VMICVSS Event 13 Error During Backup on Guest VM

The  Event 13 error happens when backing up a Hyper-V virtual machine from Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 and the guest VM is Server 2012 or 2012 R2.

A “scope snapshot” is a  volume snapshot that is new for Windows Server 2012, this means that it is not supported by the host OS (Server 2008 or 2008 R2).  Being that the “volume snapshot” is not supported by the host machine it needs to be disabled on the guest machine.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        vmicvss
Date:          11/29/2012 9:00:05 PM
Event ID:      13
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVER.mydomain.local
Description:
Windows cannot perform an online backup of this system because scoped snapshots are enabled. To resolve this, disable scoped snapshots by creating the following registry value on this computer:
PATH: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\
DWORD: ScopeSnapshots
Value: 0

How to fix VMICVSS Event 13

You can fix this error by creating the registry key described in the error under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\

You can do this by:

  • Opening the registry editer by typing regedit in the start menu
  • Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\ if the SystemRestore key does not exist right click on CurrentVersion and select new key and call it SystemRestore
  • Right click on the SystemRestore key and and select new DWord
  • Call the DWord value ScopeSnapshots and give it the value of 0
  • Exit the registry editor and reboot the server