Win2008 R2 Backup Failure: Volume Shadow copy operation failed for backup volumes with following error code "2155348254"

Question

Failed to get exclusive lock on the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) system partition.
  [ Name]  Microsoft-Windows-Backup
   [ Guid]  {1DB28F2E-8F80-4027-8C5A-A11F7F10F62D}
   EventID 517
   Version 0
   Level 2
   Task 0
   Opcode 0
   Keywords 0x8000000000000000
  - TimeCreated
   [ SystemTime]  2012-09-13T02:01:26.193377500Z
   EventRecordID 134130
   Correlation
  - Execution
   [ ProcessID]  13508
   [ ThreadID]  552
   Channel Application
   Computer SERVER.srv.local
  - Security
   [ UserID]  S-1-5-17
- EventData
  BackupTime 2012-09-13T02:00:15.711673900Z
  ErrorCode 2155348254
  ErrorMessage %%2155348254

Answer 1

Shaon,
I am receiving an identical error message as the original poster.
Let me give you some information on my setup and what I have already tried.
I am running a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller with SP1 installed.  The system also runs MS SQL 2008 and IIS.  All critical and recommended updates are installed.
The server backs up to a set of one of two external hard drives over USB 2.0 every night using Windows Backup.  The external hard drives are encrypted using BitLocker and rotated offsite every week.  We had no problems until 27 November 2013.  On
that date I installed the November Windows updates and rebooted.  Backups have not worked correctly since that time.
The server has two hard drives.  The first one contains an 100 MB EFI partition (created for the IBM System x3200 M3 server EFI hardware although it appears to be entirely empty).  The second partition contains the OS and the SQL databases.  The
second hard drive contains shared data files.  None of the partitions are close to being full.
The backup fails with the following error in the Windows Backup interface:
EFI System Partition: Windows Server Backup failed to get an exclusive lock on the EFI system partition.  Detailed error: Access is denied.
The event viewer contains the error listed by the original poster (in the detailed view).  The general view has this description:
The backup operation that started at <time> has failed with the following error code '2155348254' (Windows Backup failed to get an exclusive lock on the EFI system partition (ESP).  This may happen if another application is using files on the
ESP.  Please retry the operation.).  Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.
This error is thrown about 1 minute after the backup begins.  After encountering the error with the EFI partition the backup exits and does not attempt to backup the other partitions.
The most interesting detail about the problem is that if I reboot the server and immediately perform a backup it completes successfully.  If I reboot the server and wait approximately an hour before starting the backup it will fail.  The backups
will continue to fail until the server is rebooted, at which point I if a backup is started immediately it will succeed but all future backups will fail.  Therefore, it seems that Windows Backup has access to the EFI partition immediately after a reboot
but loses access for some reason close to the hour mark (this is an estimate based on a little experimentation but not an exact number).
Reading the little bit of information available online for this error message I have tried disabling our antivirus (Kaspersky) with no effect.  I have also replaced the first hard drive in the server that contains the EFI partition with not effect (the
old hard drive imaged to the new hard drive with no errors, but backups still fail with the new hard drive).  Backups fail with either external hard drive connected, so it is unlikely that the external hard drive is the problem.  I have erased all
the Windows Backup settings including wiping all data on the external backup drive and created a new backup with no effect.  I attempted to not backing up the EFI partition but it is required for the system state.  I have reviewed all the Windows
updates installed in 27 November 2013 but none of the KB articles reference anything that I could possibly see related to the backup except for possibly the installation of .NET 4.5.1.  However, I do not believe that Windows Backup uses .NET.  'Vssadmin
list writers' does not list any obvious errors.
At this point I am stymied except to think that I have some esoteric hardware failure.  I have contacted IBM support who ran an extensive hardware diagnostic which showed no hardware issues.
I run several other similar Windows Server 2008 R2 systems, but none of them are on this model of hardware and none of them have an EFI partition.  They all installed the same November Windows Updates.  All of them are able to backup to external
hard drives without issue.
Any support you can provide would be greatly appreciated.