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2017-04-01
Reset VSS Writers
VSS writers are application-specific components for Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service, which ensure the consistency of application data when a shadow copy is created. That's quite useful for creating consistent backups of a system. However, some of these writers go into error states more or less frequently. And Microsoft did not deem it necessary to document how to reset writers without rebooting the entire system (or at least I didn't manage to find that piece of information).
Since this burnt me once too often, I started compiling a list of VSS writers and the services that need to be restarted to reset each of them. Some are rather obvious, others (System Writer for instance) not so much.
VSS Writer | Service Name | Service Display Name |
---|---|---|
ADAM (<instance_name>) Writer | ADAM_<instance_name> | <instance_name> |
ASR Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
BITS Writer | BITS | Background Intelligent Transfer Service |
Certificate Authority | CertSvc | Active Directory Certificate Services |
COM+ REGDB Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
Dedup Writer | ddpvssvc | Data Deduplication Volume Shadow Copy Service |
DFS Replication service writer | DFSR | DFS Replication |
DHCP Jet Writer | DHCPServer | DHCP Server |
FRS Writer | NtFrs | File Replication |
FSRM writer | srmsvc | File Server Resource Manager |
IIS Config Writer | AppHostSvc | Application Host Helper Service |
IIS Metabase Writer | IISADMIN | IIS Admin Service |
Microsoft Exchange Replica Writer | MSExchangeRepl | Microsoft Exchange Replication Service |
Microsoft Exchange Writer | MSExchangeIS | Microsoft Exchange Information Store |
Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer | vmms | Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management |
MSMQ Writer (MSMQ) | MSMQ | Message Queuing |
MSSearch Service Writer | WSearch | Windows Search |
NPS VSS Writer | EventSystem | COM+ Event System |
NTDS | NTDS | Active Directory Domain Services |
OSearch VSS Writer | OSearch | Office SharePoint Server Search |
OSearch14 VSS Writer | OSearch14 | SharePoint Server Search 14 |
OSearch15 VSS Writer | OSearch15 | SharePoint Server Search 15 |
Registry Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
Shadow Copy Optimization Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
SharePoint Services Writer | SPWriter | Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer |
SMS Writer | SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER | SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER |
SPSearch VSS Writer | SPSearch | Windows SharePoint Services Search |
SPSearch4 VSS Writer | SPSearch4 | SharePoint Foundation Search V4 |
SqlServerWriter | SQLWriter | SQL Server VSS Writer |
System Writer | CryptSvc | Cryptographic Services |
TermServLicensing | TermServLicensing | Remote Desktop Licensing |
WDS VSS Writer | WDSServer | Windows Deployment Services Server |
WIDWriter | WIDWriter | Windows Internal Database VSS Writer |
WINS Jet Writer | WINS | Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) |
WMI Writer | Winmgmt | Windows Management Instrumentation |
This list is far from complete. It merely contains those writers I already had to deal with and some contributions from fellow administrators.
You can use PowerShell for listing failed writers:
& vssadmin list writers | Select-String -Context 0,4 '^writer name:' | ? {
$_.Context.PostContext[2].Trim() -ne "state: [1] stable" -or
$_.Context.PostContext[3].Trim() -ne "last error: no error"
}
or the state of a particular writer:
$name = [Regex]::Escape('writer name')
& vssadmin list writers | Select-String -Context 0,4 "^writer name: .*$name"
History
2013-06-18: Originally posted.
Update 2013-12-16: Added a PowerShell command for listing failed VSS writers. Added VSS writers for SharePoint. Thanks to Radoslav Viktor Terstenjak for contributing the service associated with the OSearch VSS Writer.
Update 2014-01-19: Added VSS writers for File Server Resource Manager (thanks to Johannes Engler for this contribution) and Active Directory Domain Services. Added a PowerShell command for displaying a specific writer. Added link to Microsoft's list of in-box VSS writers.
Update 2014-02-12: Added VSS writers for File Replication, DHCP Server and Remote Desktop Licensing (thanks to Rob VanHoorne and Don Reese for these contributions).
Update 2014-06-04: Added the VSS writer for WINS (thanks to Sean Wolfe for this contribution).
Update 2014-11-18: Added VSS writers for SCCM (thanks to Sebastian Cerazy for this contribution) and Windows Internal Database.
Update 2015-02-22: Added VSS writers for Windows Search and Microsoft Exchange Replication Service (thanks to Gary Campbell and Michael Graff Andersen for these contributions).
Update 2015-04-17: Added VSS writer for MSMQ (thanks to Jennifer Wagner for this contribution).
Update 2016-04-12: Added Network Policy Service VSS writer (thanks to Daniel Harris for this contribution) and Certificate Authority writer.
As a side note, while it's kinda flattering that my humble list made it into the Dell and Veeam knowledgebases, it would have been an even nicer touch had they actually included proper attribution. Or at least kept the list up to date (the version used in both articles is from June 2014).
Update 2016-05-09: Added Windows Deployment Services VSS writer (thanks to Ravikant Meena for this contribution).
Update 2016-10-20: Added Dedup Writer (thanks to Marcin Macoch for this contribution) and ADAM Writer (Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services).
Update 2017-04-01: Added SharePoint Services Writer (thanks to Steffan Rhoads for this contribution) and OSearch15 VSS Writer (SharePoint 2013).
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