I have interited a box running SQL Server 2008 and Windows 2003, and have had a few events where largeish (35GB) log backups "stall", both before and after the installation of SQL 2008 SP1. The server log ships to a standby, so regular log backups are taken at 15 minute intervals.

However, after an index reorg causes the log to grow to about 35GB (on a DB with about 17GB of data), the next log backup runs to ~95% completion, then seems to stop. The process shows as suspended, with a wait state of BACKUPIO. CPU, read, and write activity on the SPID also does not change, and the process stays in this state for hours, when normally a backup of this size should complete in about 20 minutes.

This server has a single RAID-1 volume, thus the source database files and destination backup files are on the same volume. However, I cannot determine if another process is blocking the backup. The backup SPID cannot be killed, and the only way to terminate the log backup and clear the lock on the backup file is to cycle the SQL Server service.

There was one event where the backup terminated completely, with an error that another process had locked the backup file, but no details about what that process was.

Can anyone suggest a cause or diagnostic process to this situation?