SQL error 18210 and VDI error 1010

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 19 May 2009
Product: SQL Backup
Database backups may fail if the SQL Server memory is inadequate or severely fragmented.

The free memory space of your SQL Server process may be severely fragmented. SQL Server reserves a set amount of memory for SQL Backup to use as buffer space,commonly known as the SQL Server MemToLeave area.

When a backup fails due to the lack of a large enough contiguous block of free memory, SQL Backup automatically retries the backup using smaller MAXTRANSFERSIZE values, until it hits the value of 65536 bytes.

When SQL Backup performs a backup using the default settings and one file, it requires a block of free contiguous memory of about 6 MB.

From the memory profile in the log shows that the largest free contiguous memory block SQL Server had available was 524288 (5 blocks)

Adding the parameter MAXTRANSFERSIZE = 262144 to the backup command (or add it in the GUI on step 3 of 5 in the backup wizard) will start writing the blocks at a smaller size, although it will negatively affect performance.

However, the main issue is the fragmented memory. You can check the free contiguous memory at anytime in SQL Server by executing -

master..sqbmemory

in Query Analyzer/SSMS. You need to keep an eye on the maximum free amount of memory. You should be able to 'recover' this memory by restarting the SQL Server. Try to find out if any process could be causing this memory issue, for instance, extended stored procedure code, or stored procedures that implement COM via sp_OACreate.

The following is an excerpt from a SQL Backup log demonstrating the problem:

STETLH01: Backup - Failed
=========================

Performing full backups - Failed
--------------------------------

This operation failed with errors.

Backing up DBA (full database) to:
D:\BACKUP\FULL_(local)_DBA_20070810_112402.sqb
VDI error 1010: Failed to get configuration from server. Check that the SQL Server instance is running, and that you have the SQL Server Systems Administrator server role. Error code: (-2139684860: An abort request is preventing anything except
termination actions.)
SQL error 3013: BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
SQL error 18210: BackupVirtualDeviceSet::Initialize: Request large buffers failure on backup device 'SQLBACKUP_687FEF8A-0BE6-485A-AE9C-7BABDA668AF8'. Operating system error 0x8007000e(Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.).
Memory profile
Type Maximum Minimum Average Blk count Total
---------------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
Commit 795672576 4096 402621 5149 2073100288
Reserve 4120576 4096 282551 226 63856640
Free 524288 4096 57479 182 10461184
Private 795672576 4096 424792 4832 2052595712
Mapped 1060864 4096 108301 59 6389760
Image 24862720 4096 161098 484 77971456
Warning 300: Backup failed. Retry attempt: 1
Warning 300: Backup failed. Retry attempt: 2
Warning 300: Backup failed. Retry attempt: 3
Warning 300: Backup failed. Retry attempt: 4
SQL Backup exit code: 1010
SQL error code: 18210

Updating SQL Server information - Successful
--------------------------------------------

This operation completed successfully.