Acronis Cyber Backup: backup fails with "VSS writer has timed out" or "The backup has failed because 'VSS Writer' has timed out during snapshot creation."

Symptoms

Backup fails with:

VSS writer ... has timed out

The backup has failed because 'VSS Writer' has timed out during snapshot creation.

The error may involve different writers, see some of possible writers below:

Windows error: (0x800423F2) VSS writer 'System Writer' with class ID 'E8132975-6F93-4464-A53E-1050253AE220' has timed out. This may be caused by too intensive I/O on the machine at the backup start time. Try to re-schedule the backup to some different time. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/
Windows error: (0x800423F2) VSS writer 'ASR Writer' with class ID 'BE000CBE-11FE-4426-9C58-531AA6355FC4' has timed out. This may be caused by too intensive I/O on the machine at the backup start time. Try to re-schedule the backup to some different time. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/
Windows error: (0x800423F2) VSS writer 'Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer' with class ID '66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE' has timed out. This may be caused by too intensive I/O on the machine at the backup start time. Try to re-schedule the backup to some different time. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/

Example of full error log: click to expand

| error 0x1490003: Backup has failed.
| line: 0x1cd98aae889424f9
| file: e:\235\enterprise\managers\gtob\util\impl\convert_batch_result.cpp:58
| function: Gtob::Backup::ConvertBatchResult
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0x10424: Failed to commit operations.
| line: 0xb43e776571144df0
| file: e:\235\processor\diskadm\da_operation.cpp:204
| function: DaProcessor::OperationImpl::Execute
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0x70021: Failed to create volume snapshot.
| line: 0x8ba4fa0bac28c10d
| file: e:\235\core\resizer\archive3\backup_partition.cpp:954
| function: resizer::Archive3ImageBuilder::BackupPartitions
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0x10c477: All attempts to create a snapshot have failed. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/
| line: 0x3fec04e376b8a273
| file: e:\235\core\fdisk\win_snapshot.cpp:1405
| function: win_snapshot_core::Lock
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0x10c442: Failed to start creating the volume snapshot. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/
| line: 0x3fec04e376b8a1f4
| file: e:\235\core\fdisk\win_snapshot.cpp:1278
| function: win_snapshot_core::CallSbLock
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0x10c482: VSS writer 'System Writer' with class ID 'E8132975-6F93-4464-A53E-1050253AE220' has timed out. This may be caused by too intensive I/O on the machine at the backup start time. Try to re-schedule the backup to some different time. To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/
| line: 0x3fec04e376b89daa
| file: e:\235\core\fdisk\win_snapshot.cpp:180
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::ObtainVSSFailReasonSuberror
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330
|
| error 0xfff0
| line: 0xbd28fdbd64edb8fb
| file: e:\235\core\common\error.cpp:317
| function: Common::Error::AddHResult
| code: 0x800423f2
| $module: disk_bundle_vsa64_10330

Cause

The issue is caused by too intensive workload on the machine at the backup start time.

A VSS writer is application-specific software that acts to ensure that application data is ready for shadow copy creation. Windows OS includes a set of VSS writers and VSS-aware applications install own VSS writers to the machine. If the workload on the machine is high at the backup time, a VSS writer might not respond in the expected timeframe, that is, reach a timeout. A backup made under these conditions might not be restorable, that is why Acronis software cancels this backup and shows this error message.

Timeout issue of VSS Writers appears when Acronis Agent is waiting for snapshot creation. It is caused by default timeout value for the VSS writers (60 seconds). Since opening and flushing volumes takes significant time, after 60 seconds writers fail and snapshot is aborted, especially if disk load is high.

Prerequisite

If you have Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 operating system, make sure that Windows hotfix is installed: Backup task fails with a time-out error in Windows

Solution

As the first troubleshooting step, reschedule the backup to a different time when disk load is lower.

If you are backing up Hyper-V virtual machines and the Hyper-V host, we recommend scheduling these backups to different times so that backups of multiple virtual machines are not running in parallel.

To determine what time is better for proper handling of VSS snapshot creation requests, we suggest to use the following scheme:

Enable Task failure handling option in the affected backup plan and set the interval between attempts to 40-50 minutes and number of attempts 20
Start backup. It will be running in nonstop mode until snapshot creation is successful
Note the time when snapshot is created successfully and schedule backup to this time to avoid further snapshot timeout issues.

You can also use the Perfmon utility to check the current I/O load on disks and find the right time for snapshot operations.

If the issue persists, please consider the following options to troubleshoot the issue:

1) Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5, Acronis Cyber Protect 15: create backups with a bootable media. Backups of a shutdown system are application-consistent by default. See this article for details.

(!) Creating backups from bootable media is not available in Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud.

2) Move the system partition via backup-restore to SSD or hardware RAID 0 / 5 / 6 / 10 (ideally based on SSD drives) to increase IOpS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) of the system - this might eliminate a root cause of VSS Writers' timeouts.

You can find instructions for recovery with bootable media in product documentation:

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud: click here
Acronis Cyber Protect 15: click here
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5: click here

3) Consult the software vendor of the affected writer or Microsoft for available troubleshooting. If this specific VSS writer cannot be fixed (for example, the version of the OS is too old) and you know the software isn't actually used on the affected machine, consider uninstalling the software or stopping its service, which uses this VSS writer. Do this only if you are sure these actions will not affect the machine's functioning.

4) If previous steps do not resolve the issue or are not applicable for some reason, create a snapshot using Diskshadow tool to check the functionality of the VSS service components and contact Microsoft support for assistance if any errors are detected. Snapshot creation with Diskshadow should be tested close to the time when you usually create backups with Acronis Software.

Please note that NTbackup or "vssadmin create shadow" command is not a valid way to check application-consistent snapshot. Snapshots should be checked with Diskshadow because Diskshadow exposes the functionality of Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider which can be in a nutshell described as VSS Writers’ API for third parties.

How to create snapshot using Diskshadow: click to expand

1. Start the command prompt with elevated privileges:

Start -> CMD -> Right click -> Run as Administrator

2. Enter the Diskshadow tool interface:

C:\Users\administrator> DISKSHADOW

3. Specify that the shadow copies will persist across program exit, reset, or restart:

DISKSHADOW> set context persistent

4. Set the verbose output on:

DISKSHADOW> set verbose on

5. Start a full backup session:

DISKSHADOW> begin backup

6. Specify the volumes to be included in the backup, e.g.:

DISKSHADOW> add volume C: alias VolumeC

DISKSHADOW> add volume D: alias VolumeD

7. Specify the writers that should be verified during the shadow copy creation: specify the ID of VSS writer(s) from the error message that you receive, e.g for System Writer:

DISKSHADOW> writer verify {E8132975-6F93-4464-A53E-1050253AE220}

You can find IDs of other VSS writers on the machine by running vssadmin list writers command in the Command prompt

8.After you have specified all volumes and writers for backup, initiate the snapshot creation:

DISKSHADOW> create

After shadow copy is created, terminate the backup:

DISKSHADOW> end backup

Exit the Diskshadow tool:

DISKSHADOW> exit

During backup creation you will see messages similar to the following appearing in the command prompt, meaning that a particular component has been included into backup procedure and will be verified:

* Writer "System Writer" is included:
+ Component is included: \System Files

If one of the writers fails, you might see an error message similar to the following:

ERROR: The selected writer "SqlServerWriter" is in a faulty state.
- Status: 8 (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT)
- Writer Failure code: 0x (VSS_E_WRITERERROR_NONRETRYABLE)
- Writer ID: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
- Instance ID: {8c57ad9a-8055-49e0-96ec-d8b41ea327eb}

Error on recent operation.
- HRESULT (returned): 80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE

If snapshot is created successfully, you will see a message Number of shadow copies listed: 1 (or more, depending on how many volumes you selected). See example on the screenshot below:

In case there is no such a line Diskshadow must not be considered as successful.

If any writer fails with an error or creating a snapshot with Diskshadow does not end with "Number of shadow copies listed: x", you need to troubleshoot this writer and make sure it is functioning correctly before using VSS backup in Acronis Software.

Collect information

If suggested steps did not resolve the issue, collect the following information and contact Acronis Support for further troubleshooting:

1) Acronis VSS Doctor output,

2) Collect VSS trace while reproducing the issue: see How to collect VSS trace

3) System information - see article https://kb.acronis.com/acroinfo

More information

To troubleshoot VSS issues, download and run Acronis VSS Doctor available at https://www.acronis.com/personal/vss-diagnostic-free-tool/

Knowledge Base

61714: Acronis Cyber Backup: backup fails with "VSS writer has timed out" or "The backup has failed because 'VSS Writer' has timed out during snapshot creation."

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