Free_FTP_Client-694480.gif' alt='Windows 2003 Vss Patch' title='Windows 2003 Vss Patch' />Fixing Backup Exec Advanced Open File Option VSS Snapshot errors For several weeks, I had been receiving the error message below on most of my backup jobs for servers on my network. The errors seemed to have started all of a sudden, and I want to share my research and troubleshooting steps that finally allowed me to resolve this frustrating problem. There is a wealth of information out there about this error some of it good, some of it not so much. Hopefully this blog will help bring together the points that I found most helpful in my quest to find a resolution. Backup servername. DOMAIN. COM AOFO Initialization failure on servername. DOMAIN. COMShadowCopy Components. Advanced Open File Option used Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS. Bmw E92 Workshop Manual'>Bmw E92 Workshop Manual. V 7. 9 1. 00. 00 1. VSS Snapshot error. Activity on a volume is preventing all volumes from being snapped. Try selecting the option Process logical volumes for backup, one at a time, and then run the job again. First things first, I started with the recommendations given to me in the error message. To reconfigure our backup job to Process logical volumes for backup, one at a time, see this Support Document from Symantec http www. TECH6. 93. 27 actpsearch viewlocaleenUS searchid1. Also, since the error specifically states that activity on the volume being backed up is preventing the snapshot from occurring, I did several things to quiet disk activity during the backup. Here are a few things that I found that may have contributed to excessive disk activity on my servers Scheduled tasks that run during the backup. SQL Server Maintenance plans that run during the backup. Microsoft Indexing Service and Microsoft Search If your server is a file server or Sharepoint server, this can be useful, otherwise, I would think that these services should be disabledAnti Virus scheduled scans that may run during the backup. Defrag jobs scheduled during the backup more on this later Here are some other general tips that I found useful in ensuring my servers were optimally configured so that VSS snapshots can run successfully Free up disk space. Having a low amount of free space can cause issues with VSS, backups, and system performance. Here are some tips for freeing up space on the C drive Delete temp files in temp, Windows. Temp and your profile temp, which you can find by typing temp in the Run dialog and clicking OK. Check your log files in Windowssystem. Log. Files, as IIS can be reconfigured to start logging to a drive with more space. NTUninstall folders in your Windows folder can be moved to another drive, or deleted. However, you cannot uninstall updates once you do this. Many times, the Windows. Software. Distribution folder will get very large from cached Windows Updates. You can safely delete this folder by stopping the Background Intelligent Transfer Service and the Automatic Updates services, deleting the folder, and restarting those services. Another place on your C drive that will sometimes grow very large is the Windows. Installer folder. If you download the Windows 2. Windows 2003 Vss Patch' title='Windows 2003 Vss Patch' />VSS has not ran on my data drive for over a week now as I am getting the below errors 4 matching event log records found in the Application event log. A comprehensive Windows 10 resource for IT professionals. Find downloads, tools, technical documentation, best practices, and other learning resources to help upgrade. Dont use Windows Backup. Okay, Im now very late to this party, but let me say dont use Windows Backup Backup and Restore. Just dont. I attempted to use it to. Support Tools, you can run msizap. G to remove any orphaned patch files that live in the Windows. Installer folder. Once you free up disk space, you should defrag your volumes. If you have off hours where your server is not heavily used and you can schedule defrag jobs, I would highly recommend doing so. I have found several references out there on the Internet that indicate a highly fragmented file system can cause VSS errors. At the beginning of my quest to resolve this problem, I discovered that many of my volumes were highly fragmented. I now have scheduled defrag jobs that run outside of my backup window, of courseMake sure that you are up to date on all Microsoft Windows Updates and Service Packs. Run Live Update to install all updates for Backup Exec. Ensure that you are running all of the latest Service Packs currently SP4 for Backup Exec 1. Hotfixes. Please note that after installation of Backup Exec Service Packs and some Hotfixes, it is necessary to update the Backup Exec Remote Agents on your remote servers. You can redeploy those agents from within Backup Exec the same way you installed them originally by going to Tools, and then selecting Install Agents and Media Servers on Other Servers. Should that fail as several of mine did, you can navigate to Program Files. InformationWeek. com News, analysis and research for business technology professionals, plus peertopeer knowledge sharing. Engage with our community. Windows 2003 Vss Patch' title='Windows 2003 Vss Patch' />The update is expected to be available for all regions within the next few days, although the time of release in each region may vary slightly. This update will. For several weeks, I had been receiving the error message below on most of my backup jobs for servers on my network. The errors seemed to have started a. Symantec. Backup Exec. Agents on your media server and copy the folder of the Windows agent for your server architecture RAWS3. RAWSX6. 4 for 6. 4 bit servers to the remote server. Then on the remote server, execute the setupaa. A reboot will likely be required. Microsoft has released a VSS Update Rollup that addresses multiple VSS issues. If you have the netdiag. Windows Server 2. Support Tools, you can quickly find out if you have this update applied by typing netdiag find 9. If there is no output from the command, or it does not show v. This should be done on all servers being backed up, and this will also require a reboot on each server. Information and a link to download the update are found here http support. It can also be helpful to reregister the DLL files required for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy. I have included a sample batch file that can help reregister those files. Cut and paste the following into notepad, and save it as FIXVSS0. BAT.   Run FIXVSS0. BAT to reset VSS configuration. FILENAME FIXVSS0. BATremnet stop System Event Notificationnet stop COM Event Systemnet stop Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider net stop Volume Shadow Copycd d windirsystem. Cd d systemrootsyswow. COM Event SystemEnd Cut HereNote The syswow. Windows 2. 00. 3 servers, so the batch file may give errors during that part of the execution. These errors can be ignored. Finally, I found this Microsoft Knowledge Base article on changing the initial storage area that VSS uses when it creates snapshots. See the More Information section at bottom of this document http support. I found recommendations that this be set to the maximum 3. GB size 3. 00. 0 decimal. You need to be sure that you have 3. Mercenaries 2 Serial Crack. GB of disk space available if you increase this number to the max. I set the size of the Min. Diff. Area. File. Size key to 3. 00. VSS errors during the backup. However, on my main file server, I received another VSS error that shows up in the Application log on my main file server that says Event ID 7. Application log. Vss. Admin Unable to create a shadow copy Insufficient storage available to create either the shadow copy storage file or other shadow copy data. Command line C WINDOWSsystem. Create Shadow Auto. Retry5 For Volume0e. I then went back to that registry key and lowered the. Min. Diff. Area. File. Size to 2. 00. 0 after making the registry change, you can cut the information in the event information after Command line  and can paste it in a command prompt window to run a snapshot immediately. Then go check the application log again to see if the snapshot was successful or not. The snapshot failed at 2. I have now had successful backups now for a couple of weeks. Hopefully this information is helpful is solving your issues with Backup Exec and VSS snapshot errors.