NovaBACKUP Crashes on Server OS's or has issues if these Win Updates are installed that were released on Patch Tuesday January 11, 2022: KB5009624 for Windows Server 2012 R2, KB5009557 for Windows Server 2019, and KB5009555 for Windows Server 2022. These patches were recalled later by Microsoft you can read those articles here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-pulls-new-windows-server-updates-due-to-critical-bugs/ and here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/new-windows-server-updates-cause-dc-boot-loops-break-hyper-v/.
Symptoms of the issue:
The symptoms of having one of those Win Updates installed can be that the NovaBACKUP client appears to crash the system it is installed on, or file backup no longer works, or image backup no longer works.
Method of resolution for the issue:
As of now we only have a single confirmed report which was Windows Server 2019 + KB5009557 for Windows Server 2019 installed, utilized by NovaBACKUP 19.7.409 client, whereby file backup and image backup stopped working, until that patch was uninstalled. They uninstalled KB5009557 first, which resolved the client crashing issue, and allowed file backup to work. However, image backup was still not working after that modification, so after some research, the same customer also uninstalled Windows Defender at the same time, as their VIPRE Endpoint Security Anti-Virus software keeps Windows Defender enabled (at least that specific version which is 11.0.2.24). After Windows Defender was uninstalled from the client system, then image backup worked. That combination of fixes allowed the NovaBACKUP client not to crash the system, and they could do file and image backups after that. If you are experiencing an issue such as that is described and you have the equivalent Win Update installed after looking in your 'Programs and Features > View installed updates' on the affected backup client system, please uninstall that update to see if that resolves the issue with the client.
Note: There is likely a specific combination of software, drivers, or Windows Updates installed that leads to this issue otherwise we would have seen it on more customers systems.