If a backup fails with the following error:

The backup operation that started at '‎2016‎-‎08‎-‎23T21:00:33.082000000Z' has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code '2155348129'. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

Fix 1: 

It likely means that one of the VSS writers has an error, to check their status do the following:

• Open up a command prompt

• Type vssadmin list writers

• This will give you a list of all the writers, check that each of them say stable and no error.

• Make a note of any that have errors (if there are any others saying waiting for completion then they are fine, the backup will still run).

• Once you have a note of the writers that have errors, find the corresponding services using the table in this link: http://www.planetcobalt.net/sdb/vss_writers.shtml

• Those services will need to be restarted, open services.msc and find the service, check the description to ensure that restarting the service is not going to cause any issues if its during working hours. If there are a lot of them to restart you may be better off restarting the server, be wary that this may not be the best option if the backup has not run for multiple days and they have no other form of backup.

• Once the services have been restarted run the vssadmin list writers command again and confirm that none of the writers have any errors.

• The Backup should run successfully next time.

Fix 2:

This applies to Server 2008 / SBS 2011.

If you are getting a VSS error and none of the of the writers are erroring, then check if any sharepoint updates have been installed recently.

If they have then you will need to run the following command, it is best to do this early in the morning or at the end of the day as it will stop the remote web workplace and the webmail from working for a few minutes:

• Open up a command prompt

• cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN

• PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

This should run through configuring 6 steps, make sure its successful for all.

Run the backup again or leave it to run as scheduled and check back to ensure its successful.