While taking a VDI backup of a SQL Server database, you get a VDI error with the following HEX code 0x080770007.

If you used simple.exe to perform the backup, then you would get the following error:

C:\TEMP>simple.exe B <SERVERNAME>\<INSTANCENAME> testdb
Connected to Server: <SERVERNAME>\<INSTANCENAME>
Backing up database: testdb
Performing a BACKUP using a virtual device.
VDS::Create fails: x80770007

If you lookup the 0x080770007 (VD_E_INSTANCE_NAME VD_ERROR) translates to failed to recognize the SQL Server instance name.

Then check if the following condition holds true:
There is no DEFAULT instance of SQL Server on the machine where you are trying to take a VDI backup and the SQL instance that you are connecting to perform a backup is a named instance. If above condition is true, then the issue is with CreateEx function of the interface IClientVirtualDeviceSet2. The CreateEx function is used to create the virtual device set and has the following syntax:

HRESULT IClientVirtualDeviceSet2::CreateEx (
LPCWSTR lpInstanceName,
LPCWSTR lpName,
VDConfig* pCfg);

The "lpInstanceName" parameter identifies the SQL Server instance to which the SQL command needs to be sent to. If the CreateEx method has NULL as the first parameter, then it would always connect to the Default instance. If the server doesn’t have a default SQL instance, then the first parameter needs to be provided with the instance name.
Eg. If you have a named instance on the server as "SERVER1\SQLINST1, then the first parameter for CreateEx should be "SQLINST1".

Another issue that can cause this error is when you use simple.exe to take a backup from an instance that is not installed on the box from which you are running simple.exe from. This can be true for other backup applications as well.

The reason for this is that simple.exe or any backup application using SQLVDI.DLL calls, you get the interface to the device set using the following piece of code. Eg: For simple.exe:

hr = CoCreateInstance (
        CLSID_MSSQL_ClientVirtualDeviceSet, 
        NULL,
        CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
        IID_IClientVirtualDeviceSet2,
        (void**)&vds);

CoCreateInstance is used when you want to create only one object on the local system. If you planning to take a backup from a remote instance and using code similar to the one used in simple.exe, then you need to use CoCreateInstanceEx since the interface set would reside on the remote computer.

Another issue is that when we call CreateEx to create the virtual device set, we can only pass in the instance name and not the computer name. So, the backup application’s code should be designed in a correct manner for this to work which means .

Most known vendor applications Legato, NetBackup, Tivoli, LiteSpeed, SQLSafe etc. take care of these considerations!

Links: Modified simple.exe application code