{"id":2455,"date":"2013-10-29T15:29:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T15:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2019-11-13T01:52:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T01:52:57","slug":"how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","title":{"rendered":"How to enable the Exchange VSS writer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2462\" alt=\"exchange_vss\" src=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png 640w, https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1-300x117.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When you back up an Exchange Server using VSS, the Exchange VSS writer will work to improve the shadow copy and make it application consistent. If the Exchange VSS writer is not enabled, you will not have an application consistent shadow copy, and your backup job may encounter errors.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Exchange VSS writer has to be manually enabled for Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007.<\/li>\n<li>This should be done before running a VSS backup of your Exchange Server using BackupAssist.<\/li>\n<li>You can check if the Exchange VSS writer service is running by opening a command prompt and typing &#8220;vssadmin list writers&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enabling the VSS writer requires manual changes to the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure you back it up and that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"alert alert-info\">Microsoft warning about the use of the registry editor: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to re-install your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.<\/div>\n<p>To Enable the Exchange VSS writer, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<ol>\n<li>Log onto your Exchange Server<\/li>\n<li>Select Start &gt; Run<\/li>\n<li>Type <em>regedit <\/em>into the Open field<\/li>\n<li>Select OK<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This will open the Registry editor. You can locate items in the registry by using the search and browse functions.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Locate and open the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\MSExchangeIS\\ParametersSystem<\/li>\n<li>Look for the <em>Disable Exchange Writer<\/em> value<\/li>\n<li>If this value has a DWORD of 1, then change it to 0<\/li>\n<li>Click OK<\/li>\n<li>Close the Registry Editor<\/li>\n<li>Select Start &gt; Administrative Tools<\/li>\n<li>Select Services<\/li>\n<li>Stop and then start the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>You can now backup your Exchange Server using its VSS writer.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on backing up and restoring Exchange Servers and mailboxes, see our <a title=\"Exchange documentation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/education\/whitepapers\/exchange_protection_whitepaper.html\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Exchange documentation page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you back up an Exchange Server using VSS, the Exchange VSS writer will work to improve the shadow copy and make it application consistent. If the Exchange VSS writer is not enabled, you will not have an application consistent shadow copy, and your backup job may encounter errors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,760],"tags":[199,200,201],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-support","category-legacy","tag-enabling-exchange-vss","tag-exchange-backups","tag-exchange-vss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exchange VSS | BackupAssist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exchange VSS | BackupAssist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cyber Resilience Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Dwyer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Dwyer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Dwyer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84edd561512d93c57e38a6d3d922cf61\"},\"headline\":\"How to enable the Exchange VSS writer\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\"},\"wordCount\":319,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Enabling Exchange VSS\",\"Exchange Backups\",\"Exchange VSS\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Support\",\"Z-Legacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\",\"name\":\"Exchange VSS | BackupAssist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to enable the Exchange VSS writer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Cyber Resilience Blog\",\"description\":\"Protect Your Cloud Data with BackupAssist\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cyber Resilience Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/BA-Logo-Full-Logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/BA-Logo-Full-Logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"Cyber Resilience Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84edd561512d93c57e38a6d3d922cf61\",\"name\":\"Rick Dwyer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47a03fa1c7e7a827dcafbdeac92810855877677d38b47fb3f3039f28b463663a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47a03fa1c7e7a827dcafbdeac92810855877677d38b47fb3f3039f28b463663a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Dwyer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/author\/rick-dwyer\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Exchange VSS | BackupAssist","description":"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exchange VSS | BackupAssist","og_description":"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files","og_url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","og_site_name":"Cyber Resilience Blog","article_published_time":"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Dwyer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Dwyer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer"},"author":{"name":"Rick Dwyer","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84edd561512d93c57e38a6d3d922cf61"},"headline":"How to enable the Exchange VSS writer","datePublished":"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer"},"wordCount":319,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png","keywords":["Enabling Exchange VSS","Exchange Backups","Exchange VSS"],"articleSection":["Support","Z-Legacy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer","name":"Exchange VSS | BackupAssist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png","datePublished":"2013-10-29T15:29:20+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-13T01:52:57+00:00","description":"Enable Exchange VSS and perform backups of Exchange Servers while they are running without locked files","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/exchange_vss1.png","width":640,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/how-to-enable-the-exchange-vss-writer#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to enable the Exchange VSS writer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/","name":"Cyber Resilience Blog","description":"Protect Your Cloud Data with BackupAssist","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Cyber Resilience Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/BA-Logo-Full-Logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/09\/BA-Logo-Full-Logo.svg","caption":"Cyber Resilience Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84edd561512d93c57e38a6d3d922cf61","name":"Rick Dwyer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47a03fa1c7e7a827dcafbdeac92810855877677d38b47fb3f3039f28b463663a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47a03fa1c7e7a827dcafbdeac92810855877677d38b47fb3f3039f28b463663a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Dwyer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/author\/rick-dwyer"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13654,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/13654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backupassist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}