Backup-to-Disk folder goes offline when removed, then fails to go back online when plugged back in.

[Mark_O_Loughlin]

We have two external hard drives that we rotate so that one can be kept in a fire-proof safe.  Mon-Tues-Wed backups are targetted to backup to one particular external hard drive, and the Thurs-Fri backups are directed to backup to a different drive.   

The problem is that the Backup-to-Disk folder goes offline when when the drive is removed, then fails to go back online automatically when plugged back in.  Twice a week we then have to remember to manually set the drive back to online, which is of course a pain and should not be necessary.

Questions: 

1.  What work-arounds are available for this problem

2.  When is Symantec going to fix this issue, which appears to have been a known issue for at least two years!

[JohnSweeney]

I have this same issue, except one of my clients have a different hard drive for every day of the week, so they have to go through this rigamarole every day. If anyone has a fix, I would really love to know please.

[Gearbone]

Well this probably isnt the best solution but its a tweak that I implemented because i was tired of having to keep telling the backup exec software that my drive was online while using a NAS unit that needed to be unplugged sometimes to swap out drives.

After I found out that one of my clients was rebooting their server nightly to combat the issue, I got to thinking about if the symantec services were restarted, would the offline drive come back "online" ??

So after some testing, I got it working

If your backup to disk folder is offline and the 4

If your backup to disk folder is offline and 4 of the services  are restarted, when the software is relaunched or a job starts, the software automatically assumes the unit is backonline. So I created a simple .bat script that I run 10 minutes prior to my backup jobs starting. Its important to note the order because this allows the service to stop without being dependent on other services that need to stop with it.

My backup exec reboot script

net stop BackupExecJobEngine
net stop BackupExecAgentBrowser
net stop BackupExecRPCService
net stop BackupExecDeviceMediaService

net start BackupExecDeviceMediaService
net start BackupExecRPCService
net start BackupExecAgentBrowser
net start BackupExecJobEngine

Like I said, I through it in the scheduler about 10 minutes prior to the job  schedule and so far so good after a couple weeks.

Hope that helps anyone else who is tired of right clicking and hittle ONLINE/Enable everyday ...

[Ken_Putnam]

You  can also schedule a BEMCMD job to pause all the B2D devices and then un-pause them to do the same thing if you would prefer not to completely shutdown BackupExec

[JBurns1]

Ken, I would rather not restart all the services, but I am having problems with the bemcmd script.

My backup-to-disk folder is named "Backup-to-Disk Folder", and the command I am trying is:

     bemcmd -v -o79 -ps:0 -d"Backup-to-Disk Folder"

The response I am getting is:
Connecting to local media server...
Connected.
Getting client information...
Success.
ERROR CODE: 259
ERROR: No more data is available.

Disconnecting from server...
Disconnected.
RETURN VALUE: -1

Can't seem to find any info on error code 259, nor any more explanatory documentation on syntax.

Can you see what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
 

[Ken_Putnam]

Hmm

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/318264.htm  says it applies to v11, but may be worth a try

[JBurns1]

Ken -

It looks to me like you can't use the -o79 (device settings) command on a backup-to-disk folder, and the -o119 (backup-to-disk  settings) command doesn't include the option to pause/unpause or bring online/offline...

I guess what I'm asking is have you done this before?  do you know the command to use?  or was that just speculation?

Thanks,

[Ken_Putnam]

I guess what I'm asking is have you done this before?  do you know the command to use?  or was that just speculation?

I manually Pause/Unpause when I swap drives, like I inventory a tape when it is mounted.  Just part of the routine

Someone posted a CMD script to do this a while ago, I think it was in v11 tho (might even have been in 10d. )  I'll see it if I can find the thread

[JBurns1]

Yeah, that would be good.  In searching through this forum, it seems to be a common problem, and most threads either discuss using the manual approach you mentioned or end without any resolution.

I am baffled by this - REMOVEABLE backup-to-disk is not inherantly removable?  (i.e. RE-INSERTABLE)

Very smart scenario for small business - administrative staff assigned the task to swap removeable (hot-swappable) drives and transport off-site.  Can't really ask them to "sign on to the server, run backup exec, locate the device, right-click and bring online" - kind of defeats the purpose of having a computer to automate things anyway.

Actually I would even expect the software to periodically re-check REMOVEABLE drives and attempt to bring them back online - again, since they are, after all, REMOVEABLE.  This seems like an oversight, although I admit that sometimes we (users) just don't see all the possible usage scenarios - maybe there's one where it's not desireable to automatically bring back online (?!?) - I don't know, escapes me...

[Ken_Putnam]

You may want to post this to the "Ideas" area of this forum, FWIW  :)