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How to Resolve "Failure while using USN journal" Error

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This article applies to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and higher.

An Update Sequence Number (USN) Journal is a change journal of file and directory changes on the NTFS volume including a description of the change, and the name of the file or directory. Each log file is  incremented for each entry in the journal. Log files are stored until they are deleted or storage runs out. If storage is exhausted, older log files are deleted and cannot be restored.

If too many file or directory changes are encountered on your Windows Server, you may encounter a max journal wrapping error causing slower Barracuda Backup Agent backups. While full backups should not be affected, you may encounter differential and incremental backup failure:

08/13/13 18:32:55 0x0001208 YUsnJournalManager: Info: USN journal backups have been disabled for volume: C:\ 
08/13/13 18:43:09 0x0001208 YUsnJournalManager: Exception occurred while backing up volume changes: Exception - Original: 12011 - 0x00002eeb Mapped:12011 Location:YUsnJournalManager::BackupVolumeChanges:D:\compile\source\ods++\server\vam\core\win\YUsnJournalMan ager.cpp:214 Description:'Failure while using USN journal'

This article describes how to expand the maximum Update Sequence Number (USN) Journal size in Windows.

The following instructions apply only if the USN change Journal is available and readable.

Delete an Active USN Change Journal

Use the following steps to remove the active USN change Journal using fsutil usn deletejournal.

fsutil usn Parameters
  • deletejournal – Deletes the active USN change journal. Deleting the change journal impacts the File Replication Service (FRS) and the Indexing Service. Additionally, this negatively impacts FRS SYSVOL replication and replication between DFS link alternates during rescanning of the volume.
  • /D – Disables the active USN change journal and returns I/O control while the change journal is being disabled.
  1. Log in to your Windows Server, launch cmd, and run as admin.

  2. Enter the following command:

    fsutil usn queryjournal C:

    Where "C" represents the backup or partition drive.

  3. The USN change Journal settings display including its size in hex bytes. If the value is approximately 30MB, the backup can fail due to snapshot creation failure from lack of space.

  4. Run the following command:

    fsutil usn deletejournal /D C:
  5. The USN Journal is deleted and the size reset.

Add a USN Change Journal

Use the following steps to add a USN change Journal using fsutil usn createjournal.

  1. Log in to your Windows Server, launch cmd, and run as admin.

  2. Run the following command:

     fsutil usn createjournal m=2147483648 a=1 C:

    Where "C" represents the backup or partition drive.

  3. The USN Journal is added.
  4. You can proceed with your backup.

Once the USN change Journal is recreated, Barracuda Backup goes through the entire file system which may result in a longer backup.