skdax
asked on
Backup Exec 2010 SP1 services stopping unexpectedly every week
I have Symantec Backup Exec 2010 Service Pack 1 installed on a 64-bit Windows Server 2008 Standard Dell server with a SCSI LTO-2 PowerVault tape autoloader connected and am experiencing a somewhat regular problem. About every 6 to 8 days I’ll check Backup Exec to make sure the previous night’s backup job completed only to find that all of the Backup Exec services on the server have stopped and thus the backup never took place. I can simply restart the services and everything works fine again for another week or so and then the same result.
Backup Exec doesn’t return ANY alerts or error messages as to why the services are stopping, and the only thing that shows up in the Windows event logs is an informational entry noting that Backup Exec is stopping.
This server acts as a domain controller, DNS and DHCP server and it runs Backup Exec, nothing else. Backup Exec 2010 was the only version ever installed, it wasn’t upgraded from v12.5, and as of posting this question all of the LiveUpdate hotfixes are installed. All of the Windows updates are also installed on this server.
I’ve called Symantec tech support and they are flat-out useless. Aside from always having to wait on hold for up to 30 minutes they insist that Backup Exec is just fine and it must be my anti-virus software and I should just turn off the AV software before each backup. Not a very reasonable solution, and if that were truly the problem wouldn’t everyone running Backup Exec and AV software be in the same boat, and wouldn’t that make Backup Exec a pretty useless program?! Also none of the tech articles that I've found or Symantec tech support has suggested have been even slightly useful.
I never had this problem with v12.5 on my old server, and aside from the services stopping about every week the backups work just fine and my test restores are always successful, so Backup Exec and the underlying hardware seem fine otherwise.
If I could find something in the logs I would at least have a place to start but as it stands I'm just trying to find things that might be taking place on a weekly basis. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Backup Exec doesn’t return ANY alerts or error messages as to why the services are stopping, and the only thing that shows up in the Windows event logs is an informational entry noting that Backup Exec is stopping.
This server acts as a domain controller, DNS and DHCP server and it runs Backup Exec, nothing else. Backup Exec 2010 was the only version ever installed, it wasn’t upgraded from v12.5, and as of posting this question all of the LiveUpdate hotfixes are installed. All of the Windows updates are also installed on this server.
I’ve called Symantec tech support and they are flat-out useless. Aside from always having to wait on hold for up to 30 minutes they insist that Backup Exec is just fine and it must be my anti-virus software and I should just turn off the AV software before each backup. Not a very reasonable solution, and if that were truly the problem wouldn’t everyone running Backup Exec and AV software be in the same boat, and wouldn’t that make Backup Exec a pretty useless program?! Also none of the tech articles that I've found or Symantec tech support has suggested have been even slightly useful.
I never had this problem with v12.5 on my old server, and aside from the services stopping about every week the backups work just fine and my test restores are always successful, so Backup Exec and the underlying hardware seem fine otherwise.
If I could find something in the logs I would at least have a place to start but as it stands I'm just trying to find things that might be taking place on a weekly basis. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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ASKER
Mutahir
It has now been two weeks since I posted this question and everything is still working flawlessly. I would have expected a glitch by now if it was going to happen. I'll give it one more week, but it does appear that your suggestions resolved my issue.
It has now been two weeks since I posted this question and everything is still working flawlessly. I would have expected a glitch by now if it was going to happen. I'll give it one more week, but it does appear that your suggestions resolved my issue.
ASKER
Qlemo
It's now been about 5 months, and my Backup Exec is still functional so I have no problem with accepting mutahir's comment as a solution, but since you've placed an "auto close" request on this question, I can't do anything with it anymore. If you want to accept mutahir's comment as the solution for me that's fine, or I will be happy to do it myself if you remove the "auto close" request. Thanks.
It's now been about 5 months, and my Backup Exec is still functional so I have no problem with accepting mutahir's comment as a solution, but since you've placed an "auto close" request on this question, I can't do anything with it anymore. If you want to accept mutahir's comment as the solution for me that's fine, or I will be happy to do it myself if you remove the "auto close" request. Thanks.
This question has been classified as abandoned and is being closed as part of the Cleanup Program. See my comment at the end of the question for more details.
ASKER
Sounds like sound and logical advice to me, I'll give it a shot. With v12.5 I had set the database maintenance window outside the backup window, but I forgot to make that change when I went to 2010. Probably won't know if it worked for another week or two but it's already more helpful than the suggestion I got from Symantec tech support. Thanks.