Thursday, June 16, 2016

Fixing Veeam Hyper-V Replication Failure Caused By VSS Writer


I just had an issue with the Veeam Backup and Replication Software where a replication job was failing.  I have Veeam setup to email error logs to me and I started getting error messages with a replication job where it was not reconciling the differences in the disk on the fail-over server.

Here is a sample of the email error.



After getting a few of these emails I checked the server and discovered on of the VM replication jobs appeared to be stuck on in progress.

A Sample of the log on the Veeam Server

VM {VMNAME} task has finished with 'InProgress' state.
Task details: Failed to create snapshot (Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0) (mode: Veeam application-aware processing) Details: Writer 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer' is failed at 'VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT'.

The writer experienced a transient error.  If the backup process is retried,
the error may not reoccur.
--tr:Failed to verify writers state.
--tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.

Make sure VM does not have 'iSCSI Software Target Storage Provider' feature installed.
Retrying snapshot creation attempt (Writer 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer' is failed at 'VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT'.

The writer experienced a transient error.  If the backup process is retried,
the error may not reoccur.

--tr:Failed to verify writers state.
--tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.)

Task has been rescheduled



Googling the issue I only found this blog http://www.insidetechnologies.eu/en/blog/veeam-br-resolve-hyper-v-vss-writer-error/  and after double checking that his solution wouldn't bring down my Hyper-V Server by checking Microsoft Technet https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/69e6dcbd-fbe3-43e0-a7b3-65111fbdf00a/will-the-running-vms-be-impacted-if-i-restart-the-hyperv-virtual-machine-management-service?forum=winserverhyperv

I disabled the replication jobs and stopped the Hyper-V Virtual Management Management Service on the primary server; while it took a while for the management service to stop but once it did and I restarted it everything came back no problem and the replication jobs started, reconciled and finished without an issue.

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