BE 2012 Job Failed querying the writer status. List writers have so many errors

[3s1k]

I am trying to backup some files on C/D drivers and the public folder database as well as 1 sql instance. I got the following error: Failed Backup Jobs - 0XE000FED1: A Failure occurred querying the Writer Status.

So I ran vssadmin list writers and there are a lot of erros showing up. One thing I found that might solve this is changing the snapshot provider from "Automatic" to "system - use microsoft software shadow copy provider" hoping this will solve this issue.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {4fc50f65-e2ff-4008-bb2b-b3ac5ffde73e}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {ee44e957-61d8-4391-9160-61d0ea38c536}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FRS Writer'
   Writer Id: {d76f5a28-3092-4589-ba48-2958fb88ce29}
   Writer Instance Id: {c0356611-5a6a-4101-b17a-345f30c8ed75}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SharePoint Services Writer'
   Writer Id: {da452614-4858-5e53-a512-38aab25c61ad}
   Writer Instance Id: {e549d3de-97d5-4b97-ab43-44ecddf3cefa}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {808cc565-9cd7-4177-8c47-7102c7a9a5c1}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NPS VSS Writer'
   Writer Id: {35e81631-13e1-48db-97fc-d5bc721bb18a}
   Writer Instance Id: {c8643d04-74ca-4906-902d-06769353ebce}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Dhcp Jet Writer'
   Writer Id: {be9ac81e-3619-421f-920f-4c6fea9e93ad}
   Writer Instance Id: {f568a06e-1fd7-49ae-932b-54308f07e314}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
   Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
   Writer Instance Id: {c4ea91cc-bd5d-4185-a637-e07f3d8d7be5}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
   Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
   Writer Instance Id: {33f9560a-a603-4ab0-98a0-5229bcbd5918}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NTDS'
   Writer Id: {b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}
   Writer Instance Id: {2ea73fc3-8ec9-40aa-b1ff-fc4b4926535e}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {a5d7006e-8574-4044-9e51-7a39294633c5}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Retryable error

Writer name: 'SPSearch4 VSS Writer'
   Writer Id: {35500004-0201-0000-0000-000000000000}
   Writer Instance Id: {51ac5445-b09b-4ff5-9cf3-644c6c9686db}
   State: [8] Failed
   Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy

Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer'
   Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2}
   Writer Instance Id: {c72cc7d8-2806-45ef-8fe7-dd9540613622}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'TS Gateway Writer'
   Writer Id: {368753ec-572e-4fc7-b4b9-ccd9bdc624cb}
   Writer Instance Id: {b80f4b79-71a9-4cb8-bd60-eaea07ea0472}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {dbc6fa5e-a0b1-42fc-ba48-a48c78f32d57}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {6e6c731b-57f9-4be7-95ff-03e219ad38a5}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {175b02df-f6ae-4e4d-97e9-893e05d8bfe0}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {c56ed1e4-33ca-4518-946e-8f802d4dd6b8}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
   Writer Instance Id: {45a6525f-1198-4ecf-859a-f9e8664d8a3a}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Config Writer'
   Writer Id: {2a40fd15-dfca-4aa8-a654-1f8c654603f6}
   Writer Instance Id: {8eff1252-8561-4749-b948-4b3267c1a0e6}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Certificate Authority'
   Writer Id: {6f5b15b5-da24-4d88-b737-63063e3a1f86}
   Writer Instance Id: {38731fa0-366c-4048-a2b8-87446b82abc8}
   State: [5] Waiting for completion
   Last error: No error

[lmosla]

Hi,  refer to this document   http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH27875

run Live Updates to ensure the Media server is fully patched ( and push the agent out to the remote servers)

[3s1k]

These are 2 errors I pulled from the job log as well.

V-79-57344-65233 - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVER.name.local\Microsoft Information Store\...

Snapshot technology error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. See the job l...

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS...

[3s1k]

Live updates have been ran and media server is fully patched. We are using only one server with SBS2011.

[3s1k]

I got the following errors from the job log:

V-79-57344-65233 - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVER.name.local\Microsoft Information Store\Public Folder Database 1925784687". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot technology error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. See the job log for details about the error.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed, but the operation can be retried (0x800423f3), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7).

[lmosla]

A few things to do:  reboot the server,  separate the exchange and sql (database parts) into a separate job

If you are using a 2003 server install this hotfix http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11896

If this is a 2008 server 

"this error can occur if C: drive on the server does not have enough free space.

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details. Writer Name: Event Logs, Writer ID: {EEE8C692-67ED-4250-8D86-390603070D00}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare snapshot operation (8).

To fix such issues, free up some space on the C: drive and retry backups."  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH27875

[3s1k]

Are C drive is 119gb total with 20gb free after I tried clearing out some space. We install most of the applications on the D partition which has 800gb total and 500gb free.

I will try to reboot the server as well as separate the jobs. It didn't start failing until I added one sql instance and the public folder database. I checked the licenses information and I do have the agents and they are installed.

Hmmmmm, If I remember correctly do I need to add the exchange logs for each mail database for BE? I know on windows server you'll get an error if you don't tick the exchange logs as well as the databases. But that still doesn't explain why it fails to backup SQL.

[lmosla]

Try isolating the SQL job.  What is the error you get?

[3s1k]

I restarted the server which cleared the VSS errors. I ran the backup and it failed again. I checked for VSS errors again and got 2 this time instead of 9.

Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer'

   Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f3229b55-4e18-4465-999e-7125058dec3d}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
   Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
   Writer Instance Id: {07949b56-5848-49d1-9890-5576c099a79a}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Retryable error

The error that I pull from the job log is:

BackupV-79-57344-65233 - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVER1.name.local\Microsoft Information Store\Public Folder Database 1925784687". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot technology error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. See the job log for details about the error.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed, but the operation can be retried (0x800423f3), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7).

Backup- SERVER1.name.local\nameSQL2008V-79-57344-867 - The last Full backup of database ComData was not made by this application.  Run a new Full backup, then run this job again.

V-79-57344-867 - The last Full backup of database ComImages was not made by this application.  Run a new Full backup, then run this job again.

I just separated the one SQL instance and the Exchange Public Database int their own jobs that run 2hrs apart from each other. Next Full Backup is starting tonight. Hopefully by separating the jobs we can narrow down what's going on. I appreciate all the help.