Quick Fix: SBS 2011 wbadmin parameter incorrect

I never thought i’d be writing about SBS 2011 again, but here she is, back from the dead.

I’m working on a migration SBS 2011 > 2019 and as per my guide i was trying to get a system state backup of the source server before making any changes. Well, the SBS had other ideas.

Running the command

wbadmin start systemstate backup -backuptarget:g:

Would result in an error ‘parameter incorrect’ after a few minutes.

After going round and round with the server for a long time, including trying to decode ETL files with the Performance Toolkit, i finally twigged something i had been seeing in the output of vshadow.exe but not fully registering.

A Sage Accounts service was registered on the Server, which is not uncommon, but the Image Path had been set to a UNC value. Which is, to say the least, uncommon. At least for me. At least.

It was only when i happened upon another technet forum post and loaded up msinfo32.exe that it stood out that the image path was wrong.

I took down the correct internal path to the same files and updated their value in the registry, and then started the system state backup off again.

The backup completed after about an hour and i was able to move on to the next stage of the migration.