"the VSS service is shutting down due to idle timeout" event ID: 8224

Question

I wrote a backup solution in VC++ that takes snapshots and backs up files and directories from the volume snapshot.

Since Monday, the machine(windows server 2008) seems to be rebooting everytime the backup is running (not when it gets started).

When I see the server in the morning, it says "windows recovered from a serious error" and that the error is listed as "blue screen", which would mean BSOD.

And the last application event that occurred was this event ID 8224.

I see something about moving the User's directory, but will that really help?

How do I go about solving this issue.

Solution

Event ID 8224 is simply information, indicating that VSS is done doing what it was doing, and has now gone idle.

From MS TechNet here:

"This is a normal condition. No further action is required."

Starting with the actual Stop code you're getting when it Blue Screens is probably a good way diagnose.

If this is happening regularly now, perhaps to try and confirm if the backup is the cause or not, disable the backup for a day or two, and see if the server still reboots. If so, you know it's something else, if not, then re-enable it and see if the reboots return.

Comments

[roymustang86]

I disabled the backup, and the computer did not reboot, did not see any Bluescreen errors. I will review the code for my backup and see if anything else is causing this issue.

[roymustang86]

I dont really know what happened, but the Bluescreen did not happen on subsequent backups. Weird. Thanks for the help.