Andrew Sallabank's Blog

ConfigMgr 2007 Backup Fails with the error ‘VSS_E_WRITERERROR_TIMEOUT. Error Code = 0×80,042,3f2′

andysal — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:09:18 +0000

Had been having an issue with the SCCM backup on a newly configured server in an environment I’m working in. The set up was an SCCM 2007 SP2 R3 Primary site, where the SQL instance was hosted on a separate SQL Server.

Whenever the backup attempted to run it would fail with the following details

SMSBkup.log

Dependency On SQL Writer , LogicalPath:\\SERVERNAME, ComponentName:SMS_XYZ

After GatherWriterMetadata SMS Writer status = FAILED_AT_PREPARE_BACKUP.

Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_TIMEOUT. Error Code = 0×80,042,3f2.

Starting to clean and prepare the backup location.

Cleanup and/or preparation done.

Info: Sending message to start the SQL Backup…

Starting to create the snapshot set.

Added volume containing E:\ to the snapshot set.

Info: Starting Asynchronous PrepareForBackup…

Info: Asynchronous PrepareForBackup finished…

Info: Waiting for SQL to PrepareForBackup.

Sleeping for 5 seconds…

Error: Sql Server could not prepare for the Backup.

Aborting the backup process.

There was actually an issue it seems regarding the installation of the SMS_SITE_SQL_BACKUP component. If we check the event viewer on the separate SQL server we see the following error in the Application Log:

On 12/19/11 10:03:43, component SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER on computer reported: SMS Site Component Manager failed to reinstall this component on this site system.

Solution: Review the previous status messages to determine the exact reason for the failure. SMS Site Component Manager will automatically retry the reinstallation in minutes. To force SMS Site Component Manager to immediately retry the reinstallation, stop and restart SMS Site Component Manager using the SMS Service Manager.

A bit puzzling as to why the component was failing to install, on checking, the local admins group of the SQL server has the SCCM server added – so the rights are all good. After doing a spot of searching based on the error I came across the following post which details the issue to a tee http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/816-sms-site-sql-backup-error/

So in a nut-shell, check out the following file on your SCCM Primary site server \Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Install.map

Find the following section

BEGIN_COMPONENT_FILELIST

<1193>

BEGIN_DIRECTORY

<9><>

FILE <1><765280>

END_DIRECTORY

BEGIN_DIRECTORY

<17><>

FILE <1><1544048>

END_DIRECTORY

UNIT

END_COMPONENT_FILELIST

We now need to modify the above text, so for my x86 install I modify the section as follows

BEGIN_COMPONENT_FILELIST

<1193>

BEGIN_DIRECTORY

<9><>

FILE <1><765280>

FILE <0><219904>

END_DIRECTORY

BEGIN_DIRECTORY

<17><>

FILE <1><1544048>

END_DIRECTORY

UNIT

END_COMPONENT_FILELIST

Save the changes to install.map and then restart the service SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER

If you check out the application log on the SQL server you should now see the following event (ID 1019)

On 12/19/11 11:28:02, component SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER on computer reported: SMS Site Component Manager successfully reinstalled this component on this site system.

Big thanks to the original poster for making this information available. Seems to be a few posts on the TechNet forums about this issue as well.

ConfigMgr 2007 Asset Intelligence Syncronisation fails with ‘Exception attempting sync – The request failed with HTTP status 403: Forbidden’

andysal — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:59:13 +0000

As part of a new implementation of a ConfigMgr site for a customer, I was setting up a new Asset Intelligence Syncronisation Point at the central site. Something happened which I hadn’t seen before, and it appears that there is an issue which occurs due to a ‘bad certificate’ when attempting to syncronise.

It seems that the common certificate (the bootstrap certificate) used to make the initial connection, expired on the 24th April 2011, and therefore we need to apply a hotfix in order to sort out this issue.

When the issue occurs you will see the following in the AIUpdateSvc.log

Asset Intelligence Catalog Sync Service Warning: :WebException trying to enroll: Status = ProtocolError
Asset Intelligence Catalog Sync Service Error: :Exception attempting sync – The request failed with HTTP status 403: Forbidden.

Hotfix can be downloaded from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2483225

ConfigMgr 2012 RC and Package Conversion Manager Released

andysal — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:33:33 +0000

The Release Candidate for ConfigMgr 2012 is now available,
as well as the tool ‘Package Conversion Manager’ which is used to convert SCCM
2007 packages to the new application model used in SCCM 2012. Full details
here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2011/10/27/system-center-2012-configuration-manager-release-candidate-is-here.aspx

New SCCM 2007 Management Pack Released for SCOM 2007

andysal — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:51:09 +0000

Microsoft have just released a new version of the ConfigMgr 2007 Management Pack, which is detailed over on Steve Beaumont’s blog. Good to see Microsoft updating these…

http://systemscentre.blogspot.com/2011/10/updated-management-packs-for-scom.html

System Center Configuration Manager 2012 with Wally Mead

andysal — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:43:16 +0000

SCCM ‘big dog’ Wally Mead calls in at Microsoft UK on the 4th November to discuss the pending release of ConfigMgr 2012. Should be a good session

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2011/08/10/join-us-for-a-day-of-system-center-configuration-manager-2012-with-wally-mead.aspx

SCCM Backup Task Failing on Backup of SMS Registry Key

andysal — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:41:13 +0000

Interesting issue recently whereby we were seeing a failure occur when the SCCM backup was taking place. Basically the backup task was alright on everything except for the backup of the registry entries, the error messages that we were seeing in the smsbkup.log were as follows:

After GatherWriterMetadata SQL Writer status = STABLE.
After GatherWriterMetadata SMS Writer status = FAILED_AT_PREPARE_BACKUP.
Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_RETRYABLE. Error Code = 0×80,042,3f3.

After DoSnapshotSet SQL Writer status = WAITING_FOR_BACKUP_COMPLETION.
After DoSnapshotSet SMS Writer status = FAILED_AT_PREPARE_BACKUP.

Error: Failed to backup \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy89\SMS\BackupTemp\SMSbkSiteRegSMS.dat up to Z:\SCCM_Backup\A01Backup\SiteServer: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy89\SMS\BackupTemp\SMSbkSiteRegSMS.dat is not readable.
Failed to copy file(s) A01Backup\SiteServer.
Error: Backup Failed for Component – A01Backup\SiteServer\SMSbkSiteRegSMS.dat.

After doing a bit of digging around I found this post on Rob Marshall’s blog which is a great bit of troubleshooting and explains the cause of the issue:

http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/r0b/archive/2009/02/24/configmgr-site-backup-task-failing-due-to-vss-sms-writer-issue.aspx

Indeed there was a problem with the key “\SMS_SCHEDULER: Routing Packages” where we had over 100,000 .RPG entries. I believe that ConfigMgr uses this key to store values of used .RPG ID’s so as to not re-use any entries already out for processing in the hierarchy.

After a bit more digging, what had happened in this case was that there had been some communications issues previously on this site server, and this had caused a backlog of files in the following inboxes:

Inboxes\schedule.box\requests
Inboxes\schedule.box\Tosend
Inboxes\schedule.box\Outboxes\LAN

By prodding around in the send requests which are contained in the \requests folder and any minijobs in the \tosend folder using notepad, you can figure out what it is exactly which is causing the retry. It’s possible that if you are seeing this issue you have some comms issues or did have some comms issues (check in the sender.log) and just need to clean out these old jobs / the registry key mentioned above. If you find that you have a load of redundant jobs which are pending send to a site which no longer exists in the hierarchy then this can cause this issue. You can do a clean-up on these redundant jobs by running a ‘PREINST.EXE /DELJOB ’

ConfigMgr 2007 SRS ‘7403’ woes…

andysal — Thu, 05 May 2011 08:41:55 +0000

Strange issue recently whilst setting up an SRS Reporting Point in ConfigMgr 2007.

In my particular scenario we had a site server and the SRS RP was on a separate server.

Everything looked spot on with the configuration and all the usual gotchas had been checked (SRS running on a default instance etc).

However the following 7403 error is reported in the srsrp.log

STATMSG: ID=7403 SEV=E LEV=M SOURCE=”SMS Server” COMP=”SMS_SRS_REPORTING_POINT” SYS=SYSTEM SITE=ABC PID=6848 TID=6336 SMS_SRS_REPORTING_POINT

Failures reported during periodic health check by the SRS Server SMS Server. Will retry check in 57 minutes

All the reports were copied to the SRS reports web site, the SRS ConfigMgr properties all reported OK and the component status checked out OK… the SRS service was up and running, so just what is problem?!!

It seems that the issue is almost a ‘false status message’ generated by the SMS_SRS_REPORTING_POINT

The problem seems to have been fixed in one of the hotfixes included in the SQL 2008 Cumulative Updates (no idea which one). Found that when I applied the SQL Server 2008 R2 Cumulative Update 5 the problem was solved. If you are seeing issues with this then make sure your SQL Server installation is up to date! Doh!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2438347/

Best of MMS 2011 UK Event

andysal — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:46:11 +0000

Registrations for the best of MMS UK event being held at Cardinal Place, London are now being taken, if you weren’t fortunate enough to attend the event in Las Vegas

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/events/bestofmms2011/default.aspx

ConfigMgr 2012 Technet documentation (prerelease)

andysal — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:12:28 +0000

ConfigMgr 2012 pre-release documentation now up and running on Technet here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682129.aspx

Virtual PC 2007 Windows 7 Network Card issue

andysal — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:43:17 +0000

The following error is displayed as the network card driver cannot be bound to the adapter:

“Virtual PC could not open the Virtual Machine Network Services driver. Access to the external network and host will be unavailable to all virtual machines using virtual networking. Virtual machines using virtual networking will still be able to access other virtual machines using virtual networking. To fix this problem, re-enable the Virtual Machine Network Services driver on one or more Ethernet adapters or reinstall Virtual PC.”

Experienced this one recently when attempting to install Virtual PC to do some PXE boot tests. Found that it can be resolved as follows

1. Run the installation for Virtual PC, when the first wizard screen ‘welcome to the installation wizard…’ is displayed, browse to %temp% in windows explorer and look for the file ‘Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi’
2. Run the Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi as follows: msiexec /a Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi /qn TARGETDIR=C:\VPCNICDriver
3. Open ‘control panel’ > ‘network and sharing center’ > ‘Change adapter settings’ (link on left of window)
4. Right-Click your NIC (Local Area Connection) and select ‘Properties’
5. Select ‘Install’

6. Select ‘Service’
7. Select ‘Have disk’
8. Browse to ‘C:\VPCNICDriver\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv (with \x64 if required)
9. Select OK when prompted

You should now see the network card binding available in Virtual PC…