Shadow Copy Components not working... various vss writer failures, but no vss writer errors!

[mbrowndcm]

Hello,

I'm having a strange problem on one of my file servers.

Whenever backup exec attempts to utilize VSS to access some of the shadow copy components (for which I'm backing up several), I receive the following error in the event log:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{[DRIVEGUID]} - 00000194,0x0053c020,00038BC8,0,00037BC0,4096,[0]).  hr = 0x80070057


I've identified the drive (by finding out the corresponding mount point for the GUID using the mountvol tool) as the C: drive.


Does anyone have experience with this error?  I've installed the latest Update (update 1 for VSS, KB940349), which I was hoping would fix the issue, but it persists.


Any direction or assistance is appreciated.


Thanks,

Matt

(occurs in both 12 and 11d).


vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
   Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
   Writer Instance Id: {9b67bee8-e6f1-49d1-a741-0226b499334c}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {38bfe8d9-acbb-4170-8c86-ea7ac3d503ce}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {294dc6ae-7e78-4ea6-918e-20b163720f96}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
   Writer Instance Id: {cc2ee431-acb0-41c1-bbe7-20f1caccbb7e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'MSDEWriter'
   Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}
   Writer Instance Id: {b88119d4-305d-4a6d-829b-b45b0a33f360}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FRS Writer'
   Writer Id: {d76f5a28-3092-4589-ba48-2958fb88ce29}
   Writer Instance Id: {30c77960-9afd-4a13-9a40-7190fbc3e540}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {328feca5-ad43-4c1f-8983-410e5cc0ace4}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Dhcp Jet Writer'
   Writer Id: {be9ac81e-3619-421f-920f-4c6fea9e93ad}
   Writer Instance Id: {1f79b30e-0cff-4058-9d15-fcaf646d152c}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Event Log Writer'
   Writer Id: {eee8c692-67ed-4250-8d86-390603070d00}
   Writer Instance Id: {f4973bfd-9269-430a-bf03-01607c68c931}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
   Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
   Writer Instance Id: {4b772846-436c-4bf9-9ce1-f8a0e6ef8da0}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {892bfae6-c365-4a91-b3a3-c52afa40d58e}
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'DFS Replication service writer'
   Writer Id: {2707761b-2324-473d-88eb-eb007a359533}
   Writer Instance Id: {cf45de6a-fe1d-45ca-9adc-dd47cb096d39}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {82ec2be5-cf82-4396-a16c-504d23e1a931}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NTDS'
   Writer Id: {b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}
   Writer Instance Id: {1cc60ef6-f3ef-4154-9ec5-bce2c8ec41e1}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

[Hemant_Jain]

Some of the VSS writers appear to be in failed state, causing the backup to fail. Please apply service pack 2 for Windows 2003 on the machine to get VSS issues resolved. If it was working until recently, a reboot may help. If SP2 is already applied, you may want to re-apply that. If issue persists, contacting MS would be a better option.

Please mark it a solution, if this is useful.

Thanks

[mbrowndcm]

Thanks for your reply, Hemant.

SP2 was always installed.
To try and resolve the problem, I installed the VSS update found at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349
I then rebooted the server.

Do you have any more information as to why this error is being logged?

What is most puzzling is that it reports Failed with a "No error" error state.


Thanks,

Matt

[Hemant_Jain]

Matt,
Do you observe anything in the event logs? Generally there would be some errors when the writer fails. Also, see if there are any existing snapshots for C:\. You can check the snapshot by going to properties on C:\ and "shadow copies" tab. If there are some exisitng snapshots, try deleting them. Also, repairing the databases of WMI, DHCP and FSRM is an option you may try. For repair you may want to search some MS documentation. Also, re-applying Service Pack 2 and any additional hotfixes available would be an option. But if all this does not work, you may want to refer Microsoft.

I hope this helps.
Thanks
Hemant

[mbrowndcm]

Thanks for the reply.

There is an event logged in the event log:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    VSS
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    12289
Date:        8/24/2009
Time:        4:59:45 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    SERVER
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{5180f985-9484-11db-9693-806e6f6e6963} - 00000194,0x0053c020,00038BC8,0,00037BC0,4096,[0]).  hr = 0x80070057.

- Code: INCICHLH459
- Call: SPRDIFFC206
- PID: 5188
- TID: 6712
- CMD: C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k swprv
- User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
- Sid: S-1-5-18
- Error:DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{5180f985-9484-11db-9693-806e6f6e6963}0198,0x0053c020,00038BC8,0,00037BC0,4096,[0])

Where \\?\Volume{5180f985-9484-11db-9693-806e6f6e6963} is the volume where partition C: exists (which is where the VSS writers that have failed are accessing).


As I continue to perform research and testing, I'll repost progress so that anyone can answer, and hopefully with a resolution when I find one.

I'm concerned with re-applying SP2, since it may replace any file updates that have occurred since that point with older versions.  I will refer to the list, and use the getver.exe tool to obtain the versions of the files listed.

For reference: here is my post in the Microsoft forum (which contains a link to the VSS trace log of the failure), and here is my post in the TrueCrypt forum.


Thanks,

Matt Brown