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 Windows OS Hub / Windows Server 2016 / VSS Writer Failed: Re-registering VSS Writers on Windows Server

April 28, 2018 Windows Server 2012 R2Windows Server 2016

VSS Writer Failed: Re-registering VSS Writers on Windows Server

Most backup solutions for Windows use Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create backup copies of the application or service data. In some cases, the VSS service or one of its writers start to work incorrectly which results in failures during the backup. I have faced such an problem on Exchange, MSSQL and Hyper-V servers. To quickly recover VSS and its components, I use the following instruction.

To detect a failed VSS writer, let’s display the list of VSS writers registered in the system and their status using the vssadmin command.
vssadmin list writers

Find the components with the Failed state in the list. For the components working normally, the state looks as follows: State: [1] Stable.

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
Writer Id: {53da1ac4-4bab-404a-0917-ae23f8aacfb7}
Writer Instance Id: {61b56ab0-9588-432f-ae7b-3233753ffa38}
State: [7] Failed
Last error: Retryable error

vss exchange writer in failed state

As you can see, in our case Microsoft Exchange Writer has failed (State: [8] Failed), so you won’t be able to complete the Exchange backup. Typically, to fix the state of this component, it’s enough to restart the server (which is not always possible for production reasons).

To repair the Exchange writer, try to restart the related service. (The table below shows the list of typical VSS Writers and the related Windows services.) Besides stopping the service, sometimes you will have to kill a hung service process manually.

VSS Writer System Service Name Full Name of a Service
IIS Config Writer AppHostSvc Application Host Helper Service
BITS Writer BITS Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Certificate Authority CertSvc Active Directory Certificate Services
System Writer CryptSvc Cryptographic Services
DFS Replication service writer DFSR DFS Replication
DHCP Jet Writer DHCPServer DHCP Server
NPS VSS Writer EventSystem COM+ Event System
IIS Metabase Writer IISADMIN IIS Admin Service
Microsoft Exchange Writer MSExchangeIS Microsoft Exchange Information Store
Microsoft Exchange Replica Writer MSExchangeRepl Microsoft Exchange Replication Service
MSMQ Writer (MSMQ) MSMQ Message Queuing
NTDS NTDS Active Directory Domain Services
FRS Writer NtFrs File Replication
OSearch VSS Writer OSearch Office SharePoint Server Search
OSearch14 VSS Writer OSearch14 SharePoint Server Search 14
SMS Writer SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER
SPSearch VSS Writer SPSearch Windows SharePoint Services Search
SPSearch4 VSS Writer SPSearch4 SharePoint Foundation Search V4
SqlServerWriter SQLWriter SQL Server VSS Writer
FSRM writer srmsvc File Server Resource Manager
TermServLicensing TermServLicensing Remote Desktop Licensing
Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer vmms Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management
ASR Writer VSS Volume Shadow Copy
COM+ REGDB Writer VSS Volume Shadow Copy
Registry Writer VSS Volume Shadow Copy
Shadow Copy Optimization Writer VSS Volume Shadow Copy
WDS VSS Writer WDSServer Windows Deployment Services Server
WIDWriter WIDWriter Windows Internal Database VSS Writer
WMI Writer Winmgmt Windows Management Instrumentation
WINS Jet Writer WINS Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)
MSSearch Service Writer WSearch Windows Search

Run the following command again:

vssadmin list writers

Check the status of the problem VSS writer. If it hasn’t changed to Stable state and the problem is not fixed, you can try to re-register the VSS components and libraries.

Go to this directory:

cd c:\windows\system32

Stop the following services: Volume Shadow Copy and Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider.

Net Stop VSS
Net Stop SWPRV

stop the shadow copy services: vss and swprv

Re-register the VSS components:

regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
vssvc /register

re-registering vss writers on windows server 2012 / 2016

Start the previously stopped services:
Net Start SWPRV
Net Start VSS

Make sure that the error of the problem VSS writer has disappeared.

This method of restarting and re-registering of VSS components is effective both on Windows Server 2008 / 2012/ R2 and on Windows Server 2016.

2 comments
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2 comments

Bill November 12, 2019 - 6:12 pm

completely full of errors when I remove the silent flag.

Reply
PK June 24, 2020 - 9:54 am

It is not recommended to do re-registration of DLLs on 2008 r2 or above version of OS.

Reply

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