VSS Snapshot failed - Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider.

[David_Perrin]

This error occurs on a servers only job which is only backing up disks and the system state. SQL 2005 is isntalled on one of the disks, but I have unchecked the box beside the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" folder to exclude it from backup.

The backup job fails with the error: AOFO: Initialization failure on "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open file Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
VSS Snaspshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot failed. Make sure that all provider services and tasks are running. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

The event viewer shows: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611}. Routine details BeginPrepareSnapshot({f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611},\\?\Volume{74f0e0ce-aba9-11d9-9099-505054503030}\) .

The Volume Shadow Copy service was started when the job started, but it is not started now.

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello,


Are you using AOFO during backups ?


To know the cause of the issue, kindly take the backup of System State using Windows NT Backup Utility and check if its successful.


Also run VSSADMIN list writers and check if its giving errors.


Let us know the results.

Regards


NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.

[David_Perrin]

When I do an VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS, all writers show STABLE and NO ERROR.

The NTBACKUP of the SYSTEM STATE flashes "Preparing to backup using shadow copy" then goes to "Waiting to retry shadow copy..." and eventually shows a status of FAILED.

The event viewer shows three occurrences of this error (each separated by 5 minutes) while NTBACKUP was running:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611}. Routine details BeginPrepareSnapshot({f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611},\\?\Volume{2e658eb9-ab7b-11d9-a526-806e6f6e6963}\) .

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,


Event log shows any error?

As the backup job is also failing with the ntbackup we suggest you to contact Microsoft also.

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

[David_Perrin]

As I said in the previous post

"The event viewer shows three occurrences of the following error (each occurring 5 minutes after the other) while NTBACKUP was running:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611}. Routine details BeginPrepareSnapshot({f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611},\\?\Volume{2e658eb9-ab7b-11d9-a526-806e6f6e6963}\) .

[Russ_Perry]

Are you running Backup Exec 10d with HF 6 or later? If not, my suspicion is that when Backup Exec enumerates the Shadow Copy Writers, it is encountering the SQL 2005 writer which it doesn't know how to deal with. It doesn't matter that you unchecked SQL since all the writers are enumerated at the start of the backup.

Upgrade to 10d with SP1 for full support of SQL 2005.

Russ

[David_Perrin]

Dear Russ,

Thank you for your input. I wish the problem was so easy. I am running Version 10d Rev. 5629 with Hot Fix 6 installed. We have SQL 2005 databases, so the main reason we upgraded to verson 10d was for the SQL 2005 support, and our SQL backups are always successful.

It is just this VSS writer that is making me crazy!

[Worksop_College]

Hi there,
David, I have been having remarkably similar problem myself and likewise seem to be struggling.

(see here http://forums.veritas.com/discussions/thread.jspa?threadID=62403 )

I'd just been looking at the error created in Event viewer on my servers as I have the same message, though obviously different volume/provider ID's. By listing the volume shadow providers it looks to me like the problem is the VSS that has been added by Acronis True Image server 9.1 and I was wondering if you were using that product on your as well?

Stuart

[David_Perrin]

Dear Stuart,

Thank you for your input.

I believe you may have hit the nail on the head. We installed a demo of Acronis True Image Server about 2 weeks ago when our Backups started failing because of VSS writer problems. I was not even aware we had installed it.

We are going to remove the demo and see if the backup works tonight.

Thank you for your help!

Dave

[Worksop_College]

No problem, Let me know how it goes.
If it goes well then it's bye bye to my copy of true image.

[David_Perrin]

Stuart,
I ran a test backup and removing Acronis True Image Server software seems to have corrected my problem.

Thank you again for your assistance.

Dave

[David_Perrin]

Removing Acronis True Image Server software corrected this error. Backup ran last night on the server with no VSS errors.

I guess you should try that also, Stuart!

Dave

[Worksop_College]

Just to add my experience to this, took Acronis off this mornign and ran a test backup, successfully backed up the shadow copy components with no errors. Still got to run my main backups tonight however it looks promising.