Over the last few days I have been wrestling with a SBS2008 server which was having performance issues and VSS (Volume Snapshot Service) failures. Investigations showed the following sysmptoms:

• Sluggish performance in Windows although CPU and RAM usages at normal levels.
• Built in Server Backup fails with VSS Writer errors
• VSS Writers section in registry is empty (not even the default Microsoft Vss Writer)

With the registry entries not being there, it became clear there was some corruption or failure of the inbuilt Microsoft VSS Writer. Recreating the vss writer should do the job I thought, but upon googling for a script I couldn’t find one. There are plenty of posts about recreating them in 2003 but those scripts aren’t valid. So I wrote my own which worked a treat. If you find yourself in the same situation try creating the script below as a batch (*.bat) file called SERVER2008VSSFIX.bat and run it with Administrative permissions.

As soon as the script ran the performance returned and I was able to take a backup successfully. Is always worth a reboot after performing this fix though.

 

Script:

rem FILENAME:SERVER2008 FIXVSS.BAT
rem

net stop “System Event Notification Service”

net stop “Background Intelligent Transfer Service”

net stop “COM+ Event System”

net stop “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”

net stop “Volume Shadow Copy”

cd /d %windir%system32

net stop vss

net stop swprv

regsvr32 /s ATL.DLL

regsvr32 /s comsvcs.DLL

regsvr32 /s credui.DLL

regsvr32 /s CRYPTNET.DLL

regsvr32 /s CRYPTUI.DLL

regsvr32 /s dhcpqec.DLL

regsvr32 /s dssenh.DLL

regsvr32 /s eapqec.DLL

regsvr32 /s esscli.DLL

regsvr32 /s FastProx.DLL

regsvr32 /s FirewallAPI.DLL

regsvr32 /s kmsvc.DLL

regsvr32 /s lsmproxy.DLL

regsvr32 /s MSCTF.DLL

regsvr32 /s msi.DLL

regsvr32 /s msxml3.DLL

regsvr32 /s ncprov.DLL

regsvr32 /s ole32.DLL

regsvr32 /s OLEACC.DLL

regsvr32 /s OLEAUT32.DLL

regsvr32 /s PROPSYS.DLL

regsvr32 /s QAgent.DLL

regsvr32 /s qagentrt.DLL

regsvr32 /s QUtil.DLL

regsvr32 /s raschap.DLL

regsvr32 /s RASQEC.DLL

regsvr32 /s rastls.DLL

regsvr32 /s repdrvfs.DLL

regsvr32 /s RPCRT4.DLL

regsvr32 /s rsaenh.DLL

regsvr32 /s SHELL32.DLL

regsvr32 /s shsvcs.DLL

regsvr32 /s /i swprv.DLL

regsvr32 /s tschannel.DLL

regsvr32 /s USERENV.DLL

regsvr32 /s vss_ps.DLL

regsvr32 /s wbemcons.DLL

regsvr32 /s wbemcore.DLL

regsvr32 /s wbemess.DLL

regsvr32 /s wbemsvc.DLL

regsvr32 /s WINHTTP.DLL

regsvr32 /s WINTRUST.DLL

regsvr32 /s wmiprvsd.DLL

regsvr32 /s wmisvc.DLL

regsvr32 /s wmiutils.DLL

regsvr32 /s wuaueng.DLL

sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%system32catsrv.DLL

sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%system32catsrvut.DLL

sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%system32CLBCatQ.DLL

net start “COM+ Event System”