of the proxies available for the job to use, none were able to be used because they were configured to use a transport mode that was incompatible with the VM that was being backed up.

This error nearly always occurs when proxies have been manually configured to use a specific Transport Mode. The proxies will handle any situation when they are set to their default of Automatic Transport Mode selection w/ failover to network mode.
Transport Mode Compatibility

This error occurs when the proxy that the job is attempting to use is configured to use a specific Transport Mode that is incompatible with the VM that is being backed up.

Resolution

Identify which proxies the Job was allowed to use, then review each of those proxies to identify which transport mode they were configured to use. Then, review that transport mode's requirements and ensure they are met for the VM that failed to be backed up.

Step 1: Determine which Proxies the Job was permitted to use.

Step 2: Check for Proxies that are Unavailable or Disabled

Having identified which proxies could have been used by the Job, review each proxy and ensure that they are not listed as Unavailable or Disabled.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as Unavailable, identify its related entry under Managed Servers and rescan it. If the entry under Managed Servers fails to rescan, edit it instead and "Next, Next, Finish" through each of the pages of the wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to check if services on that remote machine need to be redeployed.
 

Step 3: Check if Transport Mode restrictions are in place

Review the Transport Mode selection to identify if any of those proxies have been configured to only use a specific Transport Mode.

Note: The Transport Mode selector is set to Automatic in most environments to allow the Veeam Backup & Replication software to detect the most appropriate Transport Mode to be used for each VM. The option for "Failover to network mode" is left enabled to ensure that even if Direct storage access or Virtual appliance (HOTADD) fails, the Proxy can still utilize network transport mode as a last resort.

Scenario Example

Specified Transport No Longer Available

In this scenario, a VMware environment has one or more datastores that are backed by NFS or iSCSI storage. VMware Backup Proxies were created, and were able to contact that backend storage directly via NFS or iSCSI. To ensure that those proxies would always use a connection to the backend storage, the backup admin configured those proxies to use "Direct storage access" and disabled the option to failover to network mode.

In this configuration, if the VMware Backup Proxies cannot reach the backend storage via NFS or iSCSI, the backup jobs will fail with the error "No backup proxy is able to process this VM due to proxy processing mode restrictions." The inability to connect could, for example, be related to a network change or changes to the allowlist on the backend storage. The configuration would need to be reviewed to ensure the requirements for the desired transport mode are met.

All backup proxies are offline or outdated.

An expanded definition of this error would be:

None of the proxies available for the job to use are available because they are either disabled, offline, or have not been updated.

Resolution

Identify which proxies the job was allowed to use, then review each of those proxies to determine why they are disabled, offline, or outdated.
 

Step 1: Determine which Proxies the job was permitted to use.

Step 2: Check for Proxies that are Unavailable or Disabled

Having identified which proxies could have been used by the job, review each proxy and ensure that they are not listed as Unavailable or Disabled.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as Unavailable, identify its related entry under Managed Servers and rescan it. If the entry under Managed Servers fails to rescan, edit it instead and "Next, Next, Finish" through each of the pages of the wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to check if services on that remote machine need to be redeployed.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as outdated, select it and then click the "Upgrade Proxy" button in the ribbon menu.

All source backup proxies are offline, outdated or currently being processed.

None of the proxies selected as the Source Proxy within the Replication job are available for the job to use because they are offline, outdated, or being processed by another job.

Identify the Proxies related to the situation:

  1. Edit the Replication job.
  2. Go to the Data Transfer tab.
  3. Identify which proxy or group of proxies has been assigned as 'Source Proxy'
     

Review the Identified Proxies

Having identified which proxies could have been used by the job, review each proxy and ensure that they are not listed as Unavailable or Disabled.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as Unavailable, identify its related entry under Managed Servers and rescan it. If the entry under Managed Servers fails to rescan, edit it instead and "Next, Next, Finish" through each of the pages of the wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to check if services on that remote machine need to be redeployed.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as outdated, select it and then click the "Upgrade Proxy" button in the ribbon menu.

Scenario Example

Single Proxy Point of Failure

In this scenario, two sites exist, the main office and the DR site. The Backup Administrator has configured the minimum recommended number of proxies for site-to-site replication — one in each site. The replication jobs have been configured to only use the proxy in the main office as the source proxy and the proxy in the DR site as the target proxy.

With this configuration, if the Veeam Backup Server cannot reach the target proxy, the jobs would fail with "All target backup proxies are offline, outdated or currently being processed." The troubleshooting for this situation would involve identifying why the target proxy can no longer be contacted by the Veeam Backup Server.

All target backup proxies are offline, outdated or currently being processed.

None of the proxies selected as the Target Proxy within the Replication job are available for the job to use because they are offline, outdated, or being processed by another job.

Identify the Proxies related to the situation:

  1. Edit the Replication job.
  2. Go to the Data Transfer tab.
  3. Identify which proxy or group of proxies has been assigned as 'Target Proxy'
     

Review the Identified Proxies

Having identified which proxies could have been used by the job, review each proxy and ensure that they are not listed as Unavailable or Disabled.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as Unavailable, identify its related entry under Managed Servers and rescan it. If the entry under Managed Servers fails to rescan, edit it instead and "Next, Next, Finish" through each of the pages of the wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to check if services on that remote machine need to be redeployed.

If any VMware Backup Proxy is listed as outdated, select it and then click the "Upgrade Proxy" button in the ribbon menu.

Scenario Example

Single Proxy Point of Failure

In this scenario, two sites exist, the main office and the DR site. The Backup Administrator has configured the minimum recommended number of proxies for site-to-site replication — one in each site. The replication jobs have been configured to only use the proxy in the main office as the source proxy and the proxy in the DR site as the target proxy.

With this configuration, if the Veeam Backup Server cannot reach the target proxy, the jobs would fail with "All target backup proxies are offline, outdated or currently being processed." The troubleshooting for this situation would involve identifying why the target proxy can no longer be contacted by the Veeam Backup Server.

Hyper-V Related

Failed to create production checkpoint.
Review KB3137
On-host proxy [<host-ip/name>] requires upgrade before it can be used.

Within the Backup Infrastructure section, locate the host specified and make sure the components installed on it are up-to-date.

If the Upgrade option is greyed out, open the properties of the host and Next, Next, Finish through the properties wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to recheck installed component versions.

If this error persists, collect logs and create a Veeam Support case.

no Hardware VSS Provider is detected, and failover to Software VSS Provider is disabled by user.
Unable to find Hyper-V hosts where VM '<guid>' is registered: Failed to connect to Hyper-V Integration Service on host
  • Rescan the Hyper-V hosts to check connectivity from Veeam Backup & Replication to the host.
  • Open the properties of the Hyper-V host and Next, Next, Finish through the properties wizard to force Veeam Backup & Replication to check if Hyper-V Integration components are installed.
  • Ensure that port 6163, the port used by Veeam Hyper-V Integration Service, can be reached on the Hyper-V host from the Veeam Backup Server.
    Test-NetConnection -computername <hyper-v host> -port 6163
    

Scale-Out Backup Repository Related

Error: No scale-out repository extents are available.

Rescan the Scale-Out Backup Repository and resolve the underlying issues preventing the extents from being used.

This issue may coincide with Repositories within the Backup Infrastructure > Backup Repositories section being listed in the subcategory "Offline." If those repositories were Direct attached storage type, their associated Windows or Linux server may also be marked as Offline.

Error: Some extents storing previous backup files are offline.

This message may be shown when the Veeam Backup Server can no longer contact one or more Scale-Out Backup Repository performance extents or when an extent previously used has been placed in Maintenance mode.

 

Possible Edge Case: There have been reports that this error may occur when one or more performance extents in a Scale-Out Backup Repository point to the same location or use the same path, a configuration that is explicitly advised against. For example, two Linux-based extent repositories that both point to the folder /backups/ on the same Linux machine.

Error: Some extents storing previous backup files are in maintenance mode  
This message may be shown when an extent previously used has been placed in Maintenance mode.
Error: No scale-out repository extents have sufficient disk space to store the backup file.

Review:

Unlike Simple Repositories, Scale-Out Backup Repositories have mechanisms to prevent the backup storage from becoming 100% full. These checks will prevent a job from starting if the software believes that allowing the job to complete would fill the storage.

In environments where jobs are always running and overlapping, the Free Space Estimation system may have issues as it only rechecks actual free space when no jobs are running. For information about how to switch to an alternate Free Space Estimation system, review: KB2282. Please note that this alternate method should only be used in environments where it is needed.

HPE StoreOnce Related

Error: Failed to dispatch repository file sessions resource request. Requested amount of file sessions (<x+1>) is greater than the maximum amount available (<x>)
Review Limitations and Recommendations for HPE StoreOnce, specifically the section discussing "HPE StoreOnce has a limit on the number of concurrently opened files."
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