Arcserve 2000- Exchange brick-level restore not working

[edarvas]

We have Arcserve 2000 SP5 Backup agent installed on our Exchange 2000 SP3 mail server. Suddenly, bricklevel restore is not working anymore: when I restore an individual folder of a mailbox, this folder is getting restored without errors in the log, but when I then click on the folder in Outlook 2000, it is totally empty (0 kb).

Nevertheless, the Arcserve log indicates "Restore successful" and indicates that 1/Database transaction Logs (261 Kb) Restored to disk.

This problem happens since I did the following on the Exchange 2000 server:
- Upgraded Anti-Virus software to Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange.
- Installed post-SP3 hotfixes and patches for Microsoft Exchange.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Ezechiel Darvas
(Switzerland)

 

[davidmichel]

Enable debug at the Job Engine and the DB Agent.

 

[edarvas]

I enabled debug for job engine and Exchange agent this night. Our mail server is called "Mail1". Find next the information I find relevant:

JOB ENGINE DEBUG INFORMATION

20040825 030905 1207 Could not get disk sector size information for Registry\.(EC=2)

20040825 031040 1207 Unable to get the Disk free space information for \\MAIL1\dbaexchis\.(EC=53)
20040825 031040 1207 Unable to get the Volume information for \\MAIL1\dbaexchis\ EC = 53

20040825 031040 1207 Could not get disk sector size information for \\MAIL1\dbaexchis\.(EC=53)

20040825 034855 1207 Could not get disk sector size information for System State\.(EC=2)

20040825 035007 1207 Unable to get the Disk free space information for \\MAIL1\dbaxchg2\.(EC=53)

20040825 035007 1207 Could not get disk sector size information for \\MAIL1\dbaxchg2\.(EC=53)

EXCHANGE AGENT LOG

dbaexch.log

08/25/04 02:31 Connect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 02:31 Disconnect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 02:53 Connect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 02:53 Disconnect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 03:10 Connect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 03:10 First Storage Group in Full Backup Mode
08/25/04 03:48 First Storage Group removed from Backup Mode
08/25/04 03:48 Disconnect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 07:30 Connect Exchange Backup Agent
08/25/04 07:30 Disconnect Exchange Backup Agent

dbaxchg2.log (bricks level log)

All mailboxes are logged like this one:

<08/25/04 03:51 PID:304 TID:4740> <Individual Mailboxes\ARABI Kamal> in Full Backup Mode
<08/25/04 03:51 PID:304 TID:4740> exch_OpenIStore(): EXCHOpenIStore() O.K. nOpenIStore=1
<08/25/04 03:51 PID:304 TID:4740> <Individual Mailboxes\ARABI Kamal> removed from Backup Mode


The backup job finished successfully.

I even stopped and disabled Symantec Mail Security service and lauched the backup again. Not better with disabling anti-virus software. The strange thing is, when restoring an individual folder, mot often they are empty, but sometimes one or two items of the folder are visible in Outlook.

 

[davidmichel]

Sorry I'm confused, why a backup log for a restore problem?

 

[edarvas]

Sorry. That's right. I thought it was a backup problem. Actually, I found out that the problem had to do with security credentials provided when I restore a a mailbox folder. It did'nt restore mailboxes at the brick level for some times and did an usage error. When creating a restore job Arcserve asks for a valid username and password. My mistake was to provide only the username of a "Exchange Full Administrator", not domain\username.

Thank you very much for our help.