Error Message

Job Log Error :

V-79-57344-37935 - Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: "Test::\\HYCLUSTER.Test.local\Hyper-V?HA?VM\VirtualMachineName". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).Snapshot technology error (0xE000942F): Cannot capture a snapshot of the virtual machine volumes. Ensure that the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service is running, the status of the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS writer is Stable and the virtual machine is present on the Hyper-V server.Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

This could occur due to any or all of the following problems:

1. the Hyper V Virtual machine Management service has stopped during the time of backup

2 .if the Hyper V VSS writers are missing from the Host or they are available but on a failed state .

3. The Virtual machine mentioned on the error is has been renamed or no longer available on the Host  .

4. if the Hyper-V Integration Services are not installed or if there is a version mismatch between the Hyper-V host and Hyper-V Integration Services inside the VM

1.    Make sure the Hyper V virtual machine Management service is running on the Hyper V host , if its stopped start the service and re run the backup 

2.  Check the writers status on the Host as well as the Virtual machine .In the command prompt run “vssadmin list writers” (without quotes).When there is no job running on the server the State for all the writers should be "Stable" and "No Errors".On the Hyper V host the  the Microsoft Hyper V VSS writer has to be visible and stable with no errors. 

3. If a Virtual Machine has been renamed or removed from the host the backup will fail with the above error therefore that VM has to be removed from selection list on existing backup job definition or Re-creating the Backup will resolve the issue .  

4. the Hyper-V Integration Services has to be  installed on the Virtual machine and  if there is a version mismatch between the Hyper-V host and Hyper-V Integration Services inside the VM , the integration services has to be updated . 

Troubleshooting backup and restore failures with Backup Exec Hyper-V backups