Andy, As always, thanks for the response. I too suggested to the Windows person that she contact Microsoft for support.
She tried a bunch of suggestions she found via Google (and from here) and "system writer" suddenly magically reappeared, not knowing what resolved it. I forwarded all of the suggestions/solutions/responses for her to save for the next such problem. To make matters worse, this is one of the Windows 2003 boxes where the 6.4.x client was installed before 6.4.x was patched to not allow installation on 2003 boxes, which of course means they are stuck since they can't go forwards with later 6.4.x patches/updates and don't want to uninstall/downlevel the client and re-backup everything (15M objects). There really should be some kind of workaround for these kinds of situations...... Thanks to everyone for all the responses. On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Andrew Raibeck <[email protected]> wrote: > Zoltan, > > Sorry I'm late to the discussion. If none of the other things that people > have mentioned here help, then consider engaging Microsoft support for > assistance. When "vssadmin list writers" does not show the System Writer, > then this is an OS issue not specific to any given backup product. Thus > other products that use VSS to back up system state, such as WBADMIN (the > Windows backup and recovery command line tool) will not be able to back up > the system state either. > > Best regards, > > - Andy > > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > > Andrew Raibeck | Tivoli Storage Manager Level 3 Technical Lead | > [email protected] > > IBM Tivoli Storage Manager links: > Product support: > > http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Tivoli/Tivoli_Storage_Manager > > Online documentation: > https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home/wiki/Tivoli > +Documentation+Central/page/Tivoli+Storage+Manager > Product Wiki: > https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home/wiki/Tivoli > +Storage+Manager/page/Home > > "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[email protected]> wrote on 2014-01-10 > 07:13:51: > > > From: Zoltan Forray <[email protected]> > > To: [email protected], > > Date: 2014-01-10 07:14 > > Subject: Re: POLL: Backing up Windows Systemstate > > Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[email protected]> > > > > Thanks for the instructions. Although I'm not sure what simply starting > and > > stopping things versus just rebooting the server would do..... I am not > the > > Windows person. > > > > I have passed this onto my Windows folks. > > > > 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 > > On Jan 10, 2014 3:24 AM, "Rick Harderwijk" <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > > -- *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
