~ Dwayne Jackson | Senior Support Escalation Engineer
Hi Everyone, Dwayne Jackson here with a quick tip in case you ever run into an issue where System State Protection fails for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager. Please ensure your symptoms align with the items noted below.
Symptoms
The first symptom you’ll see from DPM server system state protection fails with below error:
Also, if you examine it from the protected server side, the Event ID 517 below is logged in Application log.
Additionally, from protected server, Windows Server backup displays than error similar to this:
You will also notice that if you go to the protected server and run the command vssadmin list writers from and administrative command prompt, you’ll see that System Writer is not displayed in the output.
Cause
If you encounter these symptoms, a possible cause is that Cryptographic Services on the problem server is not running.
Resolution
To remedy this, carry out the steps outlined below.
1) From the problem server, identify whether the Cryptographic Services service is running.
2) Assuming it is not running, attempt to start the service. If the service starts successfully then move on to step 3. If the service fails to start, review the Application Event Log for help identifying why the service failed to start.
3) From problem server, open an administrative command prompt (Run as Administrator) run the following command:
Vssadmin List Writer
The writer named System Writer should now be displayed.
4) From the DPM server, attempt to run the System State backup that previously failed. It should now succeed.
For additional information explaining DPM System State Protection, please see the following:
DPM and System State Backup Explained
Dwayne Jackson | Senior Support Escalation Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division
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DPM 2012 R2