An SBS Customer of mine running Exchange 2007 on Microsoft Windows Server SBS 2008 with Backup Exec 2010 R2 ran into a backup issue where their Exchange 2007 backups with GRT began failing. The backups had been operational for over 3 years and suddenly started failing with the following errors.
Before I cover of the errors we were experiencing, it is important to note that during this time we also had disk problems with disks in a RAID5 array failing and requiring replacing. The failing disks also resulted in some slight disk corruption and I needed to repair the Exchange database with eseutil /p.
The following errors were experienced:
- AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
V-79-10000-11226 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot provider selected returned: "Unexpected provider error". Ensure that all provider services are enabled and can be started. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
Date: 9/18/2014 7:45:11 PM
Event ID: 12293
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Server.domain.local
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details EndPrepareSnapshots({2c88e07d-a06c-4f6f-b826-b6e8bbfd3e10}) [hr = 0x8000ffff].
Before I cover of the errors we were experiencing, it is important to note that during this time we also had disk problems with disks in a RAID5 array failing and requiring replacing. The failing disks also resulted in some slight disk corruption and I needed to repair the Exchange database with eseutil /p.
The following errors were experienced:
- AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
V-79-10000-11226 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot provider selected returned: "Unexpected provider error". Ensure that all provider services are enabled and can be started. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.
In addition to the above Backup Exec error, the following Windows Application Event Logs were logged:
Log Name: Application
Source: VSSDate: 9/18/2014 7:45:11 PM
Event ID: 12293
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Server.domain.local
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details EndPrepareSnapshots({2c88e07d-a06c-4f6f-b826-b6e8bbfd3e10}) [hr = 0x8000ffff].
Operation:
Executing Asynchronous OperationContext:
Current State: DoSnapshotSetAfter researching VSS EventID 12293 it brought me to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924262 which said the resolution was:
"To resolve this issue, you can delete a Snapshot copy that lets you continue with your present backup."
I went and deleted all Exchange VSS backups with diskshadow.exe by using the following commands:
unexposed e:
delete shadows all
Note: E:\ is the volume containing my Microsoft Exchange databases.
After cleaning up the existing shadow copies, Exchange backups resumed to normal. I believe the problem was introduced due to the disk corruption problems we experienced.
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