A snapshot backup of an Exchange Server 2003 database fails, and event ID 9607 is logged (910250)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to perform a snapshot backup of a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 database, the backup operation is unsuccessful. Additionally, the following event is logged in the Application event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: Exchange VSS Writer
Event ID: 9607
Description: Error code 0x50d when preparing for backup.

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Data:
0000: 42 61 63 6b 75 70 20 69 Backup i
0008: 6e 20 70 72 6f 67 72 65 n progre
0010: 73 73 2e 00 ss..

Note that "Backup in progress" appears in the "Data" section of this event.

This issues may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

An earlier Exchange snapshot backup operation is still in progress.
An earlier Exchange snapshot backup operation finished. However, the backup program did not call the appropriate completion or cleanup API function calls.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods, depending on your situation.

Method 1: An earlier backup operation is in progress

If an earlier Exchange snapshot backup operation is in progress, wait for the backup operation to finish before you start the next Exchange snapshot backup operation.

Method 2: An earlier backup operation is not in progress

Each backup operation generates a set of events. Each of these logged events corresponds to a particular part of the backup operation. The following table describes the events that may be logged when a successful snapshot backup operation occurs.

Note For detailed descriptions of these events, see the "More Information" section.

Event ID	Event data
9600	Initialize VSSWriter - This occurs after a restart operation and not on each backup. This resets the backupInProgress flag.
9604
9606	Volume snap occurring
9608	No Exchange components involved in the volume snap
9610
9612
9648	OnBackupShutdown - This resets backupInProgress flag
9616	OnBackupComplete - This resets backupInProgress flag

A set of backup events that is missing event IDs 9648 and 9616 indicates that the backup operation did not successfully call the cleanup APIs. Therefore, a backup operation that follows an operation that does not log event IDs 9648 and 9616 generates the events that are described in the following table.

Event ID	Event data
9604
9614	Abort ignored
9607	Backup in progress

In this situation, the call to PrepareBackup fails because the backupInProgress flag is set to TRUE.

To troubleshoot this issue, use the Event Viewer to determine whether events are logged that indicate that a particular backup program is not successfully calling the OnBackupComplete method. This method resets the backupInProgress flag. Temporarily disable this backup program to determine whether your other backup operations start successfully.

If you determine that a particular backup program does not successfully call the cleanup APIs after the backup operation is finished, contact the manufacturer of that program to determine whether an update is available or to help you troubleshoot the backup program.

For information about how to contact the manufacturer of the backup program, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

If you cannot determine which backup program did not call the cleanup APIs, contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) to troubleshoot this issue. For information about how to contact Microsoft PSS, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com

MORE INFORMATION

Some commercial Exchange backup solutions deliberately bypass the Exchange backup API that Microsoft provides. These backup solutions back up the database files by using other methods. These backups are typically known as "snapshot" backups. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

311898 Hot split snapshot backups of Exchange

Exchange snapshot events

The following events are logged during an Exchange snapshot backup operation.

Event ID 9606 Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: Exchange VSS Writer
Event ID: 9606
Description: Exchange VSS Snapshot prepared for backup successfully.

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Data:
0000: 56 6f 6c 75 6d 65 20 73 Volume s
0008: 6e 61 70 20 6f 63 63 75 nap occu
0010: 72 72 69 6e 67 2e 00 rring..Event ID 9608 Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: Exchange VSS Writer
Event ID: 9606
Description: Exchange VSS Snapshot prepared for Snapshot successfully.

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http://support.microsoft.com.
Data:
0000: 4e 6f 20 45 78 63 68 61 No Excha
0008: 6e 67 65 20 63 6f 6d 70 nge comp
0010: 6f 6e 65 6e 74 73 20 69 onents i
0018: 6e 76 6f 6c 76 65 64 20 nvolved
0020: 69 6e 20 74 68 65 20 76 in the v
0028: 6f 6c 75 6d 65 20 73 6e olume sn
0030: 61 70 2e 00 ap..Event ID 9614 Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: Exchange VSS Writer
Event ID: 9606
Description: Exchange VSS Snapshot has aborted snapshot successfully.

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Data:
0000: 41 62 6f 72 74 20 69 67 Abort ig
0008: 6e 6f 72 65 64 2e 00 nored..For more information about the OnBackupShutdown method, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vss/base/cvsswriter_onbackupshutdown.asp