When attempting to backup System State on Server 2008 R2 / SBS 2011 you get: ERROR – A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation error has occurred: (0x800423f0)

I created a script that takes a system state backup and I schedule it to run once a week so that we have a local copy of System state if we ever need it. I’m not sure that we’ve ever actually needed it, but just call me captain safety pants. About a week ago the script just stopped working, the scheduled job was failing, but the logs were pretty much empty with the exception of this one warning that was getting logged each time the script was run:

Source:        VSS
Event ID:      8230
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Failed resolving account spsearch with status 1376. Check connection to domain controller and VssAccessControl registry key.
Operation:
Gather writers' status
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Current State: GatherWriterStatus
Error-specific details:
Error: NetLocalGroupGetMemebers(spsearch), 0x80070560, The specified local group does not exist.

I’m not sure what the spsearch user account has to do with taking a System State Backup, but it looks like that account is listed under the registry as having access to the VSS writers. The problem is it doesn’t have permissions to the writers, so when the writers start they error out saying this account does not have permissions even though they don’t need to run under this user’s context, and in fact are running under the admin user’s context (configured in the scheduled task’s job preferences).

Since this particular Server (SBS 2011) is not going to be used for sharepoint services I just removed the account from the list in the following registy entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\VssAccessControl

Once that user was removed from that registry key I restarted the scheduled task and the script completed fine. I’m not sure if this account not being in this key will cause any problems but I suspect it wont because it does not have permissions to the VSS writers anyway, which is why the script started failing in the first place.

If anyone has any spare time and wants to explain the purpose of spsearch account being in the VssAccessControl key please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks,

Sean

3 thoughts on “When attempting to backup System State on Server 2008 R2 / SBS 2011 you get: ERROR – A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation error has occurred: (0x800423f0)

  1. boma23

    Having similar issues immediately after a SBS2003 – SBS2011 migration, and built in SBS backup not working. As these accounts are Sharepoint maintenance accounts, I added them to local administrators group (I’m sure this breaks some cardinal MS best practice rule). Seeing quite a few errors after my 1st migration process, leftover DNS records in particular, and issues with some dist list in exchange corrupting… I’m thinking a new build would have been quicker than the tidying up I’m doing.

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