Can't see my backed up mailboxes when tryiong restore

[JD44]

Greetings:

I'm using Backup Exec Version 11d REV 7170 on (2) servers.  Both instances of BackupExec that we have in our environment backup Exchange 2003 email servers.  On one of the servers, if I attempt to do a maIlbox restore, as I browse via "View by Media", I am able to drill down to the stores, and will see the individual mailboxes that were backed up to tape. 

My second server, appears to be backing up the 2nd email server successfully, as the logs indicate that it's backing up 25 GB nightly.  Issue arised this morning when I was browsing down to restore a mailbox.  Once I got to the store name, and tried to expand the + sign, nothing expanded, showing 0 mailboxes (although log states 25 GB was written to tape).  I used to use CA ARCserver, and when the + sign never expanded, I'd have to "merge the tape to the database" and then the + sign would expand, revealing the data that was on the tape.  Any hidden "merge steps" that I'm missing here?  I'm confident that data is actually being written to tape, but I'm having issue seeing/ retrieving it to rubn the restore.  Any advice?

Also, for what it's worth, I did do test mailbox restores on both my servers when I implemented BackupExec.  So, I know it works.

Thanks,

Jon

[Ken_Putnam]

All I can suggest is to verify that the job properties of the second job still say "enable restore of individual items"  

Without that, you will get the entire store, but will have to use a RSG or a standby server to restore the entire store so yo can Ex-Merge selected items

[JD44]

I just checked, and yes, the box that "Enable restore of individual mail messages..." is selected.  Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the response.

[JD44]

That's it?  I come to this forum hoping to get an answer, and the only 1 answer I get for my question "not being able to see my mailboxes when browsing the tape to do a restore" is to make sure "enable restore of individual mail items" is checked.  Well, this is checked.  Both Backup Execs on my 2 servers are configured identically...IDENTICALLY.  Why can I browse and restore mailboxes from one and not the other?

That's really it though?  No one out there has seen this or can step up to the plate to answer?  Looks like it's time to ditch Backup Exec for Networker.  If logs are telling me the data is being backed up, but I can't browse it on tape to restore it, then what good is the product?

Yet, the 2 questions about DST get 4-5 replies each.  Real insight on those answers too by the way "ooh, wait 1 day, and problem corrects itself." 

[Ken_Putnam]

Sorry no one else responded

I'm not a Symantec Employee, just a long time BackupExec user, and have never had this problem. 

This is a Peer-to-Peer forum.   Symantec Techs mainly respond to questions about the current version (v12.0/v12.5) as  their schedules permit.  They have no one full time on the forums

That being the case, you may be down to opening paid a incident with support  :^(

[JD44]

Sorry Ken...my response came out wrong.  I sincerely thank you for the reply from the other day.  My angst is directed toward Symantec for ditching all their email/ online support back in 2005 in lieu of these forums.

Once again, I do thank you for your assistance though.

Jon

[Steve_W_]

Hi Jon,

Are these backups going to disk or tape?  Is backup Exec fully patched, you can check this by going to help/about symantec backup exec for windows/installed updates? 

[JD44]

Hey there,

Backups are going to tape, and it is fully patched (SP4, hot fix 62 and hot fix 64).

Thanks,

Jon

[BakerD]

I'm seeing this on both version 11D and 12.5.  The weird things is that I have one server that backs up multiple exchange 2003 servers all on the same domain and setup the same way.  A couple of the servers are fine, I can see mailbox selections when I go to restore.  Others I can only get as far as the storage group.

So using the same account etc and it works on some servers and not others.  It used to work to when we first set everything up.  If I go under Tools -> Options - Exchange and check to enable legacy backups, the account used to back up can see all the mailboxes.  So this leads me to believe it is not a rights/permissions issue.

I have another standalone environment running 11D and Exchange 2003 and on a restore I can see mailboxes.  Then I have a test environment running 12.5 and Exchange 2003 and can't see mailboxes on a restore.  I have compared things and can't figure it out.

Has anyone figured this one out yet?

Thanks

[Ken_Putnam]

Are all of the GRT backups B2D?

I know there was a problem in v11 that GRT enabled backups that were to local NTFS would NOT allow individual restores

<edit>

Than should be  "that were to not local NTFS would NOT allow individual "

[BakerD]

Some are straight to tape, others are D2D2T. 

11D 7170 & Exchange 2003 running on same server straight to tape is working.
12.5 and Exchange 2003 running on same server straight to tape is not working.
11D 7170 stand alone BE server - Exchange 2003 running on multiple servers all on same domain - D2D2T = some work and some don't.

11D running on CASO - remote Exchange 2003 servers but all still on same domain.  CAS controls a BE servers local to each excahnge server.  One is working, 4 others are not.

So it is all over the board for me.

EDIT: our Disk part is actually virtual tapes. 

[Ken_Putnam]

Hate to say it, but it sounds like you need to break out the Corporate Credit Card and open an incident with Symantec  :(

And if there is indeed a restrction on GRT to Tape, even a Virutal Tape would probably cause problems

[BakerD]

Got them all working.

On the 12.5 and Exchange 2003 running on the same server, it was using the local admin account.  I changed it to use a domain account which has a mailbox and I can now see actual mailboxes to restore.  

For our 11D 7170 stand alone backing up multiple exchange 2003 servers, it was the BE agent on the mail servers.  All we had to do is restart the BE agent on the mail servers and we could then see mailboxes to restore.

For our 11D CASO backing up remote office exchange 2003 servers it was also the mail server BE agent.  Restarting it fixed the problem.

It is unfortunate that a backup product such as Symantec BE can't be trusted or relied on for as much as it costs.  I guess we will just have to spot check out mail backups now and then.  The big issue was that there were no errors.  If I disable legacy backups and choose GRT, then I would think that it could give you some sort of error or alert when it wasn't working correctly.

Good luck to everyone else with these GRT and mail backup gremlins.

EDIT: Just thought I would mention that only new backup jobs after my above changes show mailboxes on a restore now.  Any previous backups do not.