Windows Server 2003 R2 Storage Report Issues

[Booty]

I'm trying to generate some reports using FSRM on one of our file servers, and the report comes up basically blank. When I check the application logs, there is an event recorded that identifies a bad file causing the report to bomb out...

I ran into a couple of files on another server that were flat out missing the "date modified" attribute - I found a couple small utilities online that I could use to change that and it resolved the issues with the report.

Now, though, the file(s) causing the problems have an invalid "Last write time" attribute (according to the Event, 12/31/1600 8:51:47 PM). The utilities I've found online are unable to modify this attribute. Worse, the file name is specified in the event, but there a few hundred files by this name on the server (they are generated by our engineers) and I don't know of a way to tell which specific file(s) are causing the report to hang up.

The event specifies file and parent directory id numbers, but I have no idea how to use those to find the path of the file. When I search the drive for matching files, none come up matching the creation or access times of the file specified in the event.

Any suggestions on how to locate the file that's causing the issue? Would it be helpful if a copied the full text of the event? I've been googling my ass off, but haven't found anything useful yet... hoping someone on here can help.

Thanks...

 

[RebateMonger]

What utility(ies) did you use to correct your original reporting problem? And, yeah, the more info, the better.

 

[Booty]

I used a little utility called "FileDate Changer - there's another similar one called eXpress TimeStamp Toucher that I grabbed but haven't tried. Both have basically the same features, which is simply the ability to modify the Creation, Modified, and Last Access date attributes of a file.

This was fine for the problems on the other server, as the issue with those files was the modified date was missing altogether. Additionally, most of those files were unique, so searching the file system for them was no big deal.

On this server, however, the issue appears to be with the Last write time attribute, which isn't touched by the utilities I found. The other problem, again, is that there are hundreds of files with this name on the server... so its hard to know exactly which of the files is causing the problem (more on this later).

Here's the exact text of the Error in the event viewer...


_______________________________________________________
Date: 12/9/2008
Time: 8:24:51 AM
Type: Error
User: N/A
Computer: <SERVER>
Source: SRMREPORTS
Category: None
Event ID: 500

Description:
The Storage Reports service encountered an exception while scanning a volume. The scan was aborted.

Context:
- Stack trace = at System.DateTime.ToFileTimeUtc()
at System.DateTime.ToFileTime()
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.HashFileInfo..ctor(SrmFileInfo fileInfo)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.InitialDuplicateGroupsHashTable.AddFile(SrmFileInfo fileInfo)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.DuplFileReport.OnFile(SrmFileInfo fileInfo)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.SrmReport.OnFile(Int32 volumeIndex, SrmFileInfo sfi, String volumeDisplayName, Boolean firstScan)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.MftReportNamespace.OnFile(Int32 volumeIndex, SRM_FILE_INFO& fileInfo, Boolean firstScan)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.MftNamespaceRoot.OnFile(Int32 volumeIndex, SRM_FILE_INFO& fileInfo, Boolean firstScan)
at Microsoft.Storage.Reports.Scanner.SrmOnFileCallbackImpl(Int32 volumeIndex, SRM_FILE_INFO& fileInfo)
- Exception message = Not a valid Win32 FileTime.
- Exception type = System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
- Last write time = 12/31/1600 8:51:47 PM
- Last access time = 2/5/2008 7:37:21 PM
- Creation time = 7/10/2006 11:26:27 AM
- Scanning namespace =
- File id = 8077
- Parent directory id = 8074
- File attributes = 2080
- File allocationSize = 1024
- File size = 61
- File name = entity_name_templates.pmldat
- Volume Name = \\?\Volume{12051a11-1026-11db-b446-505054503030}
- Volume = D:
______________________________________________________




I tried searching for a file by that name with the access and creation times specified in the error, but there are no matches. 519 files by that name, to be exact, but none with those dates/times. The files are small (range from about 50-200 bytes). I've been thought I might be able to find the path to the file using that Parent directory id number, but I have no idea if that's possible and haven't been able to find any information on it thus far.

Thanks for the reply - looking forward to hearing suggestions. Usually I can find a solution somewhere out on the web, but no luck so far with this one.

 

[bsobel]

Can you fix your report tool?

 

[Booty]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Can you fix your report tool?

Not sure what you mean by this... FSRM = File Server Resource Manager. It's built into Windows Server 2003 R2. R2 added a bunch of cool features for File and Print servers... these reports were one of the additions... I don't know if I could modify them even if I knew how.

/edit: To elaborate a little more, the reports I'm generating are the stock duplicate files reports... so, again, I haven't really dove into attempting to modify the reports because I feel the problem isn't with the reports. It's with the file(s) and/or file system.

Thanks again for the replies...

 

[firemouth]

I'm having the same issue on my server. The thing is, my reports worked for a while and I noticed the problem started in October. So I'm guessing that I've got a file somewhere that's causing this to crash...

I'll post a reply if i figure out a fix for it.

 

[Boobs McGee]

I don't really have an answer for you on repairing the goofed up files, but I would suggest talking to your engineers about how the files are created. You need to nail down the underlying cause of the problem in addition to fixing the already damaged data.