Agents not publishing themselves to media server

[villeah]

Most of my servers aren't publishing themselves to media server anymore. I don't know what has happened, because this used to work perfectly couple of days ago. As you can see in the picture, I am not able to backup Enterprise Vault anymore.

When I'm trying to install agents and selecting "import servers published to this media server" I am able to see only one server! Agents' publishing settings are correct, and as I said, nothing has changed.

[CraigV]

...when it comes to patches, no software vendor is simply going to write a patch and publish it without due dilligence in testing it thoroughly. It (unfortunately for us) doesn't happen overnight.

You might also want to sign up for the BE 2012 Beta and ask whether or not the same issue has been observed during the beta tests...

[villeah]

I already feel like beta tester, so thanks but no..

When (if) we get fully functional product, we will not patch it until it's absolutely necessary. R2 worked fine, but after R3 was launched everything has gone in the wrong way.

[Colin_Weaver]

With regards the publishing problem it looks like some customers are solved by resetting the trust certificates however it might not work for all. EDIT: and it's possible this might only be a short term solution.

1) Go to an affected remote agent server
2) Run the Backup Exec Remote Agent Utility on the server (vxmon.exe)
3) Click the Security Tab
4) Click the Change Settings button
5) Click the Security tab again
6) Select the certicate for the media server
7) Click Remove
8) Click OK
9) Go back to media server and open Backup Exec console
10) Start to create a new backup job browse to the remote server (used in Steps 1-8)
11) When you get the "Remote Agent not Trusted" dialog box - click Yes
12) Cancel out of creating the backup job
13) Go back to remote server and use the Remote Agent utility to check that a new certficiate has been added to the security tab
14) Test a backup job
15) Repeat steps 1-14 for all affected remote agent servers

[villeah]

I have tried this several times now, but it didn't do the trick.  

[villeah · Accepted solution]

I found solution for this using my contacts. Here is how I got it working:

1. Stop Backup Exec services

2. Go to \Symantec\Backup Exec\Data folder

3. Search for files with CRT file extension. Move files you found (4 pcs) to another folder.

4. Search for files with KEY file extension. Move files you found (4 pcs) to another folder.

5. Start BE services.

6. Open a selection list, right-click agent computer and select "establish trust relationship".

Important! Remember to repeat step 6 with every agent computer you have! Backups wont work otherwise.

Hope this helps.

[KZW_Austria]

Solution from villeah did not work for me ! Key and crt files recreated but client was not displayed in list.

[villeah]

Were you able to establish trust relationship with agent computers?

For some clients it took a while before they registered to media server. You could also try to restart client's remote agent service.

[KZW_Austria]

Yes relationship with agents is ok. Wait days... Restart media server and aget servers - no result.

Only this help us! http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/ssl-handshakes-fails

[Johnnie_2]

I am disappointed that technical support did not suggest a workaround, but closed my case and told me to wait for a hotfix...this was over 2 weeks ago and since I haven't had an enterprise vault backup.

The solution that worked for me was this one :

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/ssl-handshakes-fails#comment-6488311

for which I am very grateful.

t was posted before Symantec technical support contacted me.

I suppose I have learnt a lesson, but it does make me wonder why I am paying for support...?

[CraigV]

Hi,

Patches aren't just written when you have a problem and released to the public. Imagine what would happen, or what a poorly written patch will do to every Backup Exec media server if it was released? You'd see tons of calls being logged, forums being swamped about how cruddy Symantec is as a company etc.

Symantec (and indeed every other IT company like Microsoft, EMC, HP, IBM etc) needs to go through a process to evaluate the issue, recreate it and see how to patch it. So it's probably going to go through: dev, QAS and then production systems BEFORE being considered for release.

Unfortunately, 2 weeks for a patch release is probably being very optimistic...don't single out Symantec's support for this as things don't happen as fast as we'd want them too (unfortunately!)...

Cheers!

[Johnnie_2]

Hi CraigV, I totally understand your reasoning around the patch cycle and I don't disagree.

What I was commenting on was that technical support did not offer a workaround...

This left me exposed as far as my EV backups we concerned.

[villeah]

I agree with CraigV, but Symantec should ensure that their customers are able to use the product as they are promised! If I buy EV agent and pay for it, I want to be able to use it. If there is a bug, Symantec should provide even a working workaround for it, not just close case and say that there will fix in (near) future. I, as a user of the software, couldn't care less what kind of procedures there are in the background. All I am interested in is does the software work or not! Of course patches needs to be tested properly, but that's Symantec's problem, not customer's. Right CraigV?

Besides I opened this forum discussion in early December, so almost 2 months has gone now.

[CraigV]

villeah: it's a forum discussion. I, and many others, DON'T work for Symantec. The reasons for opening a forum discussion are:

1. You don't have support with Symantec and don't want to pay for the call.

2. Want to see if you can get a quicker resolution - everything here is best effort.

3. Have already logged a call with Symantec and don't have much joy.

The forum is a best-effort, and we don't have insight into what goes on in the back-end.

As for working software, if you have a problem you raise it with the vendor (could be MS, IBM, Symantec, CA etc). They check their back system to see if this is new, existing with a workaround, or resolved.

Just because a new case is raised doesn't always mean a software vendor has the answers already. It's got to be tested on their side too BEFORE anything happens.

The reason you probably don't have a patch is because it might be in the process of being tested...I suppose they could just release it to you and it ends up either working () or breaking your system completely ()...which would you prefer is the question?

Incidentally, a 2 month forum query isn't much...it obviously couldn't be resolved by anybody here which is why you still have it open. Try having a call logged 2 weeks ago with a 2 hour response time and the vendor takes 11 days to eventually submit to them doing a Webex; or 6 months during which another vendor simply didn't have any sort of answer or response. Both were Symantec competitors...

[villeah]

CraigV: I know that you, and many other here, don't work for Symantec, that's why it is pretty useless to have this discussion, because we aren't able to do anything about this :) And I have to mention that I appreciate all the help I receive from all the volunteers here.

I like Symantec products, and Backup Exec, for example, is lightyears ahead of it's competitors. Sometimes I just don't like the way they are treating their customers.  

And when it comes to testing, I don't think Symantec has done enough testing, otherwise we wouldn't have these problems in the first place.

I would like to be  and  customer.

[TornadoWire1]

I had similar issues with the servers disappearing from Windows Favourite Resources. The steps above worked for me, however in addition I first had to drill down to the servers via Domains and Microsoft Windows Network in order to select them and re-sestablish the trust relationship. I then had to right click on 'Windows Systems' in Favourite Resources and manually add each server by selecting 'Add Windows System' and refresh for them to re-appear in the list.