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 very common in SCCM, and I’ve NOT seen much of posts on this topic except 2 or 3. Recently, I’ve stumbled with a backup issue.  

SMS backup failed, restarted the services, server, checked SQL connectivity, applied hotfixes, etc… however, 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.

At last, the post published by Rob Marshall – MVP  helped to dig in further.  As mentioned in his post, my primary server also had a very bad backlog, and this was because of a huge number of secondary servers and communication issues with them.

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.

Patch My PC

So all went well after that? Was the backup completed? NO !! Why? Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue.

Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue
Resolve SCCM Backup Failed Freeze Issue 0x800423f4

0x800423f4 SCCM Backup Issues

So again, I stumbled with 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 days, during SMS back up, all the other SMS-related services used to be in the stopped state. This is 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, the log files.

Adaptiva

In my case, it was smswriter.log. In smswriter.log, I was able to see that the SMS Component Manager service was stopped successfully, and the next step that was supposed to happen was stopping the ‘SMS Executive’ service. But the backup could not stop the service, and it was getting timed out.

Now, as a workaround, I’ve manually killed smsexec.exe (exe for SMS Executive Service) from the task manager while it was in a stopping state. That is it !! Wow!! This resolved my backup issue. 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 very bad backlog.

The problem was SMS Executive service was very busy processing those requests, and hence the backup service was not able to stop the SMS Executive Service.

Resources

How To Check ConfigMgr Task Sequence Size | SCCM – HTMD Blog #2 (howtomanagedevices.com)

Free SCCM Training Part 1 | 17 Hours Of Latest Technical Content | ConfigMgr Lab HTMD Blog (anoopcnair.com)

Author

Anoop is Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. E writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc…

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