Sleuthing out job failure

[RRinTetons]

At least it seems like a failure to me. I have a backup job that includes three COPY TO commands to move most recent backups to other servers for archive and isolated processing needs. Two of the statements work perfectly wel, third one doesn't seem to work at all, but doesn't throw an error either. The job log shows no error, the Windows logs show no errors. The share is visible from the server where the job runs. There's just no backup file there work on.

Can anybody think of a way to isolate the problem. I can't run the entire backup job without impacting operations, and I can't think of a way to trace the job even if I wanted to get up at 3 AM to do that. Thoughts?

-
Richard Ray
Developer, Data Analyst
Jackson Hole, WY

 

[johnherman]

What happens when you run the backup manually in three parts? I know this may mean staying up one night or weekend night if you don't have a suitable test environment. You do have a test environment, don't you?

==================================
advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity

 

[RRinTetons]

Yes, I have a dev environment, isolated on its own server, and machines from which to test, even. Can you suggest ways to get a client to replicate both Windows and SQL Server security across those machines such that they mirror the production environment, perfectly? I can do it on a network where I have full network and database admin privileges, but, in this case, I'm just hired help. The business runs 7/24 from November through April, so getting up at 3 AM doesn't really get me very far.

All that said, I was able to narrow it down to a Windows security issue. I created an empty database of minimum size on the production server and scripted a backup can write to the production backup directories, then did a copy from their to the reporting/development environments. Minimally intrusive, simple, and easy enough to trace. I had been hoping for some way to identify the problem more precisely. I don't really believe in brute force testing as a debugging method.

-
Richard Ray
Developer, Data Analyst
Jackson Hole, WY

 

[johnherman]

I believe that the SA can create a list of users and roles and their permissions/restrictions from Active Directory. You might be able to use that to crosscheck, perhaps using AWK or short perl program if the user lists are long. I would start by discussing your problem with the Systems Administration group/guru and see if s/he has any recommendations.

==================================
advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity