The writer failed due to an error that would likely not occur if the entire backup, restore, or shadow copy creation process was restarted. (VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE)

Error

The writer failed due to an error that would likely not occur if the entire backup, restore, or shadow copy creation process was restarted. (VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE)

Cause

This is most often caused by the Microsoft Exchange information store VSS writer being in an unstable state.

Resolution

  1. Check the exchange backup schedule is set to the recommended settings
  2. Check the event viewer for any hardware, exchange or resource (lack of RAM or paging file) issues.
  3. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.
  4. Run “vssadmin list writers” – each writer should now report “State: stable” and “Last error: no error”
  5. Try the backup again

Note: the exchange VSS writer going regularly into an unstable state could mean underlying hardware, driver or resource issues.

We have seen this issue on machines that are memory overloaded and/or have very slow disk configurations, to properly resolve the issue: a) more RAM should be added to the machine and b) faster disk configuration should be upgraded on the machine.

Further reading

  • (Microsoft KB article): Time-out errors occur in Volume Shadow Copy service writers, and shadow copies are lost during backup and during times when there are high levels of input/output. Applies to Windows 2003, however the concepts are similar – VSS requires complex interprocess calls which can fail from a component that doesn’t respond in time.