Hello --
We have a SQL Server 2008R2 database running on a Windows 2012 x86_64 server. The databases being backed up use a Full Recovery model, and are subject of Full, occurring on Friday, Differential, occurring Saturday through Thursday, and Transaction log, hourly, backups. Recently the Differential backups that run on Monday were failing due to the following error:
Cannot perform a differential backup for database "<database name>", because a current database backup does not exist. Perform a full database backup by reissuing BACKUP DATABASE, omitting the WITH DIFFERENTIAL option. BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.". Possible failure reasons: Problems with the query, "ResultSet" property not set correctly, parameters not set correctly, or connection not established correctly. End Error Error: 2014-03-10 22:00:02.38 Code: 0xC002F210 Source: Back Up Database (Differential) Execute SQL Task
A one-time full backup job was subsequently run, and that solved the problem until the following Monday. A check of the ERRORLOG file had entries like the following:
I/O is frozen on database I/O was resumed on database Backup Database backed up
Further investigating seem to indicate that NT backups (VSS backups) are running on the server that was backing up all databases. Those backups are being run by NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.
However, a check of the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider and Volume Shadow Copy services indicated that both are set to manual, and are not running on the system. Also, the Windows Server Backup feature is not installed on the server.
Where are the backups coming from, and how can they be stopped from running?