Data Protector Express - Error 5094 : Snapshot provider service encountered unexpected error

[Michael.H]

The data appears to be backed up onto the Tape, however the following error is shown on completion....

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Error 5094: Snapshot provider service encountered an unexpected error preventing the snapshot operation

Volume Shadow Copy Service (NTFS)
Snapshot creation failed, continuing with active objects.
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Any help would be much appreciated.

[Rajanikant]

Hi,

This error can be seen if there is a problem in VSS service. The data protector express Backup Volume Shadow Copy Service Agent has the following basic requirements:
1. The VSS Agent will only work on NTFS volumes.
2. The VSS Agent is designed to work on the following Operating Systems only:
A. Windows XP Professional (supports only 1 snapshot at a time)
B. Windows Server 2003

NOTE: The VSS Agent will not work on any other Windows OS.

3. The VSS Agent requires at least 100MB of free space for each volume to be protected. This requirement is very strict, if even 99MB is available, the VSS snap will fail. This is an inherent requirement of VSS.
4. The VSS agent requires the following Windows Services be running for correct operation:
A. VSS service
B. MS Software Shadow Copy Provider Service

Note: If you have a good Open file solution in place then disabling the snapshot feature in DP express will help in resolving this issue

Without OFM it is possible to use data protector express Backup Volume Shadow Copy Service Agent on 2003 servers. However this requires VSS aware applications and does not work well with many desktop applications running over the network

Regards
Raj