Jobs fail to backup Shadow Copy Components and System State

[ZeroSubnet]

I'm running BE 2010 R2 on Windows 2008 Server R2, backing up to a Dell PowerVault TL-2000 with two IBM drives (Library Extension Option is licensed)

I have two jobs (Full & Incremental) to do file, folder, shadow copy components and system state backups for a Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 server running Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Databases and transaction logs get backed up via other jobs.

The file and folder jobs fail with the following error:

 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\xxxxxx\Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option use...
V-79-10000-11217 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot faile...
 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\xxxxxx\System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microso...
V-79-10000-11217 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot faile...

Logging on to the server in question i noticed that the Volume shadow Copy service is stopped, although its startup mode is Automatic. I manually started the service, however on that day the backups failed again with the same error. I logged on again to the server and found the service is stopped once again. At that time i saw that NetApp SnapManager for SQL Server is installed on the server, however upon investigating a bit more it turns out that its services are disabled and it's not actually being used to backup the databases.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this further? Could the BE agent somehow be trying to use the SnapManager VSS service to perform the Shadow Copy Components and System State backups and fails because SnapManager services are disabled?

Should I try to uninstall SnapManager and see if that will make the jobs revert to using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and complete the backups successfully?

[Sush---]

Hello there,

    In the backup job properties goto ADVANCED OPEN FILE OPTION and enable it. Then choose the option to specifically use Microsoft VSS for the backups and then test the backups.

Thanks,

-Sush...

[ZeroSubnet]

AOFO is already enabled and set to auto, per the first attached screenshot.

I even tried to change it to use Veritas , per the second attached screenshot and i got this error:

- AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\xxxxxx\Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used...
V-79-10000-11217 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot faile...
 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\xxxxxx\System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microso...
V-79-10000-11217 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot faile...

[ZeroSubnet]

AOFO is already enabled in job properties

[CraigV]

Hi,

Open up a command prompt and type: vssadmin list writers. Check for any writers that aren't stable and running.

If there are, there are 2 ways to fix this:

1. Reboot the server

2. Reregister the VSS *.dlls as per the TN below:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH70486

You should also make sure that any AV running on that server isn't blocking access to the registry for the BE services.

Thanks!

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi From your second snap you should actually select system provider that is shadow copy ,so please select the system provider and try running backup again. Thanks

[pkh · Accepted solution]

You should explicitly select the VSS as the AOFO technology. 

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi

About selecting the System that is shadow copy provider was suggested by me few hours before

Thanks

[pkh]

I cannot understand what you are trying to say.

[ZeroSubnet]

I will try to explicitly select Microsoft Shadow Copy Provider and see if that will make a difference.

I will update the thread then.

[ZeroSubnet]

This has resolved the problem for me., Thanks for your help.