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System State failing to backup

RCPAQAP
Level 3

I have set up a backup job with Backup Exec 2012, and it keeps failing on the system state backup.

  - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "\\HAEM02\System?State". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
V-79-10000-11226 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot technology selected returned: "Unexpected provider error". Ensure that all provider services are enabled and can be started. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

The full job log and Event Viewer errors are attached.

 

Any ideas about how to fix this?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

marcusolini
Level 5
Employee

Hi.  Thank you for collecting all of the diagnostic information.  When able, as a diagnostic test, please set the snapshot differential areas for the system, boot, and other data volumes by following steps 15 to 18 below (note, the S: system volume should be set to the C: boot volume).  Then execute the backup job that is failing with "Unexpected provider error" and report the outcome.  Thank you.

(15) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=C: /ON=C:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(16) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=S: /ON=C:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(17) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=I: /ON=I:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(18) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=E: /ON=E:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

View solution in original post

14 REPLIES 14

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Is this machine a VM? If it is, push out the RAWS to this machine again.

Backup_Exec1
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified
Hi Please check link below http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH159538 Ensure too vss writers are stable on the server were system state backup is failing ,if writers are failed normally doing a reboot helps to get the writer to stable state,but if they ate failing consistently it will be good to register VSS http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH70486 Edited Moreover please check below too According to the research, the issue may be caused by an invalid entry inside the following registry sub tree. HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList Please open the registry editor with regedit. Expand and local to the subtree, check if there is an entry that has a ".bak" value appended. If so, this may be cause the failure when trying to resolve the SID of the writer. Please backup the registry key first, and then delete that entry with the extra ".bak" Then you may reboot the problematic server to check if it the issue can be fixed. http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH157464 Thanks.

RCPAQAP
Level 3

Thanks for the replies.

Some further info: Server is a Windows 2008 R2 Operating system, and is a physical box, not a VM.

I have run the 'vssadmin list writers' command listed in the first link, and this is the result:

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'DFS Replication service writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

 

 

The server has been restarted several times and the backups continue to fail.

I am unable to restart at the moment as it is a File/Print server and is in use.

 

RCPAQAP
Level 3

Sorry if this is a duplicate, but I posted this just before and after an hour, it still was not visible in the forum.

I have run the vssadmin show writers command and received this output:

C:\>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'DFS Replication service writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   State: [7] Failed
   Last error: Timed out

Writer name: 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer'
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

 

Restarting machine still has same result.

This is a physical Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard server (Not VM), so was unable to perform the steps shown in the second link or the suggestion from pkh. Apologies for not mentioning that in the OP.

 

I have also looked in that registry tree, and none of the subkeys have a .bak suffix

Backup_Exec1
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi

 

Have you tried registerng the VSS as per the link posted by me above ,so please do that & when possible do restart & then check

If writers are failing still this is not a backup exec issue you would have to engage Microsoft to resolve the issue with writers

Thanks

point-blanc
Level 4

Can you please check for any event viewer errors with the correct time stamp. Check the application logs as well as system logs.

RCPAQAP
Level 3

I have not tried the re-registering as it says not to do that on Server 2008 R2.

The only errors are in the Application log, and those are attached to the OP. There are no errors in the system log.

Backup_Exec1
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi

 

Though it is mentioning donot do it R2 ,I think it should not be an issue as we are only registring VSS DLL and not doing any sort of modification or deleting it. So please do that once & see if that helps else you would have to open a formal case with Microsoft to resolve the issue

 

Thanks

marcusolini
Level 5
Employee

Hi.  Based on the provided Backup Exec Job Log and Application Event Log, there appears to be an issue creating a snapshot of the C: [\\?\Volume{6cc1a8c9-9195-11e0-8619-806e6f6e6963}] volume, which is caused by the inability to find a snapshot differential area.  A possibility is that the C: volume is low on free space.  When able, please collect the following information using the native Windows command line utilities and attach the output to this post for review.  Thank you.

(1)  C:\>VSSADMIN LIST VOLUMES

(2)  C:\>VSSADMIN LIST PROVIDERS

(3)  C:\>VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWS

(4)  C:\>VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE

(5)  C:\>REG QUERY "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS" /s

(6)  C:\>REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SPP" /s

(7)  C:\>REG QUERY "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MountMgr" /s

(8)  C:\>REG QUERY "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TrueCrypt" /s

(9)  C:\>REG QUERY "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\control\hivelist" /s

(10) C:\> FSUTIL FSINFO NTFSINFO C:

(11) C:\> DIR /A

(12)  C:\>BCDEDIT /ENUM ALL

(13)  C:\>MOUNTVOL

(14)(a)  C:\>DISKPART

(14)(b)   DISKPART> LIST DISK

(14)(c)   DISKPART> LIST VOLUME

(14)(d)   DISKPART> LIST VDISK

(14)(e)   DISKPART> EXIT

 

RCPAQAP
Level 3

@Backup_Exec

I am still hesitant to perform those steps when it specifically states not to.

If I can find another way around this, then I guess I will have to log a MS support ticket.

@marcusolini

I have attached the output from those commands

marcusolini
Level 5
Employee

Hi.  Thank you for collecting all of the diagnostic information.  When able, as a diagnostic test, please set the snapshot differential areas for the system, boot, and other data volumes by following steps 15 to 18 below (note, the S: system volume should be set to the C: boot volume).  Then execute the backup job that is failing with "Unexpected provider error" and report the outcome.  Thank you.

(15) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=C: /ON=C:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(16) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=S: /ON=C:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(17) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=I: /ON=I:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

(18) C:\>VSSADMIN ADD SHADOWSTORAGE /FOR=E: /ON=E:  /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

RCPAQAP
Level 3

Thanks Marcusolini,

That post seemed to have done the trick.

I didn't do it through command-line, but went through the Shadow Copies tab on the C drive properties screen.

I had to set all drives to unlimited space for shadow copies, even the drives that had Shadow Copies disabled on them. The Shadow Copy tab then looked like this:

Volume     Next Run Time     Shares     Used

C:\            Disabled              3             0 bytes on C:\
E:\            Disabled              0             0 bytes on E:\
I:\             Disabled              2              0 bytes on I:\
S:\            Disabled              0             0 bytes on S:\
U:\            29/08/2012...       3             10915 MB on U:\

 

C, E, I and S have no shadow copies configured, but it seems it still needs to know it has enough space available :)

Regardless of the logic (or lack of) it seems to be working now. It has completed its first ever full and incremental backup! :)

Backup_Exec1
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi

 

Good to see all working fine again you can mark the post as solved by marking the one which helped the most to resolve the issue

 

Thanks

marcusolini
Level 5
Employee

Great news!  From my experience there are many environmental factors that are beyond the control of Backup Exec with regards to VSS.  Glad to help.  Thank you!