BE2012 Media server self backup complaining about non-existent directory (again)

[Artegic]

My Backup Exec 2012 SP4 installation continues to act up. I know that I should upgrade to BE2014 but my requests on that front haven't been very successful either. In the meantime, please bear with me.

The last incremental run "failed" with these errors listed in the job log:

Sichern- \\GOLGI.artegic.local\C:Verzeichnis TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-05\ wurde nicht gefunden, oder es war kein Zugriff möglich.
Im Verzeichnis befindliche Dateien oder Unterverzeichnisse werden nicht gesichert.
V-79-57344-33967 - Das Verzeichnis bzw. die Datei wurde nicht gefunden, oder der Zugriff ist nicht möglich.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-06 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-07 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-08 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-09 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Backup\2013-10 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\BEW-4649c0a3beb14030a2b40466c5bbfc7a and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\BEW-ff5afad9123e40408a2536656840f390 and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Config.Msi and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\dakotaag and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Documents and Settings and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Dokumente und Einstellungen and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Drivers and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Hotfix and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\MSOCache and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\PerfLogs and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Program Files and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Program Files (x86) and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\ProgramData and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Programme and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Recovery and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\System Volume Information and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Users and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\Windows and its subdirectories.
V-79-57344-65033 - Directory not found. Cannot backup directory \TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\C\xampp and its subdirectories.
Verzeichnis TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\E\ wurde nicht gefunden, oder es war kein Zugriff möglich.
Im Verzeichnis befindliche Dateien oder Unterverzeichnisse werden nicht gesichert.
V-79-57344-33967 - Das Verzeichnis bzw. die Datei wurde nicht gefunden, oder der Zugriff ist nicht möglich.
Verzeichnis TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\T\ wurde nicht gefunden, oder es war kein Zugriff möglich.
Im Verzeichnis befindliche Dateien oder Unterverzeichnisse werden nicht gesichert.
V-79-57344-33967 - Das Verzeichnis bzw. die Datei wurde nicht gefunden, oder der Zugriff ist nicht möglich.
Verzeichnis TEMP\Backup Exec\MP00\Volume{d71c15c5-c185-11e3-9488-806e6f6e6963}\ wurde nicht gefunden, oder es war kein Zugriff möglich.
Im Verzeichnis befindliche Dateien oder Unterverzeichnisse werden nicht gesichert.
V-79-57344-33967 - Das Verzeichnis bzw. die Datei wurde nicht gefunden, oder der Zugriff ist nicht möglich.

(The cute mix of English and German is a fallout of my last WebEx session with Symantec support where the engineer set my Backup Exec language to English. I have since deleted the registry key he added, but apparently some parts of Backup Exec cling a bit longer to that setting than others. Anyway, the German parts say exactly the same thing as the English ones.)

The directory "C:\Temp\Backup Exec" is empty except for a single file named "ese.dll", and I don't remember ever seeing anything else in it. So Backup Exec is correct in reporting that all these directories do not exist. The big question is: why does it complain about that, and should I care?

The job log also reports:

Snapshot Technology: Started for resource: "\\GOLGI.artegic.local\C:". Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
The snapshot technology used by VSS for volume C: - Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).

(Sic!) So even if a directory "C:\Temp\Backup Exec\MP00" with all these subdirectories did exist when the nightly run was started and was somehow removed during the backup run, shouldn't the snapshot technology have prevented that complaint?

[lmosla]

Hi, You can exclude the directory by going to the Job Setup Tab, right click on the backup job to select properties, go to the Selection list > View Selection Details and delete the entry selection for this path.

also see http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH71644

[MusSeth]

Hello Artegic,

Please edit the backup job and select the option to use the system : microsoft snapshot provider and rerun the backup, apart from that make sure to select the C drive as whole and not indivisual directories.. then run a backup let us know.

[pkh]

How would selecting the entire C: drive help the user? Wouldn't this in turn select the Temp directory and the non-existent directories?

[MusSeth]

Hmm. ..let user run the back up as suggested...will see what happens...selecting drive and not individual folders is anyways recommended ....

[Artegic]

Thanks for all replies. The job has run again before I could change anything, this time without reporting any errors. So the problem has disappeared all by its own, which of course leaves me worrying that it might also reappear anytime.

The job's selection list was, and still is:

GOLGI.artegic.local
  Include - *.* [Subdir]
  G:
    Exclude - *.* [Subdir]
  Shadow Copy Components
    Exclude - *.* [Subdir]

If I understand correctly, that should include all existing folders on drive C: but no non-existing ones.

I'm not sure which folders I should exclude as I don't know how to predict which non-existing folders Backup Exec might decide to include next time.

My first priority is to understand what's going on here so that I can judge whether I should worry about that error message or just ignore it until I can upgrade to the 2014 release.

[VJware · Accepted solution]

MP00 are mount points created by BE when you run VMware backups. Ideally, these are temporary data which should be cleared once the VMs are backed up.

In your case, it could be a possibility that the local media server backup and the VMware's backup schedules coincides or overlaps causing the first backup to fail on these directories.

[Artegic]

Thanks, that explains it. The self backup job of my media server is scheduled well separated from the other servers' jobs, but the failing run had been horribly delayed by the issue described in https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/all-jobs-blocked-one-job-waiting-tape and thereby ended up actually running in parallel to the next round of VMware backups.