Disk to Disk Exchange backup is failing - Backup Exec 2010

[buck614]

I have recently installed Backup Exec 2010 on a standalone 2003 X64 Server box.. I have an Exchange agent activated to backup my exchange server. I do not have my tape library yet so for the moment I am looking to back up my exchange server to my Backup Exec Server's local drive. This is just temporary.

To accomplish this I created a Backup-to-disk item on the devices tab that points to a local folder. It is set for a maximum size of 500Gb. It is enabled and has a low disk threshold of 50GB set.

The drive in questiuon is the local drive on the Backup Exec computer. It is 1TB is sizw with 917GB free.

The backup job is set up to run a full backup, 'append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available', I also made a custom media set which is set to Overwrite protection period of 1 hour, and the appendable period is set to 'Infinite - Allow Append'.



My first run earlier in the week went great with no errors. I then ran another full backup and it backed up about 336GB of data but failed with the following error message:

The job failed with the following error: Using the job settings, Backup Exec attempted to back up the passive copy of the Exchange database. However, the passive copy was not available after the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot was performed. Try to run the job again.

Just a thought but ...

I have a space limit of 500GB set on the destination folder for the backup. It seems like the size was exceeded on the 2nd full backup but it was unable to delete the previous backup to make room for the new one. As I said the full backup is about 380GB.

Any ideas?

[Ken_Putnam]

Also, I have my backup-to-disk set up with a maximum size of 800GB, maximum number of backup sets to 20, with a 50GB low disk space threshold. Does that sound good?

For the max BKF file size.  if you  ever get to 801 GB, you will be wasting 799GB of disk space on every backup.  I'd set that back  to the default

INCR OPP  - if you set this to 8, if you do an INCR on Monday the first, for example, and if it finished after midnight, you cannot re-use the files created until the WED  9th.  is this what you need?

Similarly for the FULL OPP, an OPP of 16 days will mean that if you write a Full on Monday the 1st, you cannot reuse them until  the WED 17th

For myself, if I want to  keep two generations of data backed up weekly, I would use an OPP of 20 days
to keep six generations of data backed up daily, I'd use 6  days (reuse every Monday or every Tues, etc)
 

[buck614]

What is the default setting for BKF file size then. It requires a manually entered file size.

[Ken_Putnam]

??

The default is 4GB.   perhaps that only appears when creating the B2D device and once change just goes away {shrug}

See page 484 of the BE2010 Admin Guide

[buck614]

I will set it up today as described.

On the incrementals, should I be using the AOFO because without it these files are being missed:

File is in use         :D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\Third Storage Group\tmp.edb
File is in use         : D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\trn.log
File is in use         : D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\trntmp.log
File is in use         : D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\SenderReputation\trn.log
File is in use         : D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\SenderReputation\trntmp.log
File is in use         : D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Temp\Cts22E89.tmp

[CraigV]

They are missed because BE uses active file exclusion. The agent would ensure that these files, which form part of Exchange's IS would be backed up.
If you use AOFO, and your IS is in the same job, you run the risk of causing issues with backups/restores.

[buck614]

Are you saying not to use AOFO for incrementals then?

[CraigV]

...if it involves any DBs being backed up, it isn't recommended.
For Exchange, I have seen it not clear logs, cause issues when restoring from Exchange etc. I have personally had those 2, and have since split my DB backups off from data...

[buck614]

Ok. No AOFO for incrementals then.

[buck614]

I just did a test run and got this, is it going to be a problem:


Both the Full and Incremental Test Run showed the same results:

Media Capacity Check
Device                   : databackups
Online append capacity   : 647,032 MB
Online overwrite capacity: 0.000 MB
Total append capacity    : 647,032 MB
Total overwrite capacity : 0.000 MB
Capacity check status    : Failed
Miscellaneous            :  


Media Check
Online media check   : Insufficient online or nearline media is available to start job.
Overwrite media check: There is no media online or nearline that can be overwritten or the job has been marked append/terminate.
Media check status   : Failed 

[CraigV]

Check this out:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/263679.htm

[buck614]

You are basically saying it is a false positve and not a real error. Well the backups are scheduled to run tonight so I'll let you know.

Thanks everyone.

[buck614]

Incremental ran last night but had a few exceptions. Are these ok considering I did not have AOFO enabled. I understand that it shouldn't be on on incrementals:

Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\Third Storage Group\tmp.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\IpFilter\IpFiltering.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\IpFilter\tmp.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\IpFilter\trn.log - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\mail.que - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\tmp.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\trn.log - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\Queue\trntmp.log - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\SenderReputation\pasettings.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\SenderReputation\tmp.edb - skipped.
Unable to open the item D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\data\SenderReputation\trn.log - skipped.
The .DR file that is required for Intelligent Disaster Recovery is created/updated.

[CraigV]

BE has Active File Exclusion...it will do that...

[buck614]

There were actually 2 sets of the exact exclusions as I listed above.

I still wonder whether both of theses resources should be selected:
I have this directory selected 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server', and I also have the preset group 'Microsoft Information Store' selected.

It looks like it is doing double the work. Isn't the' Information Store' selection taking care of the 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server' directory already?

It just makes me a little nervous to see in the log that files were excluded twice like that.

[CraigV]

The agent will take care of backing up your Information Store (so your *.edb + *.stm + comitting all logs to the database).
Selecting that installation directory would include all other files that won't be ignored during the backup by AFE.

[buck614]

Ok great.  I'll just watch to see my incrementals and then my full backup is Monday night.
Thanks again.

[buck614]

Can I mark more than one response as a solution :)

[CraigV]

Hi Buck,

No...someone once mentioned that a couple of months ago, but generally that is where the "Thumbs Up" button comes in.
You can only award 1 post as the solution, so the idea behind it is to have either the post that specifically helped, or 1 that pointed you in the right direction (that ended up helping), with your follow-up explanation of what you would have done in conjunction with it.
So mark the most appropriate posting from whomever as the solution :)

Laters!

[buck614]

My incrementals started failing over the weekend with the following error (Note: I am not even using the AOFO option):

AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed, but the operation can be retried (0x800423f3), State: Failed during freeze operation (9).

V-79-57344-65233 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "\Microsoft Information Store\Second Storage Group". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: The VSS Writer failed, but the operation can be retried (0x800423f3), State: Failed during freeze operation (9).

[buck614]

Got the error listed above again. Why would I get that on an incremental if I am not using AOFO?