Windows Backup fails with Event Id 521 Error Code 2155348129

This error occured on a Windows SBS 2011 server whilst trying to run a Windows Backup to a USB External Drive:

Event ID: 521
Task Category: None
Description:
The backup operation that started at ‘XXXXXX’ has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code ’2155348129′. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

To make sure it is the sharepoint SPSearch4 VSS writer which is causing this problem,

1. Open an administrative command prompt

2. Run,  “vssadmin list writers”

3. Take a look at the output and find the details for ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer”,  if it is in error with “Inconsistent Shadow Copy” as shown below run the steps below the error message.

     Writer name: ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer’
     Writer Id: {35500004-0201-0000-0000-000000000000}
     Writer Instance Id: {34a1fd6e-667d-4671-a551-2d4689c4e508}
     State: [8] Failed
     Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy

To fix this Backup Failure,

1. Open an administrative command prompt

2. change directory to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN “

3. Run “PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures”

4. Reboot server (there are reports that you don’t need to reboot after this command but the backups failed until I rebooted). Apparently this issue can occur after running Sharepoint SP1 or other Sharepoint updates.

Find SQL Server Version Information from a SQL Backup

You will need to open up SQL Management Studio and create a new query window:

Type the following command replacing your path, and clicking Execute as shown

RESTORE HEADERONLY
FROM DISK = N’c:\temp\DBBkup.bak’
WITH NOUNLOAD;

The results at the bottom should show a tonne of information about the backup. What your most interested in is the values for SoftwareVersionMajor and SoftwareVersionMinor. The below can be used to identify your version:

Increase Maximum Acceptable Message Size in Exchange Server 2010

On Small Business Server 2011 you receive the following event ID in the event log and messages are not retrieved from a POP3 account using the pop3 connector:

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Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Small Business Server/Operational

Source: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard
Event ID: 210
Task Category: Windows SBS POP3 Connector
Level: Error

One or more messages (1) were left in the ‘xxxxx@xxxxxxx.com.au’ account on the POP3 server ‘xxxxx.xxxxxxx.com.au’ because they are larger than the maximum acceptable message size (the largest message is 11533705 bytes). You can either connect to the POP3 account and retrieve or delete the messages manually, or increase the maximum acceptable message size in Exchange Server.

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To Fix this you will need to open an Exchange Management Shell and run the following:

get-receiveconnector | select identity,maxmessagesize

As you can see this shows a list of receive connectors on your server. In this case they are currently at 20Mb which I’ve found to be adequate. If yours are lower than this you can change the MaxMessageSize with the following:

set-receiveconnector “Windows SBS Fax Sharepoint Receive SERVER1″ -maxmessagesize 20MB

In this case the command did nothing as the connector was already at 20Mb. Change all three connectors to your desired levels.