The VSS writer error

[A_L_Johnson]

Hi team,

My backup exec 2012 running fine daily, suddenly it failed with an error message as below:

V-79-57344-65233 - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "\\172.16.0.11\System?State". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). HYPERLINK  \l "f"Snapshot technology error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. HYPERLINK  \l "10"Check the Windows Event Viewer for details. HYPERLINK  \l "11"Writer Name: Registry, Writer ID: {AFBAB4A2-367D-4D15-A586-71DBB18F8485}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during freeze operation (9).

I went to the In Event Viewer of remote server which I want to backup and found 2 messages:

1/

A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f4, The writer experienced a non-transient error.  If the backup process is retried,
the error is likely to reoccur.
. Changes that the writer made to the writer components while handling the event will not be available to the requester. Check the event log for related events from the application hosting the VSS writer.

Operation:
   Freeze Event

Context:
   Execution Context: Writer
   Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Name: Registry Writer
   Writer Instance ID: {1d5002e1-378c-4337-8e4f-654f76d9ae98}
   Command Line: C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe
   Process ID: 3088

2/

Volume Shadow Copy Error: An error 0x00000000c000014d was encountered while Registry Writer was preparing the registry for a shadow copy.  Check the Application and System event logs for any related errors.

Operation:
   OnFreeze event
   Freeze Event

Context:
   Execution Context: Registry Writer
   Execution Context: Writer
   Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Name: Registry Writer
   Writer Instance ID: {1d5002e1-378c-4337-8e4f-654f76d9ae98}

Could some one please tell me what was happen and how do I fix it.

Regards,

Tho.

[CraigV]

Hi Amy,

Start with a reboot of the server in question...this should reinitialise the VSS writers (open a command prompt and type: vssadmin list writers ----> they should all be stable and running!).

You also don't mention the OS of the server in question...if Windows Server 2003, you can download and install the VSS Rollup Patch that is the latest release.

Thanks!

[Tho_Phan]

Hi CraigV,

I reboot the system last night (windows 2008r2) and it success backup today. Yes, for Microsoft Windows, reboot is the 1st step to troubleshoot.

Thanks

Tho.

[CraigV]

THO: Check out the TN below for more troubleshooting steps:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH129724

Thanks!

[Stylax]

I'm seeing this 'A failure occurred querying the Writer status' on all versions of Backup Exec 12.5/2010/2010R1/R2/R3/2012 and across various server platforms, 2003/2008/2008R2

Seems to have been going on for several months now intermittently.

Anyone know what's going on ?

A server reboot often fixes it for a week or so then it comes back again.

Obviously some underlying issue here.

[Stylax]

..and these are backups that for the best part work perfectly happily for weeks on end following a restart, so why the intermittent errors ?

[CraigV]

...more like a couple of years, and the issues range from BE with a faulty VSS writer to something on the OS itself that's corrupt.

[CraigV]

...if you post within minutes of a previous post, it's best to just edit the first...

Thanks!

[Stylax]

Really disheartening to have it happening on a new Windows Server 2008 R2 with BE 2012 fully patched..

Roll on BE 2012 R2...they've bound to have fixed it by that version ! (sic)

[CraigV]

..."thanks" for the -1

That said, don't expect BE 2012 R2 to fix this, especially if it is an issue with Windows...I've seen this issue with Veeam Backup and Replication and CA ARCserve, so it isn't confined to BE...