We have a Win2003 SP2 server running VMWare and about five VMs on it. Each Sunday I power down the VMs and perform a normal backup without complications. During the week the Diff fails more than it completes. Following error is attached.


AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\Server\C:". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) snapshot provider returned the error: "Catastrophic failure". To make sure that the VSS is not disabled and can be started, click Control Panel, and then click Administrative Tools. Open the Services, and start Volume Shadow Copy. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\Server\Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) snapshot provider returned the error: "Catastrophic failure". To make sure that the VSS is not disabled and can be started, click Control Panel, and then click Administrative Tools. Open the Services, and start Volume Shadow Copy. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

VSS 'is' enabled at the time of the backup kicking off. Before the backup fails, our What's Up Pro (monitoring app) sends us messages of the VMs that are on the server in question not pinging. The VMs don't reboot or shut down but they must lose connection on the time the snapshot is taken.

I am thinking that I may need to install AOFO on each of the VMs.......

Any advice on this is much appreciated.

Thank you