Scheduled backup job sometimes does not run

[StevenK]

We have seen an odd situation with one of the client sites which we support.
I have set up a DTS package that backs up their 2 main SQL Server databases - i.e. DATABASE1 and DATABASE2.
This has then been scheduled to run each week day (Monday - Friday) at 08.00, 11.00 and 14.00 (8am, 11am and 2pm).
This runs via the SQL Server Agent (which is set to start at start of O/S in case the server needs to be rebooted, etc.)
This job backs up the 2 databases to an external hard drive - including a datetime stamp to indicate when it was run - i.e. DATABASE1_BU_200711011000.Bak (for 01/11/2007 10.00am).

I tend to connect to their server every now and again for different support jobs - and review the state of play with this backup.
Sometimes I'm finding that this job is not / has not been running.
When I review the Jobs via SQL Server Enterprise Manager I see that this job has a Status of 'Executing Job Step 1 (Backup Databases)' (which started yesterday at 14.00 say).

It's as if the job starts, and simply does not run.
I then delete the scheduled job, and re-schedule it from the saved DTS package.

Is anyone aware of any issues that we should need to know for running a job like this onto an external hard drive device?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Steve

 

[mrdenny]

If the job has a status of running and is hung, that means that the package attempted to start via the dtsrun command and it hung for some reason.

What happens if you simply stop the job and restart it?

Denny
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