Veeam Error: Hyper-V 2012 R2: Writer ‘Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer’ is failed at ‘VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT’

This one was like finding a needle in the haystack as the Veeam forums had no mention of the actual fix for the following error:

Failed to create snapshot (Microsoft CSV Shadow Copy Provider) (mode: Hyper-V child partition snapshot) Details: Writer ‘Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer’ is failed at ‘VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT’. The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur. –tr:Failed to verify writers state. –tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.
Retrying snapshot creation attempt (Writer ‘Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer’ is failed at ‘VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT’. The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur. –tr:Failed to verify writers state. –tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.)
Task has been rescheduled
Queued for processing at 12/17/2022 7:37:24 PM
Unable to allocate processing resources. Error: Writer ‘Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer’ is failed at ‘VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT’. The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur. –tr:Failed to verify writers state. –tr:Failed to perform pre-backup tasks.

The setup is a Disaggregate Hyper-V and Storage Spaces cluster running on Windows Server 2012 R2.

After a lot of digging, it turns out the “fix” was actually quite simple:

Hyper-V Integration Services: Backup (volume checkpoint)

Remove the check mark for Backup (volume checkpoint) and the backups will run successfully.

Veeam Backup: 230MB/Second Throughput (All Time)– Balanced Load

Notice that the load in this case is fairly well balanced. The source cluster is set up with a 3-Way Storage Spaces Mirror with 10GbE all the way through to the destination that is running a hybrid Storage Spaces SATA SSD cache to SAS HDD capacity configuration.

We’re getting geared up to migrate this cluster to a Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) cluster we shipped down earlier.

FYI: We always back things up with Veeam to one of our backup appliances before we start any kind of migration like this where we do not control the backup setup. We are then assured of a recovery should things go sideways.

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Our Web Site
PowerShell and CMD Guides

Leave a comment Cancel reply