differential backup failure

[Mark_Simko]

I've been struggling to get the backups to complete correctly for well over a month. The full backups complete correctly, but the differentials fail to complete. I have AOFO installed on theis server which hosts MSExchange. It is a Windows 2003 SBS server. Using BackupExec 10.1 for SBS

For some reason the Shadow Copy Service Provider seems to be the offending service. How can I get the differentials to work right?

Here is the log from the most recent differential backup job:

Backup- MBSNYCAOFO: Initialization failure on: "C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "D:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\BKUPEXEC". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\SHAREPOINT". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\MBSNYC\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\SBSMONITORING". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Please refer the following technote:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/278212

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.

[Mark_Simko]

I am familiar with that paritcular technote. It does not solve the problem at all. If I run a full backup, the job completes without failure. If I run the differential backup, even after rebooting the server, I get the same backup failures again. There is a fundamental problem that merely rebooting is not correcting.

I have applied MS hotfix 158665, and rebooted the server. That also does not correct the problem. This is from the log from the most recent differential backup:

Backup- MBSNYCAOFO: Initialization failure on: "C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "D:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\BKUPEXEC". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\SBSMONITORING". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "MBSNYC\SHAREPOINT". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\MBSNYC\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.
AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7). Consult your Microsoft documentation for details. Check the Windows Event Viewer for corresponding application or system errors.

===============

The event viewer indicates that the VSS processes start and stop normally. That full backups work ok implies that the VSS service can function properly.

Unfortunately, I am going round and round with this software now. I need an answer that works, and that doesn't rely on daily reboots for backups that fail.

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Try taking the same backup with NTbackup.


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.

[Mark_Simko]

Cannot get NTBackup to run a backup. Halts with an error message that there is no free media of the selected type, which is 4mm dds tape. This is with a brand new tape inserted into the drive. Neither will it work with allocated media tape from backupexec jobs.

Also found this alert from most recent full backup disturbing:

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

4 files were skipped.
A snapshot operation required by this job was unsuccessful. Check the job log and the Windows Event Viewer for additional information.
NOTE: The backup job was configured to use the Advanced Open File Option. However, files were skipped during backup processing. Please ensure that the Media Server MBSNYC is properly licensed with the Advanced Open File Option, or that the job is properly targeted for media servers that are licensed with the Advanced Open File Option

This is the output from vssadmin list writers:

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

Writer name: 'System Writer'
Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Instance Id: {f21313b7-c7ba-41c5-b5bc-e3d9af92e725}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'MSDEWriter'
Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}
Writer Instance Id: {9d2bdc68-25f6-4ca3-b0fa-6413815625bf}
State: Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'FRS Writer'
Writer Id: {d76f5a28-3092-4589-ba48-2958fb88ce29}
Writer Instance Id: {206e3dd9-36c6-45c4-8305-26e41ee1b074}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
Writer Instance Id: {c5a45045-cdf2-4cd2-ab2e-ad7264dd4031}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WINS Jet Writer'
Writer Id: {f08c1483-8407-4a26-8c26-6c267a629741}
Writer Instance Id: {49c5bbb8-f16b-4571-af1a-dfd29135fc81}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
Writer Instance Id: {4b55c64f-e40b-4184-b46f-e95777fbcb2f}
State: Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Event Log Writer'
Writer Id: {eee8c692-67ed-4250-8d86-390603070d00}
Writer Instance Id: {b3215398-07c8-40a7-9804-46e6de234c5c}
State: Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Instance Id: {a7b5dbd0-5089-4052-beab-665564a73874}
State: Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Dhcp Jet Writer'
Writer Id: {be9ac81e-3619-421f-920f-4c6fea9e93ad}
Writer Instance Id: {2f40812e-9d35-4865-bd63-d58fc7829d11}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
Writer Instance Id: {f4f59935-f9c0-4ee1-80d7-3b000b89c2ad}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'NTDS'
Writer Id: {b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}
Writer Instance Id: {e9dd36a9-e1cd-4770-bc19-8e9ac1e39f63}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
Writer Instance Id: {16970860-c3fb-4934-a074-c89e3ee7d33e}
State: Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Removable Storage Manager'
Writer Id: {5d3c3e01-0297-445b-aa81-a48d7151e235}
Writer Instance Id: {093cc5e4-629d-4e91-b7b3-7996e4036bae}
State: Stable
Last error: No error

Event viewer indicates that this started and stopped normally

[CCS_Support]

Mark,

I am having the exact same problem. Same setup, too: Windows 2003 SBS SP1, Backup Exec 10d (aka 10.1), Advanced OFO. Tape backup is a DAT72. Full backups run fine, but differentials fail. I have even tried setting the Exchange and SQL backups to full and leaving the filesystem backups as differential; same problem.

Anyone have any more insights into this?

[Dave_Bunye]

Have you guys turned on VSS writer? It is disabled by default. Go to this Microsoft article for instructions if you have not:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q838183

Other things to consider:

Read the Backup Exec readme, specifically the Exchange Agent section. It list the limitations with Snapshot and SBS.

[Renuka_-]

Hello Mark,
Please check the list writer status as per the following technote:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/278212
Also try the NT backup.
NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answeredand would be moved toanswered questions pool.

[Michael_Hiney]

I'm having the very same problem, only with restores (which in a way is even worse). Jobs consistently fail at a byte count of 570,230. I've referred to the technote, which is absolutely no help - all of my VSS writers are in a Stable/No error state. I'm not running SBS, but I have checked the registry anyway and confirmed that the offending key is not present. I've attempted re-registering OLE32.dll, also with no joy. I've referred to various forums and newsgroups posts, all of which report much the same results, with the addition that none of the recommended hotfixes/etc work.

I'm on Backup Exec Version 9.1 Rev 4691, but I have no wish to upgrade a system in order to get something working that should be working in the first place. Being able to restore is the whole point of backups, after all. My media server is a dedicated server running Windows Server 2003 EE with SP1. My Exchange Server is also a dedicated server also running Windows Server 2003 EE with SP1 and Exchange Server 2003 EE with SP2. Both are fully patched.

[Tim_Wiser]

We're having the same problem. Any job that involves the volume shadow copy service is failing with either "A failure occurred accessing the object list" or "An unexpected error occurred..." relating to the cache file. This is when backing up Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition R2 (with SP1).

To get round the first error I applied the Windows Server hotfix from Microsoft as mentioned on the MS knowledgebase article. However, I'm still having the second error. There's no .VSP cache files anywhere on my disks.

We have upgraded to BackupExec 11d (from 10d) but this hasn't cleared the problem. I tried to run an NTBackup but had the same error as the chap earlier when trying to write to DDS4 tapes.

[Tim_Wiser]

Is it just me or is there a problem with these forums where threads get so far and then just................. stop. No response from Symantec or anything close to a solution?
:(