Restart VSS Writers Status and Writers table example ( No reboot required )

Hi;

Writers can be tricky during backups;

Sometimes they can fail and you are required to restart the server in order to make them run again;

In order to see the status :

Run on any CMD or PowerShell console: Vssadmin list writers :

How the writers work:

Source:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/vss/overview-of-processing-a-backup-under-vss

We will assume for example that our WMI writer is crashed / and System Crashed / IIS Config Writer;

Here is the following equivalent table for services – writers;

See I have Highlighted the required writers in order to be restarted with the PowerShell

We will run the following script to restart WMI/Crypto Service & Apphost

Restart-Service WINMGMT -force
Get-Service WINMGMT | Select-Object -expand dependentservices | Start-Service
Restart-Service CryptSvc -force
Get-Service CryptSvc | Select-Object -expand dependentservices | Start-Service
Restart-Service AppHostSvc -force
Get-Service AppHostSvc | Select-Object -expand dependentservices | Start-Service

List Of Writers / Equivalent