VSS “System Writer” missing? No CryptSvc or CAPI errors? No Specific Events, Issue. Backup Failed

-
I had a set of Windows 2008R2 servers today that were having trouble backing up the system state via Windows Server Backup – they would fail with the error “System writer is not found in the backup”. I scoured the ‘net and talked to colleagues, and all of the resolutions I could find involved re-registering components, re-securing things in the Cryptography Service (prompted by CAPI or CryptSvc errors in the event log), setting ownership on WinSXS folders, etc. I did not have any such errors in my logs to indicate a permissions issue – in fact, I saw no errors at all (usually good – not so much when something is broken!). However, every time I ran “vssadmin list writers”, indeed the system writer was missing.
After taking a procmon, I noticed that the last thing that was searched were some setupapi.ev* files in \Windows\Inf:
I decided, on a whim, to replace these files with files from another server I had that was working – I stopped the VSS and CryptSvc services (the system writer is part of CryptSvc, so says Microsoft), and copied the three setupapi.ev* files from a working server to one that wasn’t. I then restarted the CryptSvc and VSS services, and ran vssadmin list writers – lo and behold, the System Writer was back! Procmon looked very different too:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changes in Windows 2008 Active Directory

-
Active Directory Domain Services Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), formerly known as Active Directory Directory Services, is the central location for configuration information, authentication requests, and information about all of the objects that are stored within your forest. Using Active Directory, you can efficiently manage users, computers, groups, printers, applications, and other directory-enabled objects from one secure, centralized location. Auditing.  Changes made to Active Directory objects can be recorded so that you know what was changed on the object, as well as the previous and current values for the changed attributes. Fine-Grained Passwords.  Password policies can be configured for distinct groups within the domain. No longer does every account have to use the same password policy within the domain. Read-Only Domain Controller.  A domain controller with a read-only version of the Active Directory database can be deployed in environments where th...
Read more

Windows Server Support Interview Questions and Answers (L1)

-
IIS • Fault-tolerant process architecture----- The IIS 6.0 fault-tolerant process architecture isolates Web sites and applications into self-contained units called application pools • Health Monitoring---- IIS 6.0 periodically checks the status of an application pool with automatic restart on failure of the Web sites and applications within that application pool, increasing application availability. IIS 6.0 protects the server, and other applications, by automatically disabling Web sites and applications that fail too often within a short amount of time • Automatic Process Recycling--- IIS 6.0 automatically stops and restarts faulty Web sites and applications based on a flexible set of criteria, including CPU utilization and memory consumption, while queuing requests • Rapid-fail Protection---- If an application fails too often within a short amount of time, IIS 6.0 will automatically disable it and return a "503 Service Unavailable" error message to any new or queued re...
Read more

How to Write a Letter Requesting Sponsorship

-
Write the letter in proper format. Start with the title of the person you are addressing, the address, and date. Begin with a description of the company (if it's a corporate letter) or state who you are (if it's for personal sponsorship) For example, So and So firm is a nonprofit organization committed to rehabilitation... whatever. State the event and the purpose in lucid terms. "We are holding a ---- event on ----- for raising money/making a video/whatever the reason." Request sponsorship by saying "We would be grateful if you helped in sponsoring our event...". Try to give a plan, for example do you want a banner? An announcement? If it's a banner or the sort you could quote sizes and prices. This makes it easier for companies to select a sponsorship plan instead of trying to figure out what exactly you want and how much. Give details. For example, how many people are attending? Who will be the Chief Guest/guests, whether your event will be ...
Read more