Restart VSS Writers without a reboot

Having started working in my current IT support role a little over a year ago, I was shocked to discover that the general fix for Windows Server Backup errors caused by failed VSS writers was to reboot the server. I had in my previous role resolved this issue many times by restarting the service that related to the VSS writer. For example the “Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer” failure can be resolved by restarting the “Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management” service (vmms).

A list of failed writers on any given Windows server can be generated by executing the following command from an elevated command prompt:

For easier reference I personally export the results to a text file using the following:

Once completed you can easily open the generated file in notepad with:

Using the table below find the service for each VSS Writer that is in a failed state, make a note of each service name.

[table caption=”” width=”100%” colwidth=”” colalign=”left|left|left”]
VSS Writer,Service Name,Service Display Name
ASR Writer,VSS,Volume Shadow Copy
BITS Writer,BITS,Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Certificate Authority,EventSystem,COM+ Event System
COM+ REGDB Writer,VSS,Volume Shadow Copy
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 Writer,MSExchangeIS,Microsoft Exchange Information Store
Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer, vmms,Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management
NTDS,NTDS,Active Directory Domain Services
OSearch VSS Writer,OSearch,Office SharePoint Server Search
OSearch14 VSS Writer,OSearch14,SharePoint Server Search 14
Registry Writer,VSS,Volume Shadow Copy
Shadow Copy Optimization Writer,VSS,Volume Shadow Copy
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
WINS Jet Writer,WINS,Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)
WMI Writer,Winmgmt,Windows Management Instrumentation
[/table]

Using the list of service names complied from the above table restart each of the services, this can be achieved from services.msc or an elevated command prompt.

Services.msc
Right click on the service, and then, on the Action menu, click Restart.

Elevated command prompt
Execute the following to stop the service:

Once stopped the service needs to be restarted with:

Once the necessary services have been restarted check the status of the VSS Writers:

The relevant VSS writers should now show as stable with no Error.