SQL Daily Incremental Log backup failed

When you get the error, use the procedure in this document to see which application did the last backup.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH58674

Are these databases in a VM and you are doing VM backups?  If so, see this document

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH137587

Hi pkh and thx for your prompt reply.

Please, accept my apologies because I forgot to mention that I have already tried the query (TECH58674), and I found that the LSN chain always is interrupted by an unknown (NULL) backup requestor. After that, I started to check all SQL servers about "ghost" backup software (incl. SQL native agent jobs) but I never found anything.

Also, I have seen TECH137587 but because the backup server we use is a BE2012 SP1 and the reported environment into this TECH is BE2010-2010 R2, I thought, that this couldn't be our case. Yes, we have many SQL databases in VMs and in metals as well and I'm getting the error in both cases.

Nevertheless, I will give a try of the suggested solution of that TECH and I will report back my findings.

Once again thx a lot for your help

Hello everyone,

After a long nasty winter flu I return.

During my illness I try several things but nothing has change. The situation is the same, SQL Weekly Full Backup no problems, Daily log incremental fails but the failure occurence varies. Some times after 3 or 4 days but yesterday afternoon and after I made a succesfull manual full backup of an SQL database the daily log backup which was scheduled to run after some hours produced (again) the following error

ServerName-Daily -- The job failed with the following error: The Backup Exec SQL Agent was not used to create the last full, differential, or log backup of this database. You must use the SQL Agent to run a full backup before you can run a differential backup or transaction log backup.

I don't know what is really causing the problem and I run out of ideas and I'm very tired of this situation.

Anyone, please help!

Are you backing up the VMs (on which the SQL databases are installed) using the Backup Exec VMware agent ? If yes, does the schedule conflict with the SQL backups made by the SQL agent ?

Have you confirmed even SQL maintenance plans are not configured to backup SQL ?

Hi VJware,

First of all I have to tell you that I'm a novice Symatec Backup Exec Admin so excuse me if I can't understand your question(s).

Currently, we backup VMs with 2 jobs. The first one is for SQL and we use licensed agents for databases and applications and the other one Job runs within vcenter (monthly and every 2 weeks) to backup the VMs (as VMs).

SQL backup jobs failed with the same error despite if we backup SQL which resides on a VM or Physical Server.

Thank you in advance for your help

I read TECH137587 again and I will try to follow the workaround regarding the VM-SQL backups. One thing that I still cannot understand is " ...run standard SQL Agent Full and Log backup through the remote agent installed inside the VM."

When I login to the VM I can see the Symantec Backup Exec Agent. If I open it there're some tabs about the active configuration of the agent (connect to media server, oracle, etc). Does the workaround refers to the agent configuration settings or to the native SQL agent (the known one inside Management Studio)? If it refers to the agent configuration how can I run Full and Log backup through the remote agent?

Any help is much appreciated

Thx pkh,

I think now I have the big picture. I never thought that VM jobs (once they get backed up as VMDKs) if they interpolate between a SQL full backup Job and a SQL Daily Log Incremental backup job, could affect this way the continuity of a SQL backup.

Since this is the case, I should either stop the vcenter VM jobs and add the VM resources separately (drives, files, system state, etc) to SQL jobs, OR reduce either the frequency of VM jobs (i.e. from Monthly and biWeekly that are scheduled to run), to run only on a monthly basis. At least that way I will have less frequent failures that can be overcome with a more proper planning  of the days-hours jobs are running.

Am I correct?

Thank you pkh for your help and support

add the VM resources separately (drives, files, system state, etc) to SQL jobs

You should not do this because you need AOFO off when you backup SQL databases.  You should just do your normal VM backups, but make sure that they do not come between your SQL full and log backups.