VSS problems backing up windows 2012 R2 server VM in hyper-v server

Hi everyone,

I have a single Hyper-V 2012 R2 server host with 2 VMs running windows 2012 R2 server with the latest updates.

The VMs are backed up using Altaro VMBACKUP which runs on the host.

The first VM is a DC which is backed up successfully.

The second VM OS is Windows 2012 R2 with Exchange Server 2013 onpremise.

This VM has been backing up for years without any problem and since 2 months ago the backup has been failing.

The Altaro VMBACKUP shows the following error:

There was a problem while rolling back the latest failed backup for this VM to the last consistent state. (Error code 'ROLLBACK_306')
The rollback will be attempted again automatically before any subsequent backups or restores on this VM until it is successful, so the health of the backup data should not be affected.
Additional information is available:
There was a problem while rolling back the latest failed backup for this VM to the last consistent state. (Error code 'ROLLBACK_016')
The rollback will be attempted again automatically before any subsequent backups or restores on this VM until it is successful, so the health of the backup data should not be affected.

I contacted Altaro who told me that this is a VSS error on the VM.

I ran the following command:

vssadmin list writers and I get:

C:\Windows\System32>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
Writer Instance Id: {e3fe5bef-4d5d-4bfb-ba2d-70b26bc79c1f}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Instance Id: {c728413d-e449-43a3-90d7-3a2c808d6f5a}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Microsoft Exchange Writer'
Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
Writer Instance Id: {3fa2fe09-b897-467d-81b0-27e087733089}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
Writer Instance Id: {c872e448-32e3-4a64-b87f-d327029fceed}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'MSMQ Writer (MSMQ)'
Writer Id: {7e47b561-971a-46e6-96b9-696eeaa53b2a}
Writer Instance Id: {b78ccc41-d903-43f6-b66b-f0b63efc5de7}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
Writer Instance Id: {5563ea37-874b-4454-8c7b-f9d600dbae6f}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
Writer Instance Id: {b9b56105-58d7-4c57-9a89-ab1deb5c855f}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
Writer Instance Id: {b3133987-1fcb-4ba6-9bbc-7061fa422092}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Instance Id: {425abb99-ed35-41cf-9bfc-91d88d40a748}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
Writer Instance Id: {ef8f79ff-0be3-4d5d-a116-5dd26f4ae389}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Config Writer'
Writer Id: {2a40fd15-dfca-4aa8-a654-1f8c654603f6}
Writer Instance Id: {cc66af8d-b858-490b-a67c-7a8473411603}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
Writer Instance Id: {3139badb-8634-4e7d-a358-c329e1fcc174}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

The state of the following writers shows waiting for completion

SqlServerWriter Waiting
Microsoft Exchange Writer
MSMQ Writer (MSMQ)
WMI Writer
IIS Metabase Writer
IIS Config Writer

The other writers are stable.

I restarted these services:

Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Volume Shadow Copy
Cryptographic services

Nothing has changed.

The I ran the following script to fix VSS:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Echo off
cd c:\windows\system32
Net Stop VSS
Net Stop SWPRV
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
vssvc /register
Net Start SWPRV
Net Start VSS

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rebooted the server, still same backup issue.

Updated Windows 2012 R2 with the latest available updates.

Now Altaro tells me that if I upgrade to the new version this may resolved.
But I feel that there is something wrong with the VSS.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this because I have just come across a brick wall?

Thank you

Best regards

Alfred