Exchange Server 2013 - Microsoft Exchange Writer dissapearing

Question

Exchange Server 2013 - Microsoft Exchange Writer dissapearing

Cristian Ruiz 191

Hello,
We have a customer running 4 Exchange Server 2013 in High Availability, 2 for CAS, and 2 for Mailbox Server role.
They run Backup Exec to do the databases backups. The operating systems of the Exchange Servers is WS2012R2.

The problem is that several times the Microsoft Exchange Writer disappears and of course the backup job fails.
They can bring it back restarting a specific service (I do not remember wich now, but it does not care), and the Writer appears again, may be two times the backup job work as espected but then the writer disappear again and so on.

Exchange Servers have CU23 installed.

I was searching in internet, and there are several reports about this problem, but they are too old, and in some of them they talked about installing next CU, but in this case they have the lastest installed.

Does anybody know how to resolve this issue?
thanks

Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points

2022-02-11T02:58:23.373+00:00

Hi anonymous user

Please check "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Replay\Parameters\EnableVSSWriter"
If not there, you can create a DWORD value = EnableVSSWriter
value = 1

Restart the Exchange replication service. Make sure to take a backup (export) the 'Replay" path of the registry before doing the change.

Details: No Exchange 2013 VSS writer

You could also let your customer check if any error recorded in event viewer application log related to the issue, if yes, you could share the log below.
Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points

2022-02-15T07:12:49.577+00:00

Hi anonymous user

Is there any progress about your issue so far? Feel free to share your update here if any.
Cristian Ruiz 191 Reputation points

2022-02-15T12:34:33.233+00:00

Hello!
thank you for your reply.

We are going to test it this week. I'll be sharing the results.
Cristian Ruiz 191 Reputation points

2022-02-18T15:21:19.22+00:00

Hello!
We have already apply it but I seems the writer has disappeared again in one of the mailbox servers (there are two).
Running the vssadmin list writers command, the writer did not appear.
In event viewer I can see the following errors

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 17/02/2022 04:06:24 p.m.
Event ID: 12301
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Writer Microsoft Exchange Writer did not respond to a GatherWriterStatus call.

Operation:
Gather writers' status
Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
Current State: GatherWriterStatus

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 17/02/2022 04:06:29 p.m.
Event ID: 12347
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers. The Registry Writer failed to respond to a query from VSS. Check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly, and please check the Application event log for any other events.

Operation:
Gathering Writer Data
Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
Execution Context: Requestor
Current State: GatherWriterMetadata

Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701

Hi anonymous user

According to my research, you could try the resolution provided here when you encounter the issue System state backup by using Windows Server Backup fails with error: System writer is not found in the backup

To resolve this issue, type the following commands from an elevated command prompt:

Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /a  
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"  
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"  
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX)    
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\* /a    
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"  
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"  
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX)  
net stop cryptsvc  
net start cryptsvc

And the related information about

Your answer

Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points

2022-02-11T02:58:23.373+00:00

Hi anonymous user

Please check "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Replay\Parameters\EnableVSSWriter"
If not there, you can create a DWORD value = EnableVSSWriter
value = 1

Restart the Exchange replication service. Make sure to take a backup (export) the 'Replay" path of the registry before doing the change.

Details: No Exchange 2013 VSS writer

You could also let your customer check if any error recorded in event viewer application log related to the issue, if yes, you could share the log below.
Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points

2022-02-15T07:12:49.577+00:00

Hi anonymous user

Is there any progress about your issue so far? Feel free to share your update here if any.
Cristian Ruiz 191 Reputation points

2022-02-15T12:34:33.233+00:00

Hello!
thank you for your reply.

We are going to test it this week. I'll be sharing the results.
Cristian Ruiz 191 Reputation points

2022-02-18T15:21:19.22+00:00

Hello!
We have already apply it but I seems the writer has disappeared again in one of the mailbox servers (there are two).
Running the vssadmin list writers command, the writer did not appear.
In event viewer I can see the following errors

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 17/02/2022 04:06:24 p.m.
Event ID: 12301
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Writer Microsoft Exchange Writer did not respond to a GatherWriterStatus call.

Operation:
Gather writers' status
Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
Current State: GatherWriterStatus

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 17/02/2022 04:06:29 p.m.
Event ID: 12347
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers. The Registry Writer failed to respond to a query from VSS. Check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly, and please check the Application event log for any other events.

Operation:
Gathering Writer Data
Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
Execution Context: Requestor
Current State: GatherWriterMetadata
Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points

2022-02-21T06:35:27.64+00:00

Hi anonymous user

According to my research, you could try the resolution provided here when you encounter the issue System state backup by using Windows Server Backup fails with error: System writer is not found in the backup

To resolve this issue, type the following commands from an elevated command prompt:

Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /a icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)" icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)" icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX) Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\* /a icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)" icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)" icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX) net stop cryptsvc net start cryptsvc

And the related information about

Event ID 12301 — VSS Writer Operations

Event ID 12347 — Volume Shadow Copy Service Operations

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Exchange Server 2013 - Microsoft Exchange Writer dissapearing

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