Zoltan,

I just checked my documentation, and have written down the following steps
to get rid of VSS writer errors with TSM backups:

1. Stop WMI Services
2. Stop Volume Shadow Copy service
3. Stop Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
4. Stop Cryptographic Services
5. Stop COM+ Event System
6. Start COM+ Event System
7. Start Cryptographic Services
8. Start Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
9. Start Volume Shadow Copy service
10. Start WMI Services

Please do check if you have any critical applications depending on these
services, stopping some services might be disruptive to your applications.
If I recall correctly, stoppping COM+ Event System also stops other
services. Do not forget to check if you need to restart more services after
starting COM+ service again.

To see if you can do a System State backup, try one with the GUI client, it
will tell you quite quickly if it can't run.

It took me quite a while to figure this out, I hope this will be of help to
you and your team.

Cheers,

Rick


On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 8:07 PM, Zoltan Forray <[email protected]> wrote:

> Rick,
>
> Thanks for the offer and yes we would greatly appreciate if you can find
> your notes on how you fixed it......
>
> Z
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 2:00 PM, Rick Harderwijk
> <[email protected]>wrote:
>
> > Zoltan,
> >
> > We do succesfully do system state backups on Windows 2003 R2 and 2008 R2
> > servers. Why we do it? Simple: disaster recovery.
> >
> > Do we occasionally get problems? Yes, we do, and I do recall having an
> > issue with a disappeared System Writer as well. I cannot recall exactly
> how
> > I fixed it, it might have been something to do with COM+. If you want me
> > to, I can have a look tomorrow, see if I can find documentation on that
> > issue.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Rick
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 7:12 PM, Zoltan Forray <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > A question about backing up systemstate, which seems to give us
> numerous
> > > headaches.
> > >
> > > Do you backup systemsstate on your Windows servers and WHY?
> > >
> > > My Windows folks constantly contact me about errors backup up and
> getting
> > > failures related to the systemstate files/process or VSS.
> > >
> > > For example, today's headache is a 2008 box failing with *"System
> Writers
> > > 'system writer'  do not exist * and yes, doing a "vssadmin list
> writers"
> > > does not list "system writers".  They have been fighting this since
> > > November, with no solution to fixing this problem.  All hits/suggested
> > > solutions from Google searches have been tried, to no avail. I don't
> > thing
> > > the server owners are willing to do a complete rebuild.
> > >
> > > The simple solution would be to NOT backups systemstate.   For a simple
> > > 2008 server, what do we lose by not backing up systemstate?
> > >
> > > --
> > > *Zoltan Forray*
> > > TSM Software & Hardware Administrator
> > > Virginia Commonwealth University
> > > UCC/Office of Technology Services
> > > [email protected] - 804-828-4807
> > > Don't be a phishing victim - VCU and other reputable organizations will
> > > never use email to request that you reply with your password, social
> > > security number or confidential personal information. For more details
> > > visit http://infosecurity.vcu.edu/phishing.html
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> *Zoltan Forray*
> TSM Software & Hardware Administrator
> Virginia Commonwealth University
> UCC/Office of Technology Services
> [email protected] - 804-828-4807
> Don't be a phishing victim - VCU and other reputable organizations will
> never use email to request that you reply with your password, social
> security number or confidential personal information. For more details
> visit http://infosecurity.vcu.edu/phishing.html
>

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