There are soooo many things that can go wrong with VSS.  (MS tells Tivoli to
call a bunch of different VSS writer API's to back up system state, but
obviously, ntbackup does it a different way.  Coincidence? Conspiracy?)

There are so many MS patches for VSS, it's hard to figure out which one is
related to whatever problem you are having.  It's almost always a Windows
thing.

1) If you have TSM OFS support enabled on this machine, turn it off.  See if
you get different results.

2) From a windows cmd line, do:

vssadmin list writers

They should all say STABLE.  If not, call Microsoft.  (vssadmin list writers
is a Windows command, has nothing to do with TSM.)

3) It looks from the errors like you have the Removable Storage Manager
service running on these clients?  Do you need it?  Have you tried disabling
that service?

4) If you start the TSM BA client, does it hang a looooong time before
opening?  I've seen that in an interaction with (believe it or not) the
version of MSSQL on the machine.

5) Have you opened a PMR with Tivoli?

6) Since you have a good backup of systemstate going to a flat file, there
is nothing wrong with adding
domain all-local -systemstate
to the dsm.opt file, and just disabling the TSM systemstate backup on any
machines you don't have the time or inclination to work through with
Microsoft and/or Tivoli.

"VSS is like a nose.  Sometimes it runs, sometimes it blows..."

Wanda



On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Dury, John C. <JDury AT duqlight DOT com> 
wrote:

> I've been fighting this for several weeks now and I'm getting very
> frustrated. I have several windows 2003 clients that consistently get the
> errors listed below. I've done some research and installed the following
> patches as per recommendations from several others and nothing seems to fix
> the errors. I've tried multiple version of the TSM client (v5 and v6). I've
> delete the file space that has the current system state. All of the latest
> maintenance is installed on the Windows 2003 clients.  Sometimes I can get
> the "dsmc backup systemstate" to work for one night but then the very next
> night, it fails again. This is on several windows 2003 clients.  I did add
> the line "PRESCHEDULECMD "ntbackup backup systemstate /F
> C:\temp\SystemStateBackup.bkf /L:S"" in the dsm.opt for the offending
> clients so I at least have a clean backup of the system state. I'm not sure
> where to turn now. Is windows 2003 support in TSM really this bad? Any ideas
> suggestions or hints are more than welcome.
>
>
> TSM Client version tried (all 32bit)
> 5.5.2.7
> 5.5.2.10
> 6.1.2.0
> 6.1.3.1
>
> Errors received on several windows 2003 clients
> CLIENT 1
> 02/11/2010 09:26:25 ANS1577I The Windows console event handler received a
> 'Ctrl-C' console event.
> 02/11/2010 09:33:29 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 09:33:29 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_STABLE) is not
> valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 09:33:29 ANS5274E A Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services writer
> is in an invalid state after backup completion.
> 02/11/2010 09:33:29 ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered.
>   TSM function name : CompleteVssSnapshot
>   TSM function      : psVssBackupComplete() failed
>   TSM return code   : 4345
>   TSM file          : txncon.cpp (4324)
> 02/11/2010 09:33:34 ANS1999E Incremental processing of '\\client1\d$'
> stopped.
> 02/11/2010 09:33:35 ANS4006E Error processing
> '\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy3': directory path not found
>
> CLIENT2
> 02/11/2010 04:10:24 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 04:10:24 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE)
> is not valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 04:10:54 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 04:10:54 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE)
> is not valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 04:11:24 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 04:11:24 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE)
> is not valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE)
> is not valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 ANS5271E A Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services writer
> is in an invalid state before snapshot initialization.
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered.
>   TSM function name : baHandleSnapshot
>   TSM function      : BaStartSnapshot() failed.
>   TSM return code   : 4353
>   TSM file          : backsnap.cpp (3767)
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 ANS1327W The snapshot operation for
> 'client2\SystemState\NULL\System State\SystemState' failed with error code:
> 4353.
> 02/11/2010 04:11:54 ANS5283E The operation was unsuccessful.
>
> CLIENT3
> 02/11/2010 08:59:14 ANS1577I The Windows console event handler received a
> 'Ctrl-C' console event.
> 02/11/2010 09:06:14 VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus:
> VssRequestor::checkWriterStatus failed with hr=VSS_E_WRITER_NOT_RESPONDING
> 02/11/2010 09:06:14 ANS5268W The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services
> writer 'Removable Storage Manager' current state (VSS_WS_STABLE) is not
> valid for the current operation.
> 02/11/2010 09:06:14 ANS5274E A Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services writer
> is in an invalid state after backup completion.
> 02/11/2010 09:06:14 ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered.
>   TSM function name : CompleteVssSnapshot
>   TSM function      : psVssBackupComplete() failed
>   TSM return code   : 4345
>   TSM file          : txncon.cpp (6428)
> 02/11/2010 09:06:15 ANS1228E Sending of object '\\CLIENT3\e$\ABURNS\Work
> Plan Analyst\2008 Files\2008 Damage Claims\WO #315451' failed
> 02/11/2010 09:06:15 ANS4021E Error processing '\\ CLIENT3\e$\ABURNS\Work
> Plan Analyst\2008 Files\2008 Damage Claims\WO #315451': file system not
> ready
> 02/11/2010 09:06:17 ANS1228E Sending of object '\\ CLIENT3\e$\gklinsk'
> failed
> 02/11/2010 09:06:17 ANS4005E Error processing '\\ CLIENT3\e$\gklinsk': file
> not found
> 02/11/2010 09:06:17 ANS1228E Sending of object '\\ CLIENT3\e$\glee' failed
> 02/11/2010 09:06:17 ANS4005E Error processing '\\ CLIENT3\e$\glee': file
> not found
> Lots more on CLIENT3 like the above. The filesystem is definitely there and
> working.
>
> Patches installed
>
> WindowsServer2003-KB934016-x86-ENU.exe
> WindowsServer2003-KB940349-v3-x86-ENU.exe
> WindowsServer2003-KB951568-x86-ENU.exe
>
> Did this:
> cd /d %windir%\system32
> Net stop vss
> Net stop swprv
> regsvr32 ole32.dll
> regsvr32 oleaut32.dll
> regsvr32 vss_ps.dll
> Vssvc /Register
> regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
> regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
> regsvr32 es.dll
> regsvr32 stdprov.dll
> regsvr32 vssui.dll
> regsvr32 msxml.dll
> regsvr32 msxml3.dll
> regsvr32 msxml4.dll
>