Unable to backup SQL server 2016: VSS Inconsistent shadow copy

Hi everyone,

First of all, sorry if I am not in the proper category.

Here is my problem: We are using Veeam Backup and replication 9.5 update 4, the latest RTW and attempting to back up a server with multiple instances of MSSQL Server 2016 x64 installed (version: KB4293802).

Veeam is displaying the following error message:

Listing writers in vssadmin returns the following error:

Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'    Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}    Writer Instance Id: {fb712bdc-8258-42b6-bc5a-b79d75c4b04b}    State: [8] Failed    Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy

Further investigation of instance fb712bdc-8258-42b6-bc5a-b79d75c4b04b (listing writers with verbose on) returned the following log (some names changed);

[Logs]

* WRITER "SqlServerWriter"
        - Writer ID   = {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
        - Writer instance ID = {fb712bdc-8258-42b6-bc5a-b79d75c4b04b}
        - Supports restore events = TRUE
        - Writer restore conditions = VSS_WRE_ALWAYS
        - Restore method = VSS_RME_RESTORE_IF_CAN_REPLACE
        - Requires reboot after restore = FALSE
        - Excluded files:
        + Component "SqlServerWriter:\MSSQL16\WATER\master"
            - Name: master
            - Logical path: MSSQL16\WATER
            - Full path: \MSSQL16\WATER\master
            - Caption:
            - Type: VSS_CT_FILEGROUP [2]
            - Is selectable: TRUE
            - Is top level: TRUE
            - Notify on backup complete: TRUE
            - Paths affected by this component:
                - D:\Data\WATER\MSSQL13.WATER\MSSQL\DATA
            - Volumes affected by this component:
                               - \\?\Volume{918ad5d2-5d39-46d7-a984-0e6967145746}\ [D:\]
            

[/Logs]
(There is more log if needed but I cannot send the message with the whole too many characters )

Restarting VSS on its own was not successful. After a Google search I found http://backupchain.com/en/vss-troubleshooting-guide/ which suggests the following:

Repair Strategy #2 of 11

Open “vssadmin from the command line (run cmd as administrator).

Enter “vssadmin delete shadows /all” to clean up any dead / orphaned shadows. Some defect systems accumulate hundreds of VSS snapshots that persist in the system and cause Windows to become unresponsive.

Enter “vssadmin list writers” and check for errors. If you receive errors for one writer, you may need to fix that particular service . It is quite common to receive multiple errors from several related services, such as “VolSnap” and “Disk”.

If you see a VSS error, try the following:

Restart the services:

COM+ System Application Service, Distributed Transaction Coordinator Service, and Volume Shadow Copy Service

and also restart the affected service, for example, the Hyper-V VSS writer.

My question is, this database server is in production; what side effects could result from removing all the shadow copies?

Thank you for your help.

Regards,

Lucas