SOLVED! Failed to enumerate Microsoft SQL Server databases: Microsoft SQL Server VSS Writer not found - cannot backup SQL databases

[Infoteck]

Greetings and thank you for this nice software!

I want to share my successfull solution, similar to some others already reported, to the error message in the title (Failed to enumerate Microsoft SQL Server databases: Microsoft SQL Server VSS Writer not found - cannot backup SQL databases). This error appeared whenever I wanted to create a new backup profile. I could click ok, it went away and the job ran without problems but I suspect I could not have used it to backup SQL using VSS.

I had Duplicati on two other systems, running under local accounts or as a service with no problems. However, an installation on a server running MS Server 2012R2, running as a service, was giving me the error message while not giving it when using a local account. This server as an SQL Server installed which is being used by another software package.

As hinted in other messages, I installed SQL Server Management Studio in order to grant Sysadmin permission to the Local System account (ref.: Sysdatabases is empty–You say Whaaat? | TroubleshootingSQL) and this took care of the error message. I am no expert in SQL, far from it actually! I believe that this may not be current best practicies but it was the only way I could get rid of the error.

Any inputs welcomed!

Best regards to the team!

[drwtsn32]

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your experience.

@Infoteck

in order to grant Sysadmin permission to the Local System account

I think you mean: Grant LocalSystem sysadmin rights to the database instance. And this is exactly my experience with other backup products (when the backup software/agent is running under LocalSystem context). For backups/restores to work, you need sysadmin-level rights to the SQL instance.

Thanks again!

[Infoteck]

Yes indeed, thank you!

I’m French speaking so something got fumbled in translation!

[Abner_Smith]

@drwtsn32

izer: Conceda direitos de administrador do sistema LocalSystem à instância do banco de dados. E esta é exatamente a minha experiência com outros produtos de backup (quando o software / agente de backup está sendo executado no contexto LocalSystem). Para que os backups / restaurações funcionem, você precisa de direitos de nível de administrador para a instância do SQL.

Obrigado novamente!

Is it just installing that solves? And how did you go about giving permission?

[drwtsn32]

As mentioned earlier you can use SQL Management Studio to grant those permissions.