Failed: Unable to initialize remote agent

[Lysle]

My scheduled backup jobs for the Snap server all show "Failed" with the error message "Unable to initialize remote agent". The backups are actually successful using the local agent and I have done successful restores from the "Failed" backups.

How can I disable the "Failed" status for this supposed failure? The status should show Failed only when the job actually fails to backup files.

I suspect that this "Failed" status on my Full backups is the reason a Working Set backup fails to recognize the Full backup and so the Working Set backup backs up everything, not just changed files. The combination of Full backups resetting archive bit and Differential backups using archive bit is working. I want to be able to use Working Set to go past the last Full backup.

Thanks

[SRodriguez]

Hi Lysle:

The failed status can not be disabled.  Since it is not a suppose failed, the backup job endeed failed since it was unable to initialize the Remote Agent on the snap.

In this case the working set, will not work for you since this is based on the selection list name,  and a full backup must be completed succesfully.  Once the full backup completes succesfully it will update the table in the BEDB that contains the date and time that will use to calculate the changed files since the last backup.

[Lysle]

SRodriguez,

The backups are actually successful and usable using the local agent. Since the local agent can backup, is there a way to disable the remote agent and try only the local agent?

Thanks,

Lysle

[Lou_Buffetta]

Below is an explanation of what's going on followed by a TechNote for reference. Basically you need to do 2 things

    1). Create a separate job for the SNAP server

    2). Create a User Defined Selection and select the server for backup from there

How to create a user-defined selection in Backup Exec for Windows Servers

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/254193.htm

Details

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This issue has been discovered with Network Appliance devices, although it may occur during the backup of any NAS device that closely mimics Windows network sharing.
Because Backup Exec (tm) expects a Remote Agent to be installed on every Windows server, this can confuse Backup Exec into giving an error message stating that the Remote Agent is not present during backups.

Although the job is listed as "FAILED," the backup itself is not affected by this issue. As a workaround, it is recommended to separate the NAS device into its own backup job, so that the failed job status will not affect any other backup operations OR in case you do not want to create a separate job for the \\SNAP server you can prevent this error from the job log by purchasing and registering the Remote Agent for Windows Servers (RAWS)/ Remote Agent for NT (RANT) license on the media server. (Basically this is an licensing error because for Backup Exec, it is just another Windows server on the network).

NOTE: While backing up the <SNAP> server, Backup Exec software will treat it as another Windows server on the network and thus demand "RAWS/RANT" but no component is required (infact cannot be installed).The selections for the <SNAP> server backup need to be created through user-defined selections.

A backup of a UNIX-based SNAP server lists an "Unable to initialize Remote Agent" error.
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/271106.htm