Error Code [17:176] Failed to create VSS snapshot required to run system state backup. System state backup is skipped. VSS error [[0x80004005 2147500037] Unspecified error]

A snapshot failure causes VSS (Volume Snapshot Service) writers to fail.

Symptoms

A snapshot failure causes VSS writers to fail with the following error message:

Error Code [17:176] Failed to create VSS snapshot required to run system state backup. System state backup is skipped. VSS error [[0x80004005 2147500037] Unspecified error]. Please refer VSS Event logs for more details.

Causes

VSS writers fail for various reasons. One of the reasons is that, when Commvault attempts to back up a disk volume, a VSS snapshot is created for the volume. When the snapshot is created, any VSS writer that is associated with the volume is called. If any of the VSS writers encounter an error, the entire backup job fails.

Resolution

Instead of restarting the server, you can restart the services for each of the failed VSS writers, as described in the following procedure.

Procedure

1. Click the Start button, and then type CMD.
2. When the command prompt icon appears, right-click it and select Run as Administrator. The Administrator: Command Prompt screen appears.
3. To list all the VSS writers, type vssadmin list writers.
4. Make a list of all the failed VSS writers.
5. In the list of VSS writers that follows this procedure, Find the Service Display Name of each of the failed VSS writers.
6. Restart the services for the failed VSS writers.
7. Open services.msc and stop VSS-related services that are running.
8. Re-run the command vssadmin list writers in an administrative command prompt to confirm the state has changed to Stable with no errors. Return to the administrative command prompt, and then type vssadmin list writers to list all the VSS writers and verify that they are all in the Stable state with no errors.
9. Run another backup/snapshot.
10. If the VSS writers fail again, restart the server.

List of VSS Writers: