Failure occurred querying the Writer status + logs not flushing

[DustysD]

I am having a couple problems getting BE12 to back up our Exchange 2007 server. The main issue involves our nightly incremental backup. The backup fails almost immediately and I get this in the logs:

Final error: 0xe000fed1 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Backup- SERVERNAME
V-79-57344-34110 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVERNAME\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
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 snapshot operation (8).
V-79-57344-34110 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVERNAME\Microsoft Information Store\Second Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
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 snapshot operation (8).

I followed the suggestion to log onto the Exchange box and run "vssadmin list writers". It shows the Exchange Writer as "State: [8] Failed ; Last error: Retryable error". So I rebooted the Exchange box, the Writer was then fine, but the backup still failed.
What I find curious about this is the log sayd "Advanced Open File Option" used, but I do not have AOFO checked in the job. So I'm not sure where BE is getting that from.
I did install the VSS patches recommended by Symantec in the kb articles.

I ran a Full Backup this weekend and that appeared to run fine. 60+ GB of email was backed up. But now I get this error whether I submit a full backup or incremental backup job.

The other issue is my transaction logs aren't being flushed. Even after the successful full backup this weekend, they are all this sitting out there on the server. I found the KB article about making sure, in the "Backup Selection Lists", that the Information Store was checkmarked and not marked with just a slash. But if I put a checkmark there, save the job, and then open the job again, the checkmark has reverted back to a slash!

Backup Exec 12 is as patched as it can be. I saw some suggestions about reapplying SP2 to the server. I'm a bit hesitant to do so, as this is my sole Exchange 2007 server.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

[DustysD]

I wanted to follow up with my own question:

I created a new full backup job that only backed up the Information Store (rather than making the IS backup part of my full set of backups). The backup ran fine and this time the logs flushed. This morning I ran a quick Incremental backup of the IS (again, as a solo job rather than part of the incremental backup that also gets files). The backup ran fine and again the logs were flushed.

In their best practices for Backup Exec 12 and Exchange, Symantec says to make the IS backup separate from your file backups. I never had to do this in the past. But if I have to do that now, no problem. As long as I get a good backup! 

[rflanary]

Install MS KB 940349 on exchange server and all windows 2003 servers

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=940349

[Anubis]

I had the same issue and making the Information store backup seperate worked for me also.