The Microsoft Exchange Replication Service VSS writer failed

 

Topic Last Modified: 2007-11-16

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) monitors the Windows Application log on computers that are running Exchange Server 2007 and generates this alert when the event or events specified in the following Details table are logged.

To learn more about this event, do one or more of the following:

  • Review the description of the event that includes the variables specific to your environment. From the MOM Operator Console, select this alert, and then click the Properties tab.

  • Review all events that have been logged that meet the criteria of this MOM alert. From the MOM Operator Console, click the Events tab, and then double-click the event in the list for which you want to review the event description.

Details

Product Name

Exchange

Product Version

8.0 (Exchange Server 2007)

Event ID

2020;2022;2024;2026;2028;2030;2034;2036;2039;2040;2041;2042;2043;2044;2045;2048

Event Source

MSExchangeRepl

Alert Type

Critical Error

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Mailbox/Continuous Replication

MOM Rule Name

The Microsoft Exchange Replication Service VSS writer failed.

Explanation

The alert indicates that the writer of the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) of the Microsoft® Exchange Replication service failed due to various reasons and VSS backup could not be performed. The issue could be caused by any of these MSExchangeRepl events: 2022;2024;2026;2028;2030;2034;2036;2039;2040;2041;2042;2043;2044;2045; or 2048

The causes related to this alert are listed below depending on the particular event that triggered the alert:

  • MSExchangeRepl 2024: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service failed when it prepared for a backup. The error code in the event description states the specific cause of the VSS writer failure. Possible causes of this error include the following conditions:

    • Failure occurred at the VSS framework level:

      Failure to obtain the count of components involved in the backup process.

      Failure to obtain the component names to be backed up.

      Failures when the metadata was set up.

    • The local continuous replication (LCR) or cluster continuous replication (CCR) copy is not in a backup-ready state:

      The replication copy is not in a healthy state.

      The replication copy is in a suspended state.

      The replication copy is in a failed state.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2026: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service prepared for backup successfully. However the VSS writer failed when it prepared to take a snapshot of the replication copy. Because of this error, the VSS writer's backup attempt will fail.

    Possible reasons for VSS writer failure include the following conditions:

    • Failure occurred when the VSS writer communicated with the active instance of the database.

    • Another backup instance was already running against the selected storage group replication copy.

    • The replication copy may not be in a healthy, backup-ready state.

    • The snapshot set may not include all volumes.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2028: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service has successfully prepared for the backup and for taking the snapshot. However the VSS writer did not stop all I/O requests so that the snapshot could continue. The VSS writer might not have stopped all I/O requests for the following reasons:

    • The replication service could not create a temp log file for the backup.

    • The replication service could not stop I/O activity to the volumes affected by the selected backup.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2030: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service did not resume regular operations for the specified storage group after the VSS writer took a snapshot of the storage group copy. This error might occur for either of the following reasons:

    • The VSS writer encountered an error when it interacted with the VSS framework.

    • The VSS backup application that is being used called the backup APIs in the wrong order.

    When the error occurs, VSS backup will fail.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2034: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service found an error when it completed the final stage of the VSS backup operation. In this case, backup will fail. Although the event in the Application log states the specific reason for the error, general causes may include the following conditions:

    • The VSS writer received the wrong backup ID.

    • The VSS writer encountered an error when the program called in to the VSS framework.

    • The VSS writer could not communicate with the active instance of the databases in the backup set.

    This error occurs in the final stage of the VSS backup process when the VSS writer checks to see whether the backup application has successfully created and verified the integrity of the backed up files. This Error event is logged when the backup application informs the VSS writer that there are no errors. But then the VSS writer finds an error when it truncates necessary log files and updates the database header with the current backup status.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2036: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service could not process a backup shutdown because the writer could not identify the backup ID for the backup that was performed or exited.

    The VSS writer processes a backup shutdown during the last stage of a VSS snapshot backup process. The VSS writer processes a backup shutdown event when any of the following conditions is true:

    • A backup is completed.

    • After a backup is stopped by the user.

    • After a backup is stopped by the backup application.

    When the VSS writer is asked to process the backup shutdown event for a given backup, a backup ID is passed to the VSS writer. If the writer cannot identify the ID for the backup that was performed or exited, this event will be logged.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2039: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service could not run the post-snapshot process as requested by the backup application. When this error occurs, backups will fail. The error can be triggered for the following reasons:

    • There was an unsuccessful VSS backup snapshot.

    • The request to the VSS writer to run the post-snapshot process was received out of order.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2022, 2040, 2041, 2042, 2043: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service could not collect metadata for a storage group or database involved in the backup operation or successfully collect private metadata for the storage group specified in the event.

    Metadata information is required before VSS backups can continue. Private metadata is part of the metadata that is consumed exclusively by the VSS writer during the restore phase. This phase occurs when the VSS writer restores the backup created by this process. This event is triggered when the metadata information cannot be collected for the storage group or database specified in the event description. Although the error description gives the exact reasons for the error, the general causes can be as follows:

    • The VSS writer could not successfully perform a function call in to the VSS framework.

    • The VSS writer could not access cached information when it prepared to collect metadata for a database involved in the backup.

    When this error occurs, VSS backup will fail.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2044, 2045: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service could not find all the disk volumes related to the backup in the backup set. When this error occurs, backup will fail.

    Exchange database files, log files, and checkpoint files can be located on different disk volumes. VSS snapshot backups require all the volumes that hold these files to be in the backup set. When any of the volumes is not included in the backup set, this event will be logged and backups will fail.

    The error is triggered because not all volumes that contain files for the selected storage groups are part of the backup set.

  • MSExchangeRepl 2048: The VSS writer of the Microsoft Exchange Replication service could not contact the primary database (active node). Therefore, the header of the database will not be updated. In addition, log files will not be truncated for the specified storage group. At the end of backups, the VSS writer informs the primary database (active node) that the backups have completed and the database headers should be updated with the current backups. Header updates drive the log truncation logic. When this error occurs, backups will fail.

User Action

To resolve the issue, follow these steps depending on the event that caused the issue:

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2022, 2030, 2039 follow one or more of these steps:

    • Run the VSS backup again.

    • Contact Microsoft Product Support Services. For information about how to contact support, visit the Microsoft Help and Support Web site.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2024, 2026, follow one or more of these steps and then run VSS backup again on the replication copy:

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2028, follow these steps:

    • Verify that the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service is running from the Services snap-in.

    • Run VSS backup again.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2034, check the last backup state of all the databases involved in the backup set of the storage group copy. If the backup state does not reflect the last performed backup, backups are invalid. Perform the VSS backup again.

Note Use the Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus task to check for the last backup timestamp that is reflected in the SnapshotBackup field. For more information, see Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2036, no user action is required because the backup-in-progress state has already been cleaned up during the backup-complete stage that occurred before this event.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2040, 2041, 2042, 2043 run VSS backup again on the backup set.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2044, 2045 follow one or more of these steps:

    • Verify that backup application includes all volumes required for backup. Then try to run VSS backup again.

    • If the problem persists, contact your backup application vendor.

  • If the alert is caused by MSExchangeRepl 2048, make sure that the active node or the primary copy of the database is up and running. Then repeat VSS backup on the backup set.

For More Information

To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles based on criteria that generated this alert, visit the Search the Support Knowledge Base (KB) Web site.

To review Exchange 2007 event message articles that may not be represented by Exchange 2007 MOM alerts, see the Events and Errors Message Center.

If you are not already doing so, consider running the tools that Microsoft Exchange offers to help administrators analyze and troubleshoot their Exchange environment. These tools can help you make sure that your configuration is in line with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. Go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console to run these tools now. For more information about these tools, see Toolbox in the Exchange Server 2007 Help.