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Disabling specific VSS writers with VMware Tools - Connect IT Community | Kaseya
<main> <article class="userContent"> <h2 data-id="summary"><strong>SUMMARY</strong></h2> <p>Disabling specific VSS writers with VMware Tools</p> <h2 data-id="issue"><strong>ISSUE</strong></h2> <p></p> <h3 data-id="purpose">Purpose</h3> <p>To keep vProtect backups from affecting application backups (SQL, exchange, etc).</p> <h3 data-id="applies-to">Applies To</h3> <p>Windows 2003 and newer</p> <h3 data-id="symptoms">Symptoms</h3> <p>Application SQL differential fails with error message “Another application has backed up your SQL database, please run full again prior to differential backup.</p> <h3 data-id="n-a"> </h3> <h2 data-id="resolution"><strong>RESOLUTION</strong></h2> <p></p> <h3 data-id="disabling-specific-vss-writers-with-vmware-tools"><b>Disabling specific VSS writers with VMware Tools</b></h3> <p>Details With vSphere 4.0, VMware introduced the ability to disable specificVSS writers for the benefit of troubleshooting a specific VSS writer issue.</p> <p>If you experience an issue backing up a specific virtual machine using snapshot technology and you have identified an issue with a specific VSS writer within the virtual machine, this article explains how to disable that VSS writer from being called during a snapshot operation. Solution To disable a specific VSS writer being called during a snapshot operation:</p> <p>Determine the name of the VSS writer that you want to exclude from the snapshot operation. Run this command from within Windows:</p> <p><b>vssadmin list writers</b></p> <p>Note: With Windows Vista, 7, and 2008 the command prompt may need to be run with administrator elevation.</p> <p>You see output similar to:</p> <blockquote class="blockquote"> <p><b><span style="color: #808080;">Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'</span></b><br><b><span style="color: #808080;">Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}</span></b><br><b><span style="color: #808080;">Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}</span></b><br><b><span style="color: #808080;">State: [1] Stable</span></b><br><b><span style="color: #808080;">Last error: No error</span></b></p> </blockquote> <p><b>Note</b>: The name of the VSS Writer is highlighted.</p> <p>Edit the <b>vmbackup.conf</b> file located at <b>%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools\</b>. If the file does not exist, create it. Place the name of the VSS writer you want to disable on a separate line. If you want to disable more than one VSS writer, ensure that you place each VSS writer name on a separate line. For example:</p> <p>Task Scheduler Writer NTDS SqlServerWriter</p> <p><b>Restart the VMware Tools service.</b> When the writer issue has been resolved, you can remove the offending writer from the vmbackup.conf file.</p> <h2 data-id="cause"><strong>CAUSE</strong></h2> <p>vProtect using via VSS will cause this error.</p> <h2 data-id="notes"><strong>NOTES</strong></h2> <p>Note: VMware does not provide these VSS writers. Engage the provider of the VSS writer to troubleshoot the writer issue to ensure application consistency with the writer.<br> </p> <h3 data-id="third-party-sources">Third-Party Sources</h3> VMware - <a rel="nofollow" href="/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=http%3A%2F%2Fkb.vmware.com%2Fselfservice%2Fmicrosites%2Fsearch.do%3Flanguage%3Den_US%26cmd%3DdisplayKC%26externalId%3D1031200">Disabling specific VSS writers with VMware Tools</a> (1031200)<br>Microsoft - TechNet article on <a rel="nofollow" href="/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fprevious-versions%2Fwindows%2Fit-pro%2Fwindows-server-2008-R2-and-2008%2Fcc754968%28v%3Dws.10%29">Vssadmin utility and usage</a> </article> </main>