Backup Exec 2012 can't see eSata drive at times

[mjtoombs]

I attached an external eSata drive to my BackupExec 2012 server to provide some extra space. All but one of the backups have continued to work fine, and there's 600 GB of backup files on the new drive. But the backup of the Exchange server keeps failing, saying there's no space.

On the home page of BackupExec it shows all the available space in the pool. But when the backup runs it tries to go to the drive that it has filled up and doesn't see the other space.

Any help would be appreicated.

Windows Server 2008R2, 8 GB of RAM, RAID 5 array on the server itself; external drive is a Fantom 4 TB drive (single disk).

[lmosla]

Hello,

Do you have any errors in Windows system Events?  Does this happen on every Exchange job or intermittently?  

Make sure you dont have any antivirus scans interferring with the backup.

the processes to exclude include: 

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\beremote.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\beserver.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\bengine.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\benetns.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\pvlsvr.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BkUpexec.exe

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\RAWS\beremote.exe  

and the Backup Exec temp directory C:\Temp\Backup Exec on the Exchange server 

[Colin_Weaver · Accepted solution]

Edited after re-reading the post

BE 2012 does not load balance in a drive pool (currently) it chooses by alphabetical name from the online drives uness the drive is completely full or offline when the job starts

Also the job cannot span from one drive to another in the pool (limitation for GRT in any version of BE and I think a 2012 limitation generally as well)

As such my guess is the job is starting on the drive that is almost full, filling it and then failing.

Recommendation is to stop using the drive pool and send the jobs to specific drives

However as Exchange is involved also make sure that you have a sector size match between the eSata drive and the volumes on the Exchange server that contain the data.

[mjtoombs]

In response to both messages:

The server event logs are reporting the same errors as can be seen in BackupExec.

I have restricted the antivirus away from those files.

I also have edited the backup job so it will use the eSata drive.

I'll let you know if it's fixed.

[mjtoombs]

Directing the backup to the specific drive letter appears to have fixed the problem. Thanks.