VSS: NTDS Writer failed - 2008R2 DC NO Exchange or VCenter

[pbnsg]

We have had an open ticket with VEEAM on this for several weeks. Can't seem to get a resolution so I thought I'd solicit some advice here.

We have one ESX 4.1 Host. We have two 2008 R2 Fully patched Domain Controllers running on this ESX host. We are running VEEAM 5.0.2.230 x64.

The two Domain Controllers are: MAIN & DC
Main does double duty as File and Printer Shares only and is NOT the Primary Domain Controller. FSMO Role is DC. DC only runs Active Directory & DNS no other functions or services.

The problem is that out of the 10 Servers that run on this ESX Host the only one failing in VEEAM is MAIN (DC). Even after creating a seperate job for this Guest (MAIN) it fails with:

Code: Select all

Freezing guest operating system
Unfreeze error: [Backup job failed. 
Cannot create a shadow copy of the volumes containing writer's data. 
A VSS critical writer has failed. Writer name: [NTDS]. Class ID: [{b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}]. Instance ID: [{4fdad051-1f16-4d3f-986d-fe24d485ba08}]. Writer's state: [VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_POST_SNAPSHOT]. Error code: [0x800423f4].]

We have restarted COM+ Event, Re-registered DLLs for VSS, Verified that all VSS writers are in a non-error state and that VSS file level backups through Server Backup work. I have searched and found a thread referencing 2k8 R2 with Exchange but did not find any really helpful procedures there. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Gostev]

Hi Philip, please post the ID of support case you have open with Veeam on this.
Did you consider reinstalling the domain controller?
Thanks!

[pbnsg]

Case ID#5154929

Thanks for the quick follow up Anton.

I should add that we have no SAN, or vCenter Server and are backing up using NBD.

We do not (preferrably) want to VCapture this Guest and do not have the option at this site to vMotion it off onto another Datastore.

[Gostev]

Thanks Philip. I am pretty sure now that I did hear about the similar support case once about half-year ago. It was quite long one, and I believe they could not make it work without re-installing DC, so the customer chose to disable application-aware processing in the job settings for this specific VM. Probably not something that you wanted to hear though... thanks.

[awojtowicz]

case ID#5203946

Code: Select all

Unable to release guest. Details: Unfreeze error: [Backup job failed. Cannot create a shadow copy of the volumes containing writer\'s data. A VSS critical writer has failed. Writer name: [NTDS]. Class ID: [{b2014c9e-8711-4c5c-a5a9-3cf384484757}]. Instance ID: [{66fddc15-0e4c-4a2a-ad31-32eaf6dae8a3}]. Writer\'s state: [VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_POST_SNAPSHOT]. Error code: [0x800423f4].]

anyone have any idea whats going on with this error? so far veeam hasnt been able to fix it and i need to make sure my backup passes. havent had one yet with this server. its a 2008 64bit DC.

[awojtowicz]

why was my post moved in here? maybe something has been found out since this last thread.

[tsightler]

Make sure automount is not disabled on this server. I've seen a couple of occassions where someone has attempted to use a 2008R2 DC as a Veeam proxy, which disables automount and causes a problem for the AD VSS writer, even if they later remove Veeam. I'd at least check to make sure automount is enabled.

[foggy]

Andrew, the reasons of merging your post are explained here.

As far as I can see from one of the previous cases, restarting the COM+ Event System service helped. Have you tried that?

[awojtowicz]

veeam had me run the fixvss08.bat. then reboot. this restarts all. it didnt work. i did make sure automount was enabled. i just finally got into support by phone. he said there is a .bak file in registry that causes issues with ntds. had me delete it. i need to reboot now and rerun fixvss08.bat but i cant do that during the day. so tonight i will try it.

[jgrimes]

Please keep this post updated - I am having the same issue with a 2008R2 DC.

[pufferdude]

I'm having the VSS/NTDS writer issue on one VM and I've tracked it down to NO NTDS writer showing up at all when I do

vssproviders list writers

This is a 2008R2 DC and nearly identical to another DC I have in the same cluster which is working fine, and does have a NTDS writer registered. I have no idea why the problematic DC doesn't have NTDS writer registered, but is there any easy way to make it so? I've seen reference in this thread to fixvss08.bat but I have no idea where to get that.

[foggy]

I've seen reference in this thread to fixvss08.bat but I have no idea where to get that.

I believe it refers to this procedure allowing to re-register the VSS components, however, according to the article, it is not recommended to run this file on Windows 2008 R2..

[pufferdude]

Thanks for that info, but as you say, "WARNING: DO NOT RUN THIS ON Windows 2008 R2" is certainly enough to give me pause

So, anyone know how to register a NTDS writer on 2008 R2, specifically?

[Collis]

I know it's an old thread, but since a few weeks, I get this error from one of my DC's. Is there any way to (permanently) fix this?

Re-registering of the VSS helps for a while, but I don't want to restart my DC every few days because of this.

DC used to backup just fine, up until feb 11th '13, and has been acting up ever since.

[tsightler]

The most common issues I see with this are a volume that is low on disk space on the system drive.

[cpfleger]

Hi, just sitting at a prospect's PoC with an unpatched Win 2012 DC.
Same problem, but http://www.veeam.com/kb1697 solved it.

Just to let you know.

Regards!

[bogurzak]

I have the same problem. Enabled automount. No profiles with .bak appear in the registry. The backup still finish with the same error.

[foggy]

If nothing in this thread helps, please proceed opening a case with technical support.

[bogurzak]

The server that I had problems with is a DC Server 2012. When I try to backup with Veeam. NTDS vss writer fails with non-retryable error. I had Shadow Protect installed on this server and it was causing the problems with Veeam. Although, when Shadow Protect backs up the server, the NTDS vss writer works as normal.

The problem was resolved after I deleted "StorageCraft Volume Snapshot Software Provider". You can check Providers in cmd >>> vssadmin list providers.
1. Run >>> regedit
2. Backup your Registry
3. Delete following registry keys:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}]
4. Close Registry and restart Volume Shadow Copy service

Hope this info will help someone.

[foggy]

Thanks for sharing, much appreciated!

[haris2887]

The server that I had problems with is a DC Server 2012. When I try to backup with Veeam. NTDS vss writer fails with non-retryable error. I had Shadow Protect installed on this server and it was causing the problems with Veeam. Although, when Shadow Protect backs up the server, the NTDS vss writer works as normal.

The problem was resolved after I deleted "StorageCraft Volume Snapshot Software Provider". You can check Providers in cmd >>> vssadmin list providers.
1. Run >>> regedit
2. Backup your Registry
3. Delete following registry keys:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\VSS\Providers\{24602736-bed9-4619-91b0-243447c6409c}]
4. Close Registry and restart Volume Shadow Copy service

Hope this info will help someone.

I just uninstalled Shadow Protect in my Domain OCntroller Reboot, and BANG! everything works again ... Thanks

[ryanworrell]

I just uninstalled Shadow Protect in my Domain OCntroller Reboot, and BANG! everything works again ... Thanks

I was having the same issue described in this thread. I narrowed it down to having application aware processing enabled in my job. Once I uninstalled ShadowSnap (Datto backup software) as well as ShadowProtect 5 which gets installed with ShadowSnap and after a reboot my backups are working perfectly with application aware processing. Thanks!