Knowledge Base

VDI Error 1000 caused by account lookup failure

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 07 Apr 2009
Product: SQL Backup
Versions: all
Platforms: all

When backing up or restoring a database on SQL Server using SQL Backup, the following error may occur:
VDI error 1000: Failed to create virtual device.
Check that the SQL Server instance you are trying to connect to is
running. Error code: (-2139684857: Failed to recognize the SQL Server
instance name.)

One possible cause of this is a failure to resolve the startup account of the SQL Backup Agent Service. In some cases, the Windows Domain format of the account is incapable of being resolved, for instance an account in the form DOMAIN\USERNAME. It is possible to resolve this in some cases by using the User Principal Name format for the account, for instance username@domain.

By opening the Services snap-in in the Administrative Tools section of Windows Control Panel and changing the startup account for the SQL Backup Agent Service to use the UPN format and restarting the service may solve the problem in this case.