On Windows SBS 2011 the backups can start failing because of an SPSearch4 VSS Writer error.  You might see this in the Application logs, but more importantly if you list the VSS writers with the command below you can explicitly see the inconsistent status:

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Date: 9/4/2011 10:53:27 PM
Event ID: 8230
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: SBS1.domainname.local
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Failed resolving account spsearch with status 1376. Check connection to domain controller and VssAccessControl registry key.

Operation:
Initializing Writer

Context:
Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Name: Registry Writer

Error-specific details:
Error: NetLocalGroupGetMemebers(spsearch), 0x80070560, The specified local group does not exist.

 

You can see that when you list the VSS Writers that are running on the server, that the SPSearch4 has an error, here’s the sample output:

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 – Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: ‘Task Scheduler Writer’
Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘VSS Metadata Store Writer’
Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘Performance Counters Writer’
Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘ASR Writer’
Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
Writer Instance Id: {b0f2783a-6e0c-4a74-be4f-99f436eb2558}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘FRS Writer’
Writer Id: {d76f5a28-3092-4589-ba48-2958fb88ce29}
Writer Instance Id: {147db49d-ba4b-43d5-b502-dcd5fa42e03f}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘SqlServerWriter’
Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
Writer Instance Id: {9197eb87-567f-4b82-a43e-6a83c2b2143c}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘SharePoint Services Writer’
Writer Id: {da452614-4858-5e53-a512-38aab25c61ad}
Writer Instance Id: {9f84aa92-2d1b-42d3-888c-7568b5d3e641}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘NPS VSS Writer’
Writer Id: {35e81631-13e1-48db-97fc-d5bc721bb18a}
Writer Instance Id: {b7c76691-117f-4007-bba7-19aa463b301b}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘IIS Metabase Writer’
Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
Writer Instance Id: {439fa64e-0b6e-4b4f-91eb-71bb7aeac17b}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘BITS Writer’
Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
Writer Instance Id: {334fb27b-67c1-4b83-a8b9-39994dc5a729}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer’
Writer Id: {35500004-0201-0000-0000-000000000000}
Writer Instance Id: {269a555e-cd55-4982-b6a3-04f0f7a704cf}
State: [8] Failed
Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy                                      <————————————–    ERROR  ——————————————

Writer name: ‘MSSearch Service Writer’
Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2}
Writer Instance Id: {5499666f-dfae-405b-8b82-5e279669e13a}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘Microsoft Exchange Writer’
Writer Id: {76fe1ac4-15f7-4bcd-987e-8e1acb462fb7}
Writer Instance Id: {62fd1212-320f-48ae-a517-20a5b89ca625}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Actual output of the SPSearch4 Writer results:

SPSearch4error
SpSearch4 VSS Writer Error

 

 

 

 

 

1. Open the command prompt as administrator.
2. Go  to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
3. Execute the following command:

PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

After completing the above command restart the server and try to perform the backup operation again.