Jobs Missed on a weekly basis.

[Andy328]

Hello,

I am new to the forums and was just wondering if there is a solution to my problem.

Daily, Weekly and Monthly jobs run without any issues but the problem I am having is that once a week all of my Weekly or Monthly (depending on the date) jobs are missed.  I know when and why this happens, I just dont know if there is a better solution.  The problem is that when there are no drives available; all the jobs scheduled to run are missed and I will have to manually Retry all the missed jobs.

I found this artical which sounds very close to my symptoms;
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH51430

I've tried to follow the instructions but if I am reading it right, then the instructions show you the workaround for a single "backup job" and not a "backup job policy" eventhough it says the fix is for both.

I would like the jobs to, instead of going to "Missed" status, go to "Ready; No idle devices are available" status.

Is this possible?

I am running Backup Exec 10

Thanks in advance!

[AmolB]

You may increase the backup window, this will put the job in queued status untill the device is not idle.

[Andy328]

Right now my Time Window settings are set to Start no earlier than 9:00pm and no later than 8:59pm...

I did not set this window up, it was something that I inherited.  Maybe I am reading it wrong but to me that sounds backwards or it could be saying that the window is 11hrs and 59mins.

Am I correct to make that assumption?

Thanks for your quick response time on this Amol!

[Andy328]

I should also mention that All jobs are missed at 8:59pm..

Hmmm, makes me wonder why it was setup the way it is.

[Tmy_70]

have to check the number of available tape that you scrath because if you do not have enough means it can be mounted on a single backup media, validating this first.T

Tomas Carpio
 

[Ken_Putnam]

Sounds suspiciously like the job is stalling for some reason, and then cancels when the end of the window is reached

Is this a standalone drive or a loader?

Is there anything in the Windows Event Log that may indicate any problems?

Is any job log created at all for the cancelled jobs?

[pkh]

my Time Window settings are set to Start no earlier than 9:00pm and no later than 8:59pm.

This means that you job will start on 9 p.m. on the day that it is scheduled and it can wait until 8. 59 p.m. on the following day, i.e. it can wait 24 hours.

When you come in the following morning, click on the Alert tab and see whether there is any outstanding alerts to respond to.

[Andy328]

Ken;
1) This is not a standalone, it is a Loader which loads two tapes at a time.
2) No Events in the Windows Event log.
3) No Alerts in Backup Exec saying why they are Missed.

Thomas; I have 11 Scratch media loaded each week.

phk; I remote into the server from home every weekend on Saturday night to retry the jobs; sometimes after 9pm and sometimes before 9pm.  If I am watching the Job Monitor, I can see all the job jump to Missed status instantly when 9pm hits without any Alert notifications.

..Sorry, I just realized that I failed to mention;  The Jobs are initiated at 9pm on Friday and become "Missed" at 8:59pm on Saturday.  So it looks like the 24hr window is working but the backups are still running until late Sunday.

My question is that, if there was a way to Send the jobs to a Ready; No idle devices, auto-retry "Missed" jobs or increase the window to longer than 24hrs?

Thanks

[pkh]

The max. time window is 24 hours.  If there is a job running which is holding up a resource, you can either

1) re-schedule the job to start on Sat. rather than Fri.

or

2) chain the 2 jobs using BEMCMD, i.e. the first job starts the second job.  See my blog below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/use-bemcmd-start-jobs

[Andy328]

Option 1: Not a horrible idea but I don't know how well that would work since I have on average about 34-35 missed jobs on random servers.

Option 2, looks like a promising solution... would this work for my situation? All of my Weekly jobs run on the same template. (trying to better understand the way BEMCMD works). 
 

Not sure if this helps but I have attached a snapshot of what I see on a weekly basis every Saturday night at 9pm.

[pkh]

If you want to chain your jobs, then you cannot use policies.  You would have to define each job separately and submit them as 'run now", but on hold.  You would also have to plan the sequence of jobs so that you can put the appropriate post-command in the preceeding job.

[Colin_Weaver]

Just for info the next release of Backup Exec will have changes affecting job windows and maximum timings before jobs are rescheduled. Can't be specific here as some items may still be subject to change, however I believe the 24 hour limit will be lifted.

[Andy328]

Can I get a free upgrade ;)

[AmolB]

If your maintenance contract is valid then Symantec may give you a free upgrade

Note: You cannot directly upgrade from 10d to BE2010, you need to upgrade to 11d and then to BE2010

[Andy328]

I see.. well I have policies in place to tell my backups to run on a schedule rules that will Supersede a Daily if a Weekly is running; Supersede a Weekly if a Monthly is running.

Is this still possible if I remove the policy?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks again for all the help!

[Andy328]

Unfortunately the maintenance contract ended a while ago and my company isn't going to spend money on an upgrade.
I was just hoping to find a simple fix to make my life easier and save me from remoting in from home every weekend. :\

[pkh]

Colin is tallking about the next release of BE which is not released yet.  Even if you are on a maintenance contract, upgrading to BE 2010 is not going to help you because it still have the 24 hours time window.

When you don't use policy, then there is no superceding of jobs, you would have to manage your jobs.

[Tmy_70]

In those days I had the same problem solutions by changing the time window for the backup is not run as many and separates them into individual policies, as it seems like it requires a lot ofthe operating system

[Andy328]

Ok well I guess that answers my question... Removing the Policies would then require me to manage the jobs myself when superceding is needed which defeats the purpose of the solution that I was looking for.."less hands-on"..

And to not run as many backup jobs is not an option considering that all the servers being backed up, need to be backed up... and to stagger every job on a separate policy running on different times, I would run the risk of jobs running throughout the week instead of just over the weekend.

Thanks guys for all your help.  This is my first time on these Forums and even though I didn't get the answer I was hoping for, it has been a good experience.

Nice to see how many people are actually willing to help! :)