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System State backup using DPM 2010 fails on Exchange Servers

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Finally DPM 2010 RC is out, but the Customer’s may face issues with taking the system state backup of Exchange servers.

Data Protection Manager System State backups fail for any protected Exchange server that has Forefront Protection for Exchange Server 2010 installed and running.  

For example, If I initiate a system state backup on Exchange 2010 server, it fails with the below error:

C:\Users\admin>wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backupTarget:d:

wbadmin 1.0 - Backup command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corp.
Starting to back up the system state [22/03/2010 11:25]...
Retrieving volume information...
This will back up the system state from volume(s) Local Disk(C:) to d:.
Do you want to start the backup operation?

[Y] Yes [N] No y

Creating a shadow copy of the volumes specified for backup...
Summary of the backup operation:
------------------
The backup of the system state failed [22/03/2010 11:25].
Log of files successfully backed up:
C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsServerBackup\Backup-22-03-2010_11-25-21.log
Log of files for which backup failed:
C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsServerBackup\Backup_Error-22-03-2010_11-25-21.log
A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation failed. Please check "VSS" and "SPP" application event logs for more information.
ERROR - A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation error has occurred: (0x800423f0)

We can also find the following events in the Application log:

Log Name: Application
Source: FSCVSSWriter
Date: 22/03/2010 11:25:23
Event ID: 11003
Task Category: (11)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: BSPINFN0201.cad.local
Description:
Microsoft Forefront Protection VSS Writer failed when preparing for backup. Writer instance: FSCVSSWriter Error code: 0x00000000

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 22/03/2010 11:25:23
Event ID: 8229
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: BSPINFN0201.cad.local
Description:
A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f0, The shadow-copy set only contains only a subset of the volumes needed to correctly backup the selected components of the writer.
Changes that the writer made to the writer components while handling the event will not be available to the requester. Check the event log for related events from the application hosting the VSS writer.

From the Events, the FSCVSSWriter is causing the issue.

This issue can be resolved in two ways,

1. Stop the Microsoft forefront server protection VSS writer service (FSCVSSWRITER) before the system state backup and start the service after it is completed.

2. For DPM 2010, we can edit the C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Bin\LHSystemStateBackup.cmd file on the production server .Please contact PSS support to modify the config file.

 

Niyaz Mohamed,

Senior Support Engineer, Exchange Server Team

Reviewed by

Arindam Thodkar,

Support Escalation Engineer, Exchange Server Team

M Sivagami Sundari,

Technical Lead, Exchange Server Team

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2010
    I seem to have just started having the same issue with FSC last night except that I'm using the standard Window 2008 R2 Backup app. Stopped FSC Shadow Writer and things

  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2010
    Thanks for the tip. Could you please share the necessary changes* to get the DPM 2010 backup of Exchange 2010 System State to work (without having to stop / start the FSCVSSWriter service? Will there be a patch for this eventually?

  • to C:Program FilesMicrosoft DPMDPMBinLHSystemStateBackup.cmd http://www.leedesmond.com/