Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_TIMEOUT. Error Code = 0x80,042,3f2

SCCM site database maintenance task failed with one of the below error;

After GatherWriterMetadata SMS Writer status = FAILED_AT_PREPARE_BACKUP.
Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_TIMEOUT. Error Code = 0x80,042,3f2.

ERROR: SQL Backup task failed. Error message - Asynchronous QueryStatus failed or did not finish properly.
STATMSG: ID=5052 SEV=E LEV=M SOURCE="SMS Server" COMP="SMS_SITE_BACKUP" SYS=sccb.w2k8.lab SITE=SCB PID=35284 TID=34312 GMTDATE=Wed Apr 26 23:25:37.402 2017 ISTR0="\\sccb.w2k8.lab" ISTR1="CM_CP1;" ISTR2="Asynchronous QueryStatus failed or did not finish properly." ISTR3="" ISTR4="" ISTR5="" ISTR6="" ISTR7="" ISTR8="" ISTR9="" NUMATTRS=0
Error: Sql Server could not prepare for the Backup.

Current state of SQL backup: [failed]. Aborting it.
SMS_SITE_BACKUP 4/26/2017 11:25:37 PM 34312 (0x8608)

SMS_SITE_BACKUP failed. Please see previous errors.

Above errors can be seen in smsbkup.log under <CM installDir>\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Logs

Below event viewer msgs can be seen on the site database server;

Event ID: 12346
Volume Shadow Copy Error: An error 0x8007000e, Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.
 was encountered while trying to initialize the Registry Writer.  This may cause future shadow-copy creations to fail.

Event ID: 12347
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers.  The Registry Writer failed to respond to a query from VSS. Check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly, and please check the Application event log for any other events.

Operation:
   Gathering Writer Data
   Executing Asynchronous Operation

Context:
   Execution Context: Requestor
   Current State: GatherWriterMetadata

If we investigate, further;
- COM+ Event System service is running
- Volume Shadow Copy service is running
- SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER is running and can restart the service without any error
- On the command line run vssadmin list writers  and should list all the writers

When I ran vssadmin list writers on the site server, I have received various vss writers names and with last error. All of the writers showed stable except SMS Writer.

For the SMS Writer, state: [7] Last error: Timed out.

Then ran vssadmin list writers on the Site database server and received empty list.

A quick google showed me various articles to re-register the dll’s to initialise the writers.

However decided to restart the server as it has been up and running for good few months.

After the restart, I re-ran the vssadmin list writers  and this time it showed various writers.

Now initiated backup by starting the SMS_SITE_BACKUP service.

Even though I have received "After GatherWriterMetadata SMS Writer status = FAILED_AT_PREPARE_BACKUP. Error: VSS_E_WRITERERROR_TIMEOUT. Error Code = 0x80,042,3f2." Error in the beginning of the backup process, it has completed the site backup successfully.

The reason for the site database backup failure was, on the site database server the Registry Writer was not present. For some reason all the VSS writers had disappeared from the database server.

After restarting the server, the writers were back and everything worked as normal.