Cannot contact Netware agent even though volumes are listed

[Bob_Winston]

Hello Support:

I am using the latest patched version of BE 10.x. I am running backups on Netware Servers running 6.x from Windows 2003 Standard servers. I could formerly contact all Novell servers. Now I am suddenly getting an "Error connecting to remote servers. Make sure the Netware Remote Agent is running" message when I try to run a backup job.

When I look at the logger screen on the Netware console, I am seeing the - new - message of "Get effective rights (message) lookup failed." I have the ADVRTMS.DAT file configured with the IP addresses of the backup servers. When I click on the "Backup" tab in BE, I get a full listing of my Netware servers along with their volumes. (Usually one would get a connection error here if the Netware Agent were faulty.) This volume listing alone used to imply that the Netware Agent was up and running. I have of course run BESTART and the Netware console shows BKEXEC.NLM up and running.

One caveat, I did see a process using Port 10000. So I switched the backup process to use Port 12345, and entered it in the services and CFG files as decimal and Hexadecimal. Any clues as to why I can see the volumes listed under the backup tab / Netware Agents, but when I run a backup job I get the "cannot contact remote agent" errors? Thanks!!!

[Ashutosh_Tamhan]

- The ndmp port should be free. By default it is 10000.

- Please update the hosts files.

- Will you try reconfiguring SMDR. Then properly install and load the Remote Agent for NetWare. Restart the services on the media server.



Regards,
Ashutosh

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[Bob_Winston]

I reloaded the SMDR per Veritas Document /275143.pdf. This made the situation worse in that now the Netware Servers do NOT even show up under the Netware Agents selection listings. Is there another document which better explains the process?

Your comment on "updating the host files" is too generic for me. Do you mean update the IP addresses in the ADVRTMS.DAT file? This has been done. (It would be most helpful if you could reference specific support documents when advising such things as "update the host files.") Thank you.

[Bob_Winston]

Okay, I re-ran the SMDR and this time did NOT disable SLP (against the instructions of the article) and at least got my Novell Servers back. I also update the system32/drivers/etc/hosts file with all the IP's of the servers being backed up. Now I'm back to where I can still list their contents under Netware Agents. But anytime I try and run a simple test backup, I get "The job failed with the following error. Error connecting to the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Netware Servers. Make sure that the Remote Agent Netware is running on the target computer." Well, of course it's running, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see the volume contents listed under that particular Novell server under Netware Agents. And running bestart at a Command Prompt on the Novell server comes up all green lettering, all NLM's loaded.

I'm going to see if more NLM's need to be loaded after the SMDR UNLOAD command shut down all of them. (Don't worry, I ran LOAD SMDER NEW) But I still need help please. As an aside, I ran BE 8.x for years with .01% of the problems I've had with BE 9.x-10.x. I just don't get it.... :-(.....

[Renuka_-]

Hello,

PLease uninstall and re-install the remote agent.

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[Bob_Winston]

I've ripped out and reinstalled the Netware Remote Agent too many times to remember. It didn't help at all.

[Bob_Winston]

Okay, I ripped everything out. I reinstalled the Netware Agent, I checked the ADVRTMS.DAT file to make sure it had the IP of the Media Server. I checked the Medai server hosts file to make sure it had the addresses and names of the Novell servers being backed up. These errors started cropping up after an update to Netware 6.5. Before that I could contact my Novell servers and now have not had a decent backup in a week. My e-mail is winst009@umn.edu and I can be reached at 612-624-9800. I am under maintenence contract and would appreciate a call to get this taken care of. Otherwise, I will be trying to get through the gatekeepers myself to get this resolved once and for all. Thanik you....

[Bob_Winston]

....furthermore.....the Netware Remote Agent started up (BESTART) with no problem (all GREEN lettering on the logger screen in Novell) on the Novell Servers, including a clean load of OFM. So all looks good there. So the Netware Agent IS confirmed as running on the Netware side....all volumes are listing on the WIndows 2003 Server side (no typical "connection errors" as if the Netware agent weren't running)...but any backup job reports that the agent is not running after the "run now" command...

[Bob_Winston]

Okay, in the process of totally ripping out BE 10.x 5520.2 on the Windows Server 2003 side and reinstalling it from scratch. If this doesn't go, will installl BE Panther Beta as I have nothing to lose at this point. May do Panther either way as Veritas states that this can be installed alongside BE 10.x and ANYTHING to get me away from 10.x and back to 8.x stability would be a bonus at this point!!!! P-)

[Bob_Winston]

Okay, complete resintall of BE 10.x 5520.2 still get the cannot detect the remote agent on Netware Server. So generated an error log. It would appear ERROR: 9 Error: Illegal arguments in request is the problem. The full error log text is as follows:

09/13/05 14:23:11 FS_InitFileSys
09/13/05 14:23:11 Initializing FSs
09/13/05 14:23:11 Initializing SNMP traps
09/13/05 14:23:11 Catalog path: C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Backup Exec\NT\Catalogs\
09/13/05 14:23:11 Data path: C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Backup Exec\NT\Data\
09/13/05 14:23:11 Log file root: BEX
09/13/05 14:23:11 Software Edition: SOFTWARE_EDITION_DATACENTER_MULTI
09/13/05 14:23:11 NSE: 0
09/13/05 14:23:11 Authorized Agents:
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_DOS
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_WIN16
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_OS2
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_WIN95
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_UNIX
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_MAC
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_NT
09/13/05 14:23:11 AUTH_AGENT_NETWARE
09/13/05 14:23:11 WinNT information: 5.2 (3790) SP 1.0 "Service Pack 1"
09/13/05 14:23:11 WinNT ProductType: 2 "LanmanNT"
09/13/05 14:23:11 WinNT ProductSuite: 0x0110
09/13/05 14:23:11 Terminal Server
09/13/05 14:23:11 Server listening on RPC endpoint 'BackupExecJobRunner'
09/13/05 14:23:11 Running... 'Q' to stop
09/13/05 14:23:11 JobStatus thread starting
09/13/05 14:25:05 JobEngine::LaunchJob
09/13/05 14:25:05 RunJobWithGuidAndServer( {936FD676-AA94-4984-BB20-DBF1A0704977}, OHRPE1 ) = 0
09/13/05 14:25:05 Thread for job Backup 00011 ({936FD676-AA94-4984-BB20-DBF1A0704977}) starting
09/13/05 14:25:05 Checking for Evaluation expiration.
09/13/05 14:25:05 ENGSCRPT: ConvertDeviceName osId = 0Xd
09/13/05 14:25:05 ENGSCRPT: IN - oldDeviceName = HR-MAIN.NetWare File System/HR-MAIN/SYS:
09/13/05 14:25:05 ENGSCRPT: OUT - newName = HR-MAIN.NetWare File System/HR-MAIN/SYS:
09/13/05 14:25:05 ENGSCRPT: No script found
09/13/05 14:25:05 DeviceManager: incoming event fired
09/13/05 14:25:05 DeviceManager: processing pending requests
09/13/05 14:25:05 DeviceManager: query cache miss
09/13/05 14:25:05 Available and held drives from the pool
09/13/05 14:25:05 Backup-to-Disk Folder 1 {21167241-381c-45dd-b9e0-c1198df03ec1}.0
09/13/05 14:25:05 HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:25:05 Drives not in use by the Engine
09/13/05 14:25:05 Backup-to-Disk Folder 1 {21167241-381c-45dd-b9e0-c1198df03ec1}.0
09/13/05 14:25:05 HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:25:05 Drives available (not in use and not held)
09/13/05 14:25:05 Backup-to-Disk Folder 1 {21167241-381c-45dd-b9e0-c1198df03ec1}.0
09/13/05 14:25:05 HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:25:05 Handing out session {d072d6b6-835f-4f63-81e0-95d6d1bb9ee4} based on available drive:
09/13/05 14:25:05 Backup-to-Disk Folder 1 {21167241-381c-45dd-b9e0-c1198df03ec1}.0
09/13/05 14:25:05 DeviceManager: going to sleep for 900000 msecs
09/13/05 14:25:05 BackupJob: acquired device Backup-to-Disk Folder 1
09/13/05 14:25:05 BackupJob: trying to mount appending volume
09/13/05 14:25:09 Updating session {d072d6b6-835f-4f63-81e0-95d6d1bb9ee4} with drive HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:25:09 Block size: 65536
09/13/05 14:25:09 Buffer size: 65536
09/13/05 14:25:09 Num buffers: 10
09/13/05 14:25:09 High water: 0
09/13/05 14:25:09 BackupJob: medium successfully mounted
09/13/05 14:25:09 Media Label: OHR_June_2005
09/13/05 14:25:09 Media Label: {1b0c562a-71ce-4cce-9e27-355e164e258f}
09/13/05 14:25:09 Overwrite Protected Until: 12/30/9999 6:00:00 PM
09/13/05 14:25:09 Appendable Until: 12/30/9999 6:00:00 PM
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: Get TapeAlert Flags Return Code = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: TapeAlert Device Flag = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: TapeAlert Changer Flag = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 Failed to Load Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\IDR key, We will update DR file evenif there are userExcludes. Error: 2
09/13/05 14:25:10 Failed to Load Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\IDR key, We will update DR file evenif there are userExcludes. Error: 2
09/13/05 14:25:10 ndmpConnect : Control Connection information : connection established between IP 160.94.3.129, port 2146 and IP 128.101.240.100, port 10000
09/13/05 14:25:10 NDMP version 3 connection CONNECTED
09/13/05 14:25:10 ERROR: 9 Error: Illegal arguments in request
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: Get TapeAlert Flags Return Code = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: TapeAlert Device Flag = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 TAPEALERT: TapeAlert Changer Flag = 0X0
09/13/05 14:25:10 DeviceManager: incoming event fired
09/13/05 14:25:10 Updating session {d072d6b6-835f-4f63-81e0-95d6d1bb9ee4} with drive HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:25:10 DeviceManager: processing pending requests
09/13/05 14:25:10 DeviceManager: going to sleep for 61000 msecs
09/13/05 14:25:10 BackupJob::MergeBEVSRJobLogsIfNecessary: No VSR log file found, no merging necessary
09/13/05 14:25:10 Job thread terminating
09/13/05 14:26:11 DeviceManager: timeout event fired
09/13/05 14:26:11 DeviceManager: processing pending requests
09/13/05 14:26:11 Tossing drive:
09/13/05 14:26:11 HP 1 {df49113f-0bf1-437e-8700-280ad3f549ff}
09/13/05 14:26:13 DeviceManager: going to sleep for 900000 msecs
09/13/05 14:26:13 DeviceManager: dismount event fired
09/13/05 14:26:13 DeviceManager: processing pending requests
09/13/05 14:26:13 DeviceManager: going to sleep for 900000 msecs

CAN ANYONE INTERPRET THIS PLEASE SO I CAN FIX IT?

[Bob_Winston]

It would appear that BE is trying to load IDR with the backup request, even though we have not paid for this option and it was never installed:

09/13/05 14:25:10 Failed to Load Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\IDR key, We will update DR file evenif there are userExcludes. Error: 2
09/13/05 14:25:10 Failed to Load Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\IDR key, We will update DR file evenif there are userExcludes. Error: 2

After this failed request, the Backup Job is killed. How do I get the IDR out of the load sequence? Anyone???? Anyone???? Or, if this is not the culprit, what is killing the backup job with a "red herring" (that's a wrongly referenced error message for you outspurced contractors overseas) pointing at the Netware Agent? One can see both servers talking to each other....!

[Bob_Winston]

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/278581.htm SOLVES THIS PROBLEM. NOTE TO ALL USERS. AS OF 9-14.05, THE NETWARE AGENT IS BUILD 1152.4 ON THE MAIN VERITAS DOWNLOAD SITE. UPDATES FROM HOTFIXES WILL RENDER THIS VERSION INOPERABLE. YOU NEED THE 1158 BUILD PER THIS DOCUMENT TO CONTACT YOUR NOVELL SERVERS!!! YOU'RE WELCOME, NOW GIT OUT THERE AND GIT 'ER DUN!!!!!