Strange ntbackup problem

[jonnyknowsbest]

I am having a strange problem with unattended backups from a command line in NTBackup.

I have scheduled my backups to run at 3:30am, but they keep "failing". Although there are no errors logged, the backup report generated by NTBackup is blank, and the scheduled task exits with a status code of 0.

In eventvwr, the RSM Service starts at 3:30, then nothing happens for 33 minutes, and the RSM service stops. The only other strange thing to happen is that at 1:15am, the VSS Service starts, then stops 20 minutes later, but we do not use VSS on this server.

Any ideas?

 

[itsp1965]

In Win2K3 VSS is used in conjunction with your backup software. Now as to why it's failing, have you tried scheduling a test backup during the daytime to see if something was missed

 

[jonnyknowsbest]

There are a couple of things i don't understand though. The scheduled job uses ntbackup from the command line, using the SNAPff option so it should NOT use VSS.
Also, why is VSS starting over 2 hours prior to the scheduled job starts?

I have discovered though, if i start the ntbackup program from windows, then exit, the scheduled job for that night then works.

It appears that unless the RSM library is refreshed (which allegedley does NOT happen when ntbackup is called from the command line) then the scheduled backup does not "see" the tape.

I have added an rsm.exe refresh command to my batch file, i will post my results in the next couple of days.

Thanks for the response.

Jon