ISSUE
VSS writers can fail for various reasons, such as two or more resources trying to use the writer at the same time. When you run vssadmin list writers in a command prompt with admin rights, you might see one of the writers in a failed state, as shown below:
vssadmin list writers
Writer name: 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer'
Writer Id: {66841cd4-6ded-4f4b-8f17-fd23f8ddc3de}
Writer Instance Id: {c35d6ab0-9588-412f-ae7b-cdc37534501f}
State: [8] Failed
Last error: Retryable error
RESOLUTION
-
On the Windows server in question, open a command prompt with administrative rights and run the command
vssadmin info
vssadmin list writers
- Check the writers that have failed.
-
You can use the list below to find the service that corresponds to the VSS Writer in question. Restart the corresponding windows services for the writers that are down.
-
Use the vssadmin list writers command again to show if the vss writer is now in a stable state.
- If the vss writer remains in a failed state, you will need to re-register the writers.
VSS Writer |
Service Name |
Related Windows Service To Restart |
---|
ASR Writer |
VSS |
Volume Shadow Copy |
BITS Writer |
BITS |
Background Intelligent Transfer Service |
Certificate Authority |
CertSvc |
Active Directory Certificate Services |
COM+ REGDB Writer |
VSS |
Volume Shadow Copy |
DFS Replication service writer |
DFSR |
DFS Replication |
DHCP Jet Writer |
DHCPServer |
DHCP Server |
FRS Writer |
NtFrs |
File Replication |
FSRM writer |
srmsvc |
File Server Resource Manager |
IIS Config Writer |
AppHostSvc |
Application Host Helper Service |
IIS Metabase Writer |
IISADMIN |
IIS Admin Service |
Microsoft Exchange Replica Writer |
MSExchangeRepl |
Microsoft Exchange Replication Service |
Microsoft Exchange Writer |
MSExchangeIS |
Microsoft Exchange Information Store |
Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer |
vmms |
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management |
MSMQ Writer (MSMQ) |
MSMQ |
Message Queuing |
MSSearch Service Writer |
WSearch |
Windows Search |
NPS VSS Writer |
EventSystem |
COM+ Event System |
NTDS |
NTDS |
Active Directory Domain Services |
OSearch VSS Writer |
OSearch |
Office SharePoint Server Search |
OSearch14 VSS Writer |
OSearch14 |
SharePoint Server Search 14 |
Registry Writer |
VSS |
Volume Shadow Copy |
Shadow Copy Optimization Writer |
VSS |
Volume Shadow Copy |
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 |
System Writer |
CryptSvc |
Cryptographic Services |
TermServLicensing |
TermServLicensing |
Remote Desktop Licensing |
WDS VSS Writer |
WDSServer |
Windows Deployment Services Server |
WIDWriter |
WIDWriter |
Windows Internal Database VSS Writer |
WINS Jet Writer |
WINS |
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) |
WMI Writer |
Winmgmt |
Windows Management Instrumentation |
NOTES
This KB contains some additional steps to follow from Technet and other related Microsoft VSS subsites.