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 | stor...@us.ibm.com 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" <ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu> wrote on 2014-01-10 07:13:51: > From: Zoltan Forray <zfor...@vcu.edu> > To: ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu, > Date: 2014-01-10 07:14 > Subject: Re: POLL: Backing up Windows Systemstate > Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L@vm.marist.edu> > > 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 > zfor...@vcu.edu - 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" <rick.harderw...@gmail.com> > 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 <zfor...@vcu.edu> 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 > > > <rick.harderw...@gmail.com>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 <zfor...@vcu.edu> 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 > > > > > zfor...@vcu.edu - 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 > > > zfor...@vcu.edu - 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 > > > > > >
