Why cant I find the Osearch16 vss writer on my sharepoint server SE installation?

Question

We are using Dell Avamar to backup our systems. When trying to backup Sharepoint on-premise server Subscription edition we're getting errors referring to Osearch16 VSS writer. I cant find this writer on our system, neither on the frontend (FE/Cache) or application-server (App/Search). Search is activated and working. Only writer I find on the server (vssadmin list writers) is "Sharepoint services writer". Dell says we must have the "Osearch16 VSS Writer". Chatgpt says this writer is deprecated from Subscription edition, but I (or chatgpt) can't find any documentation confirming this. What's true? How can I enable this writer?

Answer 1

I'm glad to hear you found the answer for the issue, if you have any other issue about SharePoint, you are welcome to raise a ticket in this forum.

By the way, since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that "The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others.". So, I would make a brief summary of this thread:

You could click the "Accept Answer" button for this summary to close this thread, and this can make it easier for other community members to see the useful information when reading this thread. Thanks for your understanding!

[Why cant I find the Osearch16 vss writer on my sharepoint server SE installation?]

Issue Symptom:

OP is using Dell Avamar to back up systems. When trying to backup SharePoint on-premise server Subscription edition, getting errors referring to Osearch16 VSS writer. OP can't find this writer on our system, neither on the frontend (FE/Cache) or application-server (App/Search).

Search is activated and working. Only writer OP find on the server (vssadmin list writers) is "SharePoint services writer". Dell says OP must have the "Osearch16 VSS Writer".

How can OP enable this writer?

Current status:

There was a mismatch between the service accounts used on the windows service "SharePoint search host controller" vs the account registered in SharePoint central admin for the search host controller service. When these two where aligned, after a while the writer appeared in the list of writers again.

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Answer 2

According to this Microsoft documentation, the Osearch16 VSS Writer is not explicitly listed as deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.

You could try using Register-SPVssWriter PowerShell to register the SharePoint VSS Writer service on your server.

References:

Register-SPVssWriter

Starting and Configuring the WSS Writer Service

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Answer 3

Hi, sorry didn't notice the answer. MS Support helped me figuring this out eventually. There was a mismatch between the service accounts used on the windows service "Sharepoint search host controller" vs the account registered in Sharepoint central admin for the search host controller service. When these two where aligned, after a while the writer appeared in the list of writers again. All good!