File Server Resource Manager Expiration Tasks fails with Shadow Copy error

Question

I'm running Windows Server 2012 with File Server Resource Manager role. We have two tasks configured to remove stale files on a X drive. This week I started to see the errors below in Windows Application Logs

8235 - File Server Resource Manager failed to initialize the volume scanner.
12311 - Shadow copy creation failed for volume 'X:' with error 0x8004532c, A volume shadow copy could not be created or was unexpectedly deleted.

In FSRM console I find the Last Result message: Exception from HRESULT: 0x8004532C

X volume does not have Shadow Copies enabled, but D drive does. Since FSRM documentation and google haven't been of much help, does anyone have a clue on why FSRM is throwing Shadow Copy errors related to a volume that is not Shadow Copy enabled? How does FSRM uses Shadow Copies for the tasks?

Answer 1

So after some troubleshooting I found that the first step when the task run is to create a snapshot, which I assume uses Shadow Copy service.

Looking into the Windows Event Log for FSRM and Shadow Copy errors, I found:

• Application
  • [Source: SRMSVC] - 8235 - File Server Resource Manager failed to initialize the volume scanner
  • [Source: SRMSVC] - 12311 - Shadow copy creation failed for volume 'X:' with error 0x8004231f. The volume might be configured with inadequate shadow copy storage area. Storage reports may be temporarily unavailable for this volume.
• System
  • [Source: volsnap] - 39 - When preparing a new volume shadow copy for volume X:, the shadow copy storage on volume D: could not be located in non-critical space. Consider using a shadow copy storage volume that does not have any shadow copies.

I had already seen error 39 related to a vss writer timing out while scanning a volume. Checking the status of vss writers using vssadmin list writers output

Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
Writer Instance Id: {e337e6ed-be6b-4020-a209-34a3066785a0}
State: [5] Waiting for completion
Last error: No error

Restarting the File Service Resource Manager service cleared the status of the writer

Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
Writer Instance Id: {e337e6ed-be6b-4020-a209-34a3066785a0}
State: [1] Stable Last error: No error

After this the task ran without issues, BUT, the writer vss FSRM Writer was left in [5] Waiting for completion state, which still needs to be investigated.

Long story short, FSRM uses Shadow Copies to create snapshots in its initialization phase.