E000FED1 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status.

Article:TECH27875

Created: 2010-01-01

Updated: 2013-03-25

Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH27875

Article Type
Technical Solution

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Problem

Error : A000FED1 HEX or E000FED1 HEX or 0XFFFFFED1 HEX
A failure occurred querying the Writer status during backups and restores.

Error

Final Error Code: a000fed1 HEX (0xa000fed1 HEX) or e000fed1 HEX (0xe000fed1 HEX)

Final Error Description: error 0XE000FED1 "A failure occurred querying the Writer status."

Final Error Category: Resource Errors.

Error Text In Job Log: "AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File.

Final error: 0xe000fed1 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status.

V-79-57344-65233 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\"Server"\System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.
Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Active Directory, Writer ID: {B2014C9E-8711-4C5C-A5A9-3CF384484757}, Last error: 0x80042319, State: Failed during prepare backup operation (7)."

Event viewer shows the application error
Event ID: 12301
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Writer NTDS did not respond to a GatherWriterStatus call

Final error: 0x80042314 - 0x80042314 (2147754772)

V-79-10000-11231 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

System State and Shadow Copy Components backup of a server fails with error "0xe000fed1 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status".

V-79-57344-65233 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "System State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details. Writer Name: Registry, Writer ID: {AFBAB4A2-367D-4D15-A586-71DBB18F8485}, Last error: The VSS Writer ran out of memory or resources (0x800423f1), State: Failed during prepare snapshot operation (8).

V-79-57344-65233 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "Shadow Copy Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details. Writer Name: Event Logs, Writer ID: {EEE8C692-67ED-4250-8D86-390603070D00}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed. The operation cannot be retried (0x800423f4), State: Failed during prepare snapshot operation (8).

Solution

On Windows Server 2003 and 2008, the Backup Exec Shadow Copy Components file system implements a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Requester to protect critical operating system and application service data, and third party application and user data via VSS Application Writers. A VSS Application Writer is specific code within an application that participates in the Volume Shadow Copy Service framework to provide point-in-time, recovery-consistent operating system and application data. When a data protection operation of Shadow Copy Components is performed, the status of the involved VSS Application Writers must be queried to determine its status during the backup or restore.

(Problem occurs when activity on a volume is preventing all volumes from being snapped.)

During a Shadow Copy Components data protection operation, if a VSS Application Writer involved in the operation reports a failed status, then the data protection operation will fail.

If you encounter this error in conjunction with an error on Exchange circular logging please see TECH11310.

To troubleshoot this error, please perform the following steps immediately after a failed Shadow Copy Components backup has been identified:

1. Open a Command Prompt on the server that is pointed on the Job Log with failure (Run with elevated permissions if its Windows 2008).

2. Type the following command: VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS (Figure 1)

Figure 1 - VSSADMIN sample output: No Errors

Figure 2 - VSSADMIN sample output: Errors Detected.

3. Review the output and identify the Last Error failure status for the specific VSS Application Writer that was involved in the data protection operation (Figure 2, failed "NTDS" VSS Writer). Ensure that the writers are all showing a State of "[1] Stable" and that Last Error is showing "No error."

If Last Error states:

Retryable Error, then retrying the data protection backup operation might resolve the VSS Application Writer's initial failure.
Non-Retryable Error, view the Event Viewer's Application Log for information regarding the cause and possible solution to this issue.

4. If the VSS Application Writer failure does not reset after a period of time, Backup Exec for Windows Servers continues to fail, or the native backup utility fails, then attempt to reboot the system and contact the specific company that produced the VSS Application Writer for further assistance.

Note: In most cases rebooting the server has resolved such issues, in case the issue is unresolved and the Writer continues to show failed status, please refer to the Microsoft Article mention below.

5.If the issue further persists one can try update the VSS package through "http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=833167" but in case if Service Pack 1 for windows 2003 is already installed then it will supplement this answer ID.

6. On the Windows Servers 2003 which already have SP1 installed if this issue comes, the solution is a Microsoft hotfix KB903234 which is mentioned in Microsoft KB913648 will be helpful in fixing this issue.

7.How the update will help in fixing the issue?

The update that is described in this article(KB 903234) is designed to optimize the way that the Shadow Copy Client accesses snapshots. Without this update installed, the Shadow Copy Client opens every existing shadow copy for a particular volume. After you install this update, the Shadow Copy Client searches for unique versions of a shadow copy before the Shadow Copy Client opens the shadow copy. This new behavior significantly reduces the load that the Shadow Copy Client puts on the server.

8.Corresponding links

For more information regarding what may cause the Shadow Copy Components to fail, please refer to the Microsoft Article KB826936.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903234/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913648/en-us

9. For UMI V-79-32775-14

www.symantec.com/docs/TECH43431

NOTE:

For Windows server 2003/2003R2:

If the error occurs for a Windows Server 2003 machine.
Install Microsoft Patch 940349. Availability of a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) update rollup package for Windows Server 2003 to resolve some VSS snapshot issues.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11896

For Windows server 2008/2008R2:

Issue with querying the writer and errors found are resolved with 2008 servers by Microsoft, hence rebooting the server would normally resolve the writer issue.

10. The following error can occur if C: drive on the server does not have enough free space.