However some files which were in use were skipped. Windows Server 2003, upon which SBS 2003 is founded, contains a feature called VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service). VSS basically takes a periodic 'snapshot' of files, even if they are in use. The backup utility that comes with Windows Server 2003 uses this to take snapshots of open files and then backup the snapshot. This apparently was not happening. The backup log contained the clue, "Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:800423f4  Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode." After a bit of head scratching off to the Microsoft SBS newsgroup, microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs, I went. I posted a message indicating I was experiencing skipped files and suspected a problem with VSS. I soon found I had a lot of company. There were a number of suggestions including one referring to the reference at the end of the log (For more information about failed backups, see the article on troubleshooting your backup) to Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server 2003 Trouble shooting guide . This appears to be a very useful document with instructions on how to resolve a large number of problems that night we encountered with SBS 2003. I have now downloaded it to my Pocket PC so I can keep it handy. Included is a major section on Troubleshooting Backup and Restore with a subsection on how to deal with VSS related issues. There were several suggestions to resolve VSS starting with checking the maximum size of the Event Viewer logs. If the log size exceeds 64 MB, you should reduce it to 64000 KB or less. I checked and found at least one log was over 64 MB. I reduced it to about 32 MB.

Next was to check whether Directory Services auditing was enabled and to disable it if it was. This did not appear to be the case.  However had it been so, the troubleshooting guide gives specific instructions on disabling it.

Next was "to verify that a drive with Volume Shadow Copies Services enabled has low disk space."  To check on this, you must open My Computer and right-click the system drive. From the Properties menu select the Shadow Copies tab. In the Select a volume window I noticed that under the Next Run Time column it said ‘Disabled’! Ah ha thinks I! This could be the problem. I clicked on the Enable button to configure Shadow Copies on that drive.

Next in the troubleshooting guide was a check of the SQL databases. Apparently if a database’s recovery model is not set to ‘Simple’, VSS may fail. To check this, go to the SQL Enterprise Manager, expand your server and then expand Databases. Right-click each database in turn and select Properties. From there select the Options tab. Right in the middle is the Recovery Model with a drop down box. From there you can select Bulk-Logged, Full, or Simple. The meaning of each is beyond the scope of this article. However, for VSS to work for the backup, you want them all to be Simple. I checked each one and found a couple that were set to Full. I changed these to Simple, of course.

Lastly, I went to SBS Server Management console and selected the Information Center. From here I went to Downloads and Updates. This takes you to the Microsoft Downloads for Windows Small Business Server 2003 web page. Here I noticed an update for a problem with the POP3 connector, Update for Microsoft Connector for POP3 Mailboxes Consuming 100% of CPU While Downloading Messages. Since we are using the POP3 connector and we were often receiving alerts that the system was using a large amount of memory, I decided to install this. There was another update relating to the tape drive, Update for Backup Attempts Failing With a Tape Device That Supports Multiple Tape Types. Even though this didn’t directly apply to our problem, I decided to install it as well.

Having done all this, I packed up and went home. The next morning I anxiously checked my e-mail looking for the daily report from the server. There it was. I opened it and scrolled down. The backup had succeeded! Although, I did violate one of the tenets of troubleshooting, change one thing at a time. I think the change that made the difference was enabling Shadow Copy on the system drive. Oh, and we haven’t seen any more of those pesky high memory utilization messages.