The VSS application stops responding when you perform a backup operation on a server that is running a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster

A server is running a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 failover cluster. When you use a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) application to perform a backup operation on the server, the VSS application stops responding. Additionally, when this problem occurs, the following event is logged in the event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 6013
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description:
Sqllib error: OLEDB Error encountered calling IDBInitialize::Initialize. hr = 0x80004005. SQLSTATE: 08001, Native Error: 17
Error state: 1, Severity: 16
Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server
Error message: [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

This problem occurs because the SQLWriter service is not started. Therefore, the VSS application uses the SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) writer. However, the MSDE writer generates an error when the MSDE writer processes SQL Server 2005 cluster configurations.

To resolve this problem, start the SQLWriter service. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type Services.msc, and then click OK.
2. In the Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, right-click SQL Server VSS Writer, and then click Start.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

When you start the SQLWriter service the first time, the SQLWriter service configures itself to start automatically.

The SQLWriter service is required if a VSS application performs a backup operation on a server that is running a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster. After you install the release version of SQL Server 2005, or after you install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the SQLWriter service is not configured to start automatically. After you install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2), the SQLWriter service is configured to start automatically.

Description of the MSDE writer and of the SQLWriter service

The MSDE writer is included in the VSS framework in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003. The VSS service uses the MSDE writer to back up the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databases. The VSS service uses the SQLWriter service to back up the SQL Server 2005 databases or the SQL Server 2000 databases.

For more information about the SQLWriter service, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site: