If you’re a Veeam user you may feel the same way as I do when it comes to the product, that is:
“It’s absolutely brilliant and I really love it but when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong!”
So we recently we had a backup failure where were getting the following error:
Unable to release guest. Error: Unfreeze error (over VIX): [Backup job failed.]
On the exchange server we were seeing these kind of errors in the event log:
Information Store (3424) Shadow copy instance freeze ended.
&
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine ConvertStringSidToSid (S-2-6-11-2001077031-0230750062-1115881885-1111.bak).
Also when I ran “vssadmin list writers” in a command prompt I found:
Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
Writer Instance Id: {88d385e0-c3c0-4c1a-9122-2dca8b3d797f}
State: [9] Failed
Last error: Timed out
So after some Googling, I found fixes such as:
Reboot the server,
Uninstall any Symantec backup exec agents on the machine,
Re-install VMware tools,
Run a batch script to re-register VSS DLL’s (I’ll post it below),
Make sure Windows firewalls are off.
Well none of these ended up being our issue, ours was down to our physical internal firewalls!! A change had been made meaning the Exchange VSS writer couldn’t write directly to the SAN meaning by the time it routed there via an alternative path the default 20 seconds VSS Microsoft Exchange Writer had timed out! Bugger.
So the firewall man, reverted his change and Bobs your uncle, successful backup!!
Script as promised:
net stop "System Event Notification Service" net stop "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" net stop "COM+ Event System" net stop "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider " net stop "Volume Shadow Copy" cd /d %windir%\system32 net stop Vss net stop swprv regsvr32 /s ATL.DLL regsvr32 /s comsvcs.DLL regsvr32 /s credui.DLL regsvr32 /s CRYPTNET.DLL regsvr32 /s CRYPTUI.DLL regsvr32 /s dhcpqec.DLL regsvr32 /s dssenh.DLL regsvr32 /s eapqec.DLL regsvr32 /s esscli.DLL regsvr32 /s FastProx.DLL regsvr32 /s FirewallAPI.DLL regsvr32 /s kmsvc.DLL regsvr32 /s lsmproxy.DLL regsvr32 /s MSCTF.DLL regsvr32 /s msi.DLL regsvr32 /s msxml3.DLL regsvr32 /s ncprov.DLL regsvr32 /s ole32.DLL regsvr32 /s OLEACC.DLL regsvr32 /s OLEAUT32.DLL regsvr32 /s PROPSYS.DLL regsvr32 /s QAgent.DLL regsvr32 /s qagentrt.DLL regsvr32 /s QUtil.DLL regsvr32 /s raschap.DLL regsvr32 /s RASQEC.DLL regsvr32 /s rastls.DLL regsvr32 /s repdrvfs.DLL regsvr32 /s RPCRT4.DLL regsvr32 /s rsaenh.DLL regsvr32 /s SHELL32.DLL regsvr32 /s shsvcs.DLL regsvr32 /s /i swprv.DLL regsvr32 /s tschannel.DLL regsvr32 /s USERENV.DLL regsvr32 /s Vss_ps.DLL regsvr32 /s wbemcons.DLL regsvr32 /s wbemcore.DLL regsvr32 /s wbemess.DLL regsvr32 /s wbemsvc.DLL regsvr32 /s WINHTTP.DLL regsvr32 /s WINTRUST.DLL regsvr32 /s wmiprvsd.DLL regsvr32 /s wmisvc.DLL regsvr32 /s wmiutils.DLL regsvr32 /s wuaueng.DLL Cd /d %systemroot%\syswow64 regsvr32 /s ole32.dll regsvr32 /s Vss_ps.dll regsvr32 /s es.dll regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll regsvr32 /s msxml.dll regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll net start "COM+ Event System" sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\catsrv.DLL sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\catsrvut.DLL sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\CLBCatQ.DLL net start "COM+ Event System"
