Fix How to Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue Troubleshooting ConfigMgr Error 0x800423f4
Fix How to Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue Troubleshooting ConfigMgr. Backup failures are widespread in SCCM, and I’ve NOT seen much of posts on this topic except 2 or 3. Recently, I’ve stumbled upon a backup issue.
SMS backup failed, so I restarted the services and server, checked SQL connectivity, applied hotfixes, etc… however, I had no luck. Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue. After DoSnapshotSet SQL Writer status = FAILED_AT_FREEZE” and “Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_NONRETRYABLE. Error Code = 0x800423f4.
Finally, the post published by Rob Marshall, MVP, helped us dig deeper into the field. As mentioned in his post, my primary server also had a terrible backlog caused by a considerable number of secondary servers and communication issues with them.
In this post, you will find all the details on How to Resolve the SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue Troubleshooting ConfigMgr Error 0x800423f4.
Table of Contents
Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue
So the initial issue was, obviously, with the registry key “\SMS_SCHEDULER: Routing Packages.” I followed the steps mentioned in Rob’s post to clear out that mess. Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue.
So, all went well after that. Was the backup completed? No!! Why? Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue.
| Error Code |
|---|
| 0x800423f4 |
- Fix SCCM ConfigMgr Backup Failed with Error SQL Backup Failed Error Code 2 Configuration Manager
- SCCM ConfigMgr Current Branch Backup Recovery Options
- ConfigMgr / SCCM 2007 Recovery Restore Site Repair Wizard Step by Step Guide
- How to recover SCCM / ConfigMgr 2012 primary Server from a good backup?
- How to recover SCCM / ConfigMgr 2012 primary Server from CAS server?
- Recovery of SCCM ConfigMgr 2012 CAS Server from SQL Backup
- Improvements in High Availability Redundancy and Disaster Recovery Options in SCCM or ConfigMgr 2012
0x800423f4 SCCM Backup Issues
So again, I stumbled upon the following errors in smsbkup.log: “After DoSnapshotSet SQL Writer status = FAILED_AT_FREEZE” and “Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_NONRETRYABLE. Error Code = 0x80,042,3f4.” Now what? Back to basics, in SMS 2003, all the other SMS-related services used to be stopped during the SMS backup. This changed in SCCM 2007 with the integration of VSS.
So, in SCCM 2007 and 2012, the SMS services will be down/stopped/restarted for a fraction of a second during the start of the SMS backup process. Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze?
In my Scenario, SMS backup could not stop the “SMS Executive” service. So, where did I get the clue about this? Again, ConfigMgr Admins‘ best friend is the log files.
In my case, it was smswriter.log. In smswriter.log, I could see that the SMS Component Manager service was stopped successfully, and the next step was supposed to be stopping the SMS Executive service. However, the backup could not stop the service, which was getting timed out.
As a workaround, I manually killed smsexec.exe (the exe for SMS Executive Service) from the task manager while it was stopping. That is it! Wow! This resolved my backup issue, and the backup was successful.
FIX 0x800423f4 SCCM Backup Issues
So, what was the cause of the issue? Why was the backup process unable to kill or stop the SMS Executive Service (smsexec.exe)?
Yes, if you noticed above, I had already mentioned that the primary server had some communication problems with secondary sites (some of them), and the primary server had a terrible backlog.
The problem was that the SMS Executive service was hectic processing those requests; hence, the backup service could not stop the SMS Executive Service.
Resources
How To Check ConfigMgr Task Sequence Size | SCCM – HTMD Blog #2 (howtomanagedevices.com)
We are on WhatsApp now. To get the latest step-by-step guides, news, and updates, Join our Channel. Click here – HTMD WhatsApp
Author
Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for consecutive 10 years! He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career etc…
Thank you