Can't get a decent backup done under BEWS 9.1 !!!! 3

[TigerDivision]

Hi!

I just don't know what else to do. Veritas Support have had me go round in circles and they cannot offer me a decent solution to my problem. I was wondering whether a kind soul out there could help me.

I am running BEWS 9.1 (upgraded from 9.0) on a Windows 2000 Server (SP4) connected to a Dell PV132T Tape Library.

I am backing up remote servers running respective BEWS 9.1 agents such as SQL, Lotus Domino.

These servers have dual nics installed (NIC teaming) and are operating at 100MB/sec Full Duplex. Now some of you might point out the NIC teaming issue. I don't think this is the case as backups were run successfully in the past.

Anyway I am having backups fail on my remote servers. The problem floats from remote server to remote server. For example last night it was our Domino Server, tonight it might be our Domain Server.

I am getting the following errors in the job log. By the way running SGMON does not record this problem!!!!

Final error: 0xa00084f8 - The network connection to the Backup Exec Remote Agent has been lost. Please check for network errors.

Further down I see also

A timeout occurred waiting for completion of media server data processing.

Veritas Support told me to uninstall and install again the Remote Agent but this is useless as it will not solve the problem and anyway this was already done last week when I upgraded BEWS to 9.1

Guys I'm really lost and don't know what to do next. I'm regretting the day we migrated to Veritas Backup Exec.

Thanks
Pierre

 

[TigerDivision]

Not for me though! I am getting failures again. I'm going to see what the debug logs have recorded :-(

 

[mhiney]

Same kind of problems going on here, I've been through all the upgrade cycles and everything, it's just totally disheartening.

This is a version 9 product now, it should be at least mature enough to be reliable. It's incredibly arrogant of Veritas to think they can release a product full of bugs then attempt to shove the blame for it elsewhere. Version 7 was the last reliable one, it just seems that ever since Windows 2000 came along Veritas haven't been able to support it properly. I'm seriously considering just using NT Backup these days. Bells and whistles are no good if the core functionality just isn't there.

 

[TigerDivision]

Hi Everyone!

It's been a long time since I posted an update to this problem I was experiencing. Well I have some good news. The problem has been traced ( I think) to the backup selection list that was being used. I was using one backup selection list and hence one job to backup all my 4 servers i.e. the local media server and 3 remote servers. BE was experiencing intermittent problems with such a setup. The backup job was then split into 4 individual backup jobs and for these past 10 days the backups have been running to 100% completion.
A Veritas engineer did mention to me at one stage that they were seeing problems coming in when trying to backup up more than one server. Many times the network and NIC teaming were pointed out as the possible causes by Veritas but I never thought them to be the cause.
So I hope that this is the end of my ongoing saga with Veritas. Hopefully they'll address this issue in their next major release! Backing up more than one server using just one selection list and one backup job is convenient.

 

[DiverDown69]

I have spent the last 20 days ripping my hair out. All of my backups were failing with this error and behavior. Break all your team nics! I had three different servers with team nics. I broke them and made them standard. All backups run normally now! Veritas needs to address this with a patch for 9.1 or fix it in the next version. Backup 8.6 ran fine with the team config's in place. I was in troubleshooing hell.......... Hope this helps you poor folks!

 

[TigerDivision]

In my case it wasn't the team NICs. In fact I still have teaming on all my servers. The problem seemed to be with having more than one server in a backup job. Never had problems since. However there does seem to be a bug in their backup remote agent as well as others. I hope such issues will be addressed in their forthcoming ver 10 release.

 

[DiverDown69]

My jobs were failing with one server or more in job. Software runs fine after you figur eout what is causing it to barf.

 

[DiverDown69]

TigerDivision I wonder if the mutiple servers in a backup would work if you choose to break all the team nics?> I wonder?

 

[TigerDivision]

It might but since all is running well so far I daren't touch it now Anyway haven't got the time now and when I think about the time wasted trying to troubleshoot makes me want to...........

Have a nice day!

 

[DiverDown69]

I understand completely! Very painful upgrade indeed!

 

[PBurcin]

Our backups successfully run many servers in one job using BE9.0 build 4454. We do not use NIC teaming on any of the remote servers.

One issue that is most irritating is the total loss of configured alerts when the time changes from daylight savings time to standard or vice versa. Watch out for this one when the time changes next month.

Peggy

 

[TigerDivision]

The majority of servers are all shipped with dual NICs as standard nowadays so it is a shame that Veritas have not kept up with the times. Their current remote agent is flaky. One engineer once told me that network speeds greater than 10 MB/sec are not supported by the remote agent! I hope they've fixed up things in their forthcoming v10 major release !!

 

[weeean]

Very interesting forum this...
Just a quick question. I have BEWS 8.5 at the moment. Would you recommend upgrading to 9.1?? After reading these posts I'm not so sure anymore

Iain

 

[TigerDivision]

If it aint broke why fix it? I had read numerous postings from people complaining that they had never experienced this and that under ver 8. Version 9 was flaky, 9.1 not bad but still flaky in some areas. I would wait for ver 10 to come out but again who is going to go on a new version? I am certainly not going to, not until after 1-2 service packs later ;-)

 

[justin2000]

Few reasons I see for upgrading.

1. The version you are running is EOL, and thus not supported anymore.
2. The version you are running does not support the operating system you are trying to backup.
3. To fix a known problem which the upgrade will resolve.
4. The software you are trying to run does not support the hardware.
5. New features of the upgrade which will benefit.

 

[TigerDivision]

I agree with Justin. You'd best check how long Veritas will continue supporting BEWS 8.5

 

[justin2000]

8.5 is already EOL.
8.6 is nearly EOL shortly or maybe there already.

 

[steveot]

Its funny how I maintain a network of 10 Windows Media servers on a SAN/SSO environment and backup 150 server...half with dual NICs/teamed and and dont have problem.

 

[Howatzer]

steveot...

Do you have the jobs configured to backup single devices or multiple? Just looking for confirmation.

 

[blonde]

I am having the same problem. will stop/start service on one server to see if it will run tonite. also re-installed the agent on another server. will see what works. but will keep reading this post to see if anything new comes up..blonde

 

[raulgomez]

Hello All,

I was runnig a previous release of Veritas for years and not problems at all. With the new release 9.1 I just installed the Demo and I can't make it work. I had to install the Service Pack and then a couple of patches.

My questions is, what software would you recommend instead of Veritas, with a good integration of Microsoft Exchange 2003 and remote servers.

Thanks for your help.
Raul