Symantec Backup Exec Guru's, please help, keep getting backup failures

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

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Hi all,

I am trying to get some backups running on Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 from one of our customers backup servers, they have a dedicated backup server running this application to centrally control these backups, then Backup agents running on several of their servers.

Now, I can seem to run backups fine from some of their servers, which completes and has no issues, however, from some of there servers, it gets to like 80% backup complete, then fails with various errors, now, I am not sure if the backups are failing because these servers are running SQL server etc, but the ones that complete ok are not running an SQL server.

One of the servers fails with this error

Error : e000848c - Unable to attach to a resource. Make sure that all selected resources exist and are online, and then try again. If the server or resource no longer exists, remove it from the selection list. Edit the selection list properties, click the View Selection DFor additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-33932"

Looking online it shows the various fixes to try, these include making sure the backup resource is available (which it is the whole time) possibly checking permissions on any SQL server to ensure the backup exec has the relevant permissions (which it does) so should be able to access and backup with no issues.

Another server fails and gets a different error

"Final error: 0x8004231f - 0x8004231f (2147754783), is reported in the Job Log after performing a backup of Shadow Copy Components or System State on a Windows Server "

Again I have looked online, and exhausted everything it tries.

Can anyone reccomend what to look at, and if they have seen these issues previously and can point me in the right direction?

The central agent is backing up to a disk volume, not a tape etc.
 
I can't help much but from what i recall we had this issue a few times, almost exactly the same senario (not sure on error code can't remember) but it was using BE2010 on one of the SQL servers that ran a very infrequently used service. It would error on this server and stop backing up, we never got down to the root cause but completely removing the agent and reinstalling + reboot of the SQL server fixed it and subsequently the backup server could then contact that server again.
 
I will give this a go to see if it resolves, removing agent, scheduled reboot of the server its sitting on.

There shouldnt be any issues with Symantec backing up SQL if db is in use or something?
 
On those backups, how complete are they, do they have a good byte count??

has Backup Exec been upgraded lately? The agents need updating at the same time.
Removal and reinstallation is a first port of call.

Check the state of the vss writers?
 
danb21t said:
On those backups, how complete are they, do they have a good byte count??

has Backup Exec been upgraded lately? The agents need updating at the same time.
Removal and reinstallation is a first port of call.

Check the state of the vss writers?
Click to expand...

Oh the one server gets right to to very end before it fails, dont know the exact byte size but id say its 96% complete then fails.

I have recently updated Symantec Backup Exec controller on the backup server (as I was having issues again before backing up), so you think the agents willl need updating, removing again and re-adding? thanks I will give this a go :)

I may need some more info as I am trying to setup quite a hefty backup plan.

My plan was to do a full backup of each server so we have the data, then an incremental backup, as I am not backing up to tapes whats the best way to approach this in terms of retention on how long to keep the data before it overwrites as I will end up running out of space.
 
Always worth removing and redeploying the agent.

For our clients we usually do a full backup on Monday then incrementals for tue, wed, thur set to overwrite the following week.
Friday tape is usually a full backup again on a 4 tape rotation, one for every week which is kept off site or in a safe.
These are all to tape though.

Then veeam or system recovery backups of the VMs to NAS drives which are swapped out every other week.

Some have to keep tapes for compliance purposes and have boxes full of tapes. nightmare!
 
Thanks for the info guys really appriciate it. :)

I am going to do some testing with this most likely Monday now though. Will let you know how I get on
 
Just uninstalled the agent from one of the effected servers, and done a push install from the symantec backup server to the end point server.

Install OK, just running a backup to see how things go, its a hefty backup (140GB)
 
Ok after reinstalling the agent on one of the servers. I tried to run the backup and again it failed.

Going to have to look again tomorrow. As it takes a good few hours to do a full backup on this one server.

Are you sure there is no settings on the server or agent which you need to enable in order for it to access DB? I will take a look at the error tomorow but I'm assuming its the same one
 
If it's worked in the past without any problems then it's unlikely to be any settings within the main Backup Exec console.

These look to be two totally different errors. On the first error, double check what is being backed up via the Selection details and see if you can spot any inconsistencies. Otherwise look through the generated error logs.

Second error, as mentioned may be due to a failed vss. What were the results when doing the VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS command?
 
Version of Windows?
SQL version?
Logs would be helpfull.

I get the feeling atleast the first problem is insufficent access rights relating to SQL.
 
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Ill have another look tomorrow to see if I get more from logs and details of servers for you, I have a funny feeling its to do with SQL 2008 on that particular server.

Will update soon
 
OK right I have pinpointed more info from the logs, its pointless pasting the whole thing as there is a a lot of backups and info I dont want to reveal on forums.

If you look specifically at that job I run last night, it sorts it in to expandable menus telling you what part of the backup job was complete, if you go through the list all of them are complete apart from this one part within this job,

--------------------------------
Set type : BackupSet status : CompletedSet description :
Resource name : \\SERVERNAME.CUSTOMERDOMAIN.local\G:Logon account : System Logon AccountEncryption used : None
Error : e000848c - Unable to attach to a resource. Make sure that all selected resources exist and are online, and then try again. If the server or resource no longer exists, remove it from the selection list. Edit the selection list properties, click the View Selection D
Agent used : YesAdvanced Open File Option used : No

------------------------------



That was taken from the job history for the job I run last night.

The central backup server is running Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 with Symentec Backup Exec 12.5 Rev 2213

The server that is failing in the above error^^ is Server 2003 R2 SP2 running SQL server 2005




-----------------------------------------

The other server which is failing with the "Final error: 0x8004231f - 0x8004231f (2147754783), is reported in the Job Log after performing a backup of Shadow Copy Components or System State on a Windows Server" problem


Server 2003 R2 with SP2 again with SQL 2005


Looking further in to the logs for this server (shadow copy error), I dug up this


Code: 
<OperationErrors Type="snapshot_init_failure">- AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\bowl005.BowlplexPLC.local\Shadow?Copy?Components". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).</OperationErrors> 
- <OperationErrors Type="snapshot_init_failure">
  <UMI>V-79-10000-11242</UMI> 
  - VSS Snapshot error. Out of disk space, or could not find an NTFS volume while creating the snapshot. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) requires an NTFS volume with at least 100 MB of free space for each volume that will be snapped. 
  </OperationErrors>
  <snapshot_init_info>The following volumes are dependent on resource: "C:" .</snapshot_init_info> 
  <NewLine /> 
  <OperationErrors Type="snapshot_init_failure">- AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\\SERVERNAME.DOMAIN.local\System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).</OperationErrors> 
- <OperationErrors Type="snapshot_init_failure">
  <UMI>V-79-10000-11242</UMI> 
  - VSS Snapshot error. Out of disk space, or could not find an NTFS volume while creating the snapshot. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) requires an NTFS volume with at least 100 MB of free space for each volume that will be snapped. 
  </OperationErrors>
  <snapshot_init_info>The following volumes are dependent on resource: "C:" .</snapshot_init_info> 
  </machine>
  </backup>

Whats this disk space referring to???? as I have just checked the servers, the central backup server on "c" drive has 57GB free, even still, it shoudnt be using that, and the server in question that we are trying to back up has 8gb free at the moment on C:
 
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DJMK4 said:
Set type : BackupSet status : CompletedSet description :
Resource name : \\SERVERNAME.CUSTOMERDOMAIN.local\G:Logon account : System Logon AccountEncryption used : None
Error : e000848c - Unable to attach to a resource. Make sure that all selected resources exist and are online, and then try again. If the server or resource no longer exists, remove it from the selection list. Edit the selection list properties, click the View Selection D
Agent used : YesAdvanced Open File Option used : No
Click to expand...

Just to make sure, the G volume on this server is active and fine? Try creating another test backup job with just this resource and see what the results are.

With the SQL server, have you tried rebooting?
 
Thats the thing, the server its trying to back up, there is no "G" volume? so not quite sure where it would be getting this from, I am having a look in the selection list now as its certainly not a volume that exists on the server.

"View Selection by resource" shows no G drive through backup exec, "View Selection Details" shows it trying to backup the "G" volume, which of course doesnt exist.

When you say a reboot of the SQL server, you mean the service that runs on the "physical" server? or the entire server? I can try a service restart now, but they dont finish trading until 10PM so dont want to take down any systems as such at the moment.


Relating to the other server thats having shadow copy issues, I am exhasting everything I am trying at the moment, which includes making sure advanced open file options are selected and to use Microsoft etc, checking there is enough space, restarting services, checking the VSS Services, "Which" were showing some in a failed state, however, after the restart of the effected services I was hoping this would work seeing as they are now up and stable, but another failure through backup exec same issue

Beginning to get a bit frustrated with this all, and a lot of pressure to get it working.
 
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Since it doesn't exist, edit the back up job so that it no longer tries to backup \\SERVERNAME.CUSTOMERDOMAIN.local\G. No need to reboot this SQL server.

The other SQL server with the VSS issue, try a reboot.
 
I have just deleted the G off the selection list for that one server, will see what happens although I anticipate all should be fine.

The other server I have just given a reboot, so will submit this now, it will tell me if its failed within 10-15 minutes.
 
OK the server which had the "VSS" or shadow copy issue, which I restarted, the job failed again so will have to go back to drawing board again on that one.

I am going to set off the one that was failing trying to backup G which didnt exist, this is going to take several hours to run.
 
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