Backup Exec 2012 - Huge Pause between Ressources

[Treeeman]

Hello,

one of my customer has a really strange Problem.
I also opened an official Symantec Support Cas. But right now it don’t seems the Technical Engineer can solve this issue. Because my Customer is meanwhile really annoyed, I will try my luck here. Maybe someone has a good idea to investigate ore solve this issue.

My Customers has Backup Exec 2012 – fully patched.
There are 5 Backup Jobs. All jobs are done over a 1GB/s Network – no Direct SAN.
Three Job are classic Windows Remote Agent Jobs. Two are VMware Jobs.

A few weeks ago one Windows Server – backed up over Windows Remote Agent - suddenly needed much more time to finish. I have checked if there was more Data to backup. This was not the Case. The Backup Speed was also unchanged around 3.500 MB/s. So I looked a little bit deeper an realized there is a huge pause between the Ressources in the Job itself.
The Job has to Backup a SQL Database, Drive C, Drive E and Systemstate. Between this Ressources suddenly was a pause. The Pause differs from day to day. But we talk about 1 Hour. If I check other Jobs there is also a pause. But just about 30 Seconds. Which is in my opinion absolutely normal.

There is no error in the Event Log of my Windows Server. Other Backup-Jobs work like expected.

Ideas?

Thanks!

Best Regards

Marco

[pkh]

1. You should have 2 jobs, one with AOF off to backup databases and the other with AOF on to backup files and the system state 2. If you are not on SP4, then run Liveupdate a couple of times until it says that there are no more updates. After that, push out the remote agents again. 3. You might want to consider upgrading to BE 2014

[Treeeman]

Hi,

1. Do i understand right i should disable AOF for File and System State? So i have to create for each Server with a Database (Exchange or SQL) two Jobs?

2. I am on SP4. Remote Agents also.

3. Unfortunatelly not really an option right now. My Customer updated from 2010 to 2012 half a year ago. Next planned Update Intervall will be in the middle of 2015.

Thanks!
Any other ideas?

Best Regards

Marco

[pkh]

Sorry, it should be the other way. AOF on for file and system state backup. Yes. It is two jobs per server

[Treeeman]

Hi,

ok, i will give it a try.
Other Question: I work for about 6 years with Backup Exec. I never split my Database and File Backups in two Jobs (one without AOF and the other with AOF). There never was a Error or Warning Message from BE if i backup DB and Files within one Job.

Is this a reccomendation from you or is this one from Symantec?
Just for interest.

Thanks!

Best Regards

Marco

[pkh]

This is from Symantec. You may be able to backup your databases without problems but you would not be able to do a redirected restore. Also for Exchange, there are quite a few problems when AOF is on

[Treeeman]

Hi,

ok, thanks for that advice.
Meanwhile i created two Jobs. One for SQL DB (AOF off) and one for File/SystemState (AOF on).
Unfortunatelly Drive C and E whould be backuped fast like expected, but there is still a pause about 1h between them.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Best Regards
Marco

[pkh]

Are there some other jobs which are accessing these disks during the backup?  If there is any AV scan, disable it?

When the job pauses, what is its status on the console? Also, double-click on it and check the joblog to see what is the latest thing written to it.

What is the machine that you are backing up? VM? OS?  Type of disk?

[VJware]

If this backup is Simplified System Protection (SSP) enabled, what is the size of the .DR file ?

[Treeeman · Accepted solution]

Hello @ all,

first, thanks.
Meanwhile the Problem is solved.
Disabling AV Scan did not the trick. If i started a Backup i realized it tooks a long time for "Snapshot processing...". Also after "Snapshot processing..." it resides on Status "Queued" for a long time.

I looked at the Server and thought this only could be a VSS Problem.
After some investigation i disabled the Server "SQL VSS Writer" and retried a Backup. Now the Backups rans like expected.

Before the Problem appeared the first time some Windows Updates were installed. Maybe there is the Problem. Because the Backup of the SQL DB is not neccesary my customer will backup this Server without SQL and without the "SQL VSS Writer"-Service.

Thanks!

Best Regards
Marco