I was hoping someone here might have encountered this sort of issue and if so what did you do to fix it?

Here's some details:

DB server: SQL 2014 Enterprise (12.0.4100.1) OS: Windows 2008R2 Enterprise

Data drive: 800GB

Database to snapshot: 430GB

I can create multiple snapshots of this database and they function perfectly fine until the actual size on disk reaches 38.1GB. At this point there is still well over 150GB of free space on the drive. After that the SnapShot file encounters an IO error and the snapshot enters SUSPECT mode. Here's the error message in the SQL ERRORLOG:

The operating system returned:

error 665(The requested operation could not be completed due to a file system limitation) to SQL Server during a write at offset 0x00002dc1520000 in file 'E:\SQL Data 1\devDB_seq1501_rba63692865.ss'. Additional messages in the SQL Server error log and system event log may provide more detail. This is a severe system-level error condition that threatens database integrity and must be corrected immediately. Complete a full database consistency check (DBCC CHECKDB). This error can be caused by many factors; for more information, see SQL Server Books Online.

E:\SQL Data 1\devDB_seq1501_rba63692865.ss: Operating system error 665(The requested operation could not be completed due to a file system limitation) encountered.

Database snapshot 'devDB_seq1501_rba63692865' has failed an IO operation and is marked suspect. It must be dropped and recreated.

This article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2002606 mentions a similar sort of issue (the 665 error) on a heavily fragmented file system, but I'm not really sure how to approach this.

Any insight into what might be happening here would be greatly appreciated.

  • just a guess (I remember running into this a loong time ago) but worth exploring. On the disk E:, click on properties --> shadow copies --> check the drive properties for E: and see if there is any limit imposed. You should see the limit might be imposed on the maximum size. If you change it to NO limit or just increase the limit and then take snapshot .. are you able to generate a snapshot ? – Kin Shah Dec 16 '15 at 15:34
  • Thanks for suggesting this, Kin. I checked this drive and while shadow copy was not enabled it did have a limit. In your case was the issue related to shadow copy backups or SQL server Database snapshots? – C-Four Dec 16 '15 at 16:21
  • Can you change to NO limit and try to create a snapshot to see if it works or you get same error ? – Kin Shah Dec 16 '15 at 16:22
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    Did you run DBCC CHECKDB? Are there other entries in error log? – Priyanka Dec 28 '18 at 11:35
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    This seems to be a known documented issue.. read more at this kb - support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2002606/… – samosql Dec 28 '18 at 23:03

Did the drive the snapshot is on or the drive that the source DB is on run out of space?

There's no way to repair a corrupt snapshot. The only thing you can do with it is drop it.

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