Same old thing with Snapshot error warning

[Bhouck]

I just took over duties of our backups and noticed a lot of issues. Primairly, file backups were not running so I removed the jobs that were there and rebuilt them. To preface, we use DSFR replication technology to copy files from various servers throughout our domain and I just run a couple of backup sets right on the backup server. Note that we are backing up a SharePoint site and an Exchange server and no erros were being pulled. However, as soon as I began to run basic file backup, I get the snapshot error below:

"The job completed successfully. However, the following conditions were encountered:

A snapshot operation required by this job was unsuccessful. Check the job log and the Windows Event Viewer for additional information."

I have seen this peppered throughout the forums but they usually had another more specific error listed in the alert wanring. There was alot to be said about Advance Open File service so I disabled it on these backups sets but the error still occurs. I checked the event log and I am pulling VSS event ID's 13 and then immediately 12292. I looked this up on Microsoft's website and there was a KB article that stated that our backup software may be "This event can be caused by running backup software containing a 32-bit Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS) requester on a 64-bit version of Windows. In this case, you should contact the backup software vendor."

I am not sure if this is true and that is why I post. We currently run Backup Exec 2012 version 14.0 Rev. 1798 (64-bit) on Windows Server 2008 R2 standard. Please help with something. While it looks like the backups are working, I am not entirely certain. Is it possible that either my software or its backup agent is running a 32-bit version of the VSS requestor?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[lmosla]

Do you have AOFO enabled in the job? If you do make sure that Use Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider is checked. 

Has the server been rebooted recently?  Rebooting the server often clears out the VSS errors.

[pkh]

You should only enable AOF for file backup jobs.  For jobs backing up databases, like SQL (Sharepoint) and Exchange, you should disable AOF.

[lmosla]

From the cmd prompt run vssadmin list writers to check for which one might be failing or erroring.

Are all your Live updates installed with the Remote agent pushed to your remote servers?

[Bhouck]

Hello everyone. Sorry for the delay getting back into this thread. I was out yesterday and could not respond. Thanks for the quick responses. I will try to reply to all in this response:

1. AOF is not enabled as far as I can tell. I unchecked all the boxes in the file backup job settings. I also unchecked the options in the main Backup Exec default settings dialog box.

2. Yes, the server was recently rebooted as I had rebooted one of my libraries which caused the drive to go offline in BE. Rebooting the server reconnected it to the tape drive. That was on the same day I made my first post.

3. AOF is not enabled for the Exchange and SharePoint backups. The error did not start until I began running file server backups. The error (actually it is just a warning) occurs only on those two jobs.

4. I actually do get an alert to update three patches on the server. As far as the remote agent goes, is that needed? I am using DSFR to replicate all my file data from the file server(s) to the backup server disk. I am then backing up from a local source in order to speed up the backup time window.

5. Here was the report from running VSSAdmin List Writers> I don;t see anything unusual...

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: {c5e4e244-13b7-4de3-932d-5dbd6098c925}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {1137ea7e-fe7a-4995-93db-4dd3f6871c7c}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {a33f5665-0fe6-47ae-a88b-6f7db3bbe491}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {7c9db74c-bf49-45b4-a2fb-5306c9ae84e4}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'DFS Replication service writer'
   Writer Id: {2707761b-2324-473d-88eb-eb007a359533}
   Writer Instance Id: {605e8a8c-e01b-457f-a7cc-03cd4d2b61a4}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {c036ab21-d5cd-4e34-8adf-015bc651a6d8}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {37eac2ae-b995-49d7-93b4-0970d7ecae0d}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {0d791ce1-2684-4575-a46d-fea0266b0cfe}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Thanks again!

[Bhouck]

Well, no information is forthcoming so I guess this is as big a mystery for everyone else as it is for me. I have checked all my settings, disabled all the advanced open file settings and verified that all the system default settings are set the same. I had one thought that I have yet to test to see if it has any effect on the error. Since the error does not appear to be generated at the onset of the backup task, I am wondering if the verify task at the end of the backup task was generating the error rather than the backup itself. Any thoughts?