Windows 2012:

Backup Exec 2012 revision 1798 Service Pack 2 introduces support for the Agent for Windows (a.k.a. Remote Agent, or AWS) to protect servers running the Windows 2012 OS installed on Native 4K (Advanced Format) drives.
 

Prior versions of the Windows operating system:

The 4KB sector size is not supported by Microsoft for Operating Systems up to and including Windows 2008 R2 and Microsoft has provided a knowledge base article describing their support that (at the time of writing) is available at:

support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009

How to determine the sector size of a disk:

Use the following steps to determine if your disk is using native 4K sector size or if it is an advanced format/512E disk:

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Run the following command to see the BytesPerSector value. If the value is 4096, it is Advanced Format:

• For Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo

• For Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 and later:

fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo

Note: The following update may need to be installed to get the desired output:

 support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

Workaround: Reconfigure to 512E

Hardware vendors of these types of drive sometimes provide a method to configure the format of the drive to use a 512 byte emulation mode (sometimes called "Advanced Format" or "512E"). Veritas have seen that reconfiguring using this emulation (and rebooting the server to reset the VSS state) can both solve the VSS errors and allow the drive to be used a disk storage device for backup operations.

The exact steps required to reconfigure as "512E" varies depending on the hardware vendor and the model of drive. As an example: for at least one Western Digital drive, it is normally supplied with a utility called "WD Quick Format" which should be used to reformat with "Factory Default" (apparently the drive in question is not supplied with this default applied) . Affected customers are encouraged to contact their hardware vendor for details of how to change the format.

After changing the format, the change can be confirmed by using the information regarding fsutil provided in the Microsoft article referenced in the Cause section. If the drive in question will be used as a backup storage device, customers should perform some backup and restore tests and also use the Veritas B2DTest tool to confirm operation.

Note: Customers that use this solution should be aware that due to lack of support by Microsoft the configuration is also not officially supported by Veritas and is defined as an "Alternative Configuration" (see below).

Alternative Configurations:

Our Licensed Software is designed to interoperate with many types of systems, applications, and hardware. Sometimes a customer may choose to use our Licensed Software in an "Alternative Configuration", namely,an environment that has not been validated, approved or verified to operate with our Licensed Software or which does not support such Licensed Software or only supports limited functionality. In most cases, we do not support Alternative Configurations, and we have no obligation to provide Support Services to Licensed Software in an Alternative Configuration. Veritas makes no warranty with respect to use of Licensed Software in an Alternative Configuration and any such use is at your own risk. A "Supported Configuration" might be converted into an Alternative Configuration where a vendor modifies one of its components that is part of the original Supported Configuration. As a consequence, your Licensed Software would then be operating in an Alternative Configuration. If you experience a problem with the Licensed Software in an Alternative Configuration or if your issue deals with script that was not developed by Veritas or an authorized consulting partner, then we may ask you to reproduce the problem in a Supported Configuration environment. Please note we have no obligation to attempt to resolve problems that cannot be replicated in a Supported Configuration. However, if the problem can be replicated in a Supported Configuration, we will investigate the problem in that Supported Configuration and attempt to resolve it. If the problem cannot be replicated in a Supported Configuration, then we may elect not to work on that problem.