Remote Agent - Backup Server Communication Issue

[e3media]

Hi all,

When selecting a remote server's drive in a backup job in Backup Exec (which is greyed out, indicating that I cannot select it), I get the following error message:

"You are not authorized to access this item, a licence key for Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers is not installed on the machine, or the Remote Agent is old or incompatible."

To fix this issue I have tried the following:-

1. Reinstalled the remote agent on the remote server a number of times (by pushing it out from the backup server)

2. Checked the backup user credentials: I can connect to the remote system drives easily with the user credentials from the backup server in windows explorer.

3. I've followed the following guide:
http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/258984.htm

which lists the following potential issues resulting in this problem:

a. The logon account does not have access to the remote server.
See 1

b. The license for the Remote Agent is not installed on the media server.
I've checked - we have licensing for the servers I'm trying to backup. Plus backups worked until recently

c. The Remote Agent for Windows Servers is not installed on the machine.
See 2 - I've also verified that the service is running

d. The Remote Agent is installed, but it is an incompatible version.
checked- its the right version installed on the remote server. As far as I know, we haven't ever upgraded Backup Exec, so there wouldn't be a version issue. Furthermore, the backups were working as normal for a long time before they suddenly stopped so I've ruled this one out.

e. Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) has been directed to a port other than the default port.
checked the services file in <systemroot>\System32\Drivers\etc
no entry on NDMP.
The server is running Veritas Backup Exec 9.1 Rev. 4691

We have recently installed Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 on the server, but I did check the inbuilt firewall to  see if it was blocking port 10000, but it seems not.

So I'm stumped. Backups didn't work for a while because I couldn't select the things I wanted to backup. However, I found a slight fix -> if you input your selections in text mode, rather than graphical mode Backup Exec at least tries to backup what I want. It fails most of the time (particularly on system state & c:\windows system files) with "0xa0008488 - Access is denied." or "0xa00084af - The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed."

This all stems from the original problem of the Backup Exec server and remote agents not working properly. I should also point out that of the 5 or so servers this backup exec backs up, NONE of them can be graphically selected anymore.

Any advice at all would be much appreciated!


Thanks

[nia]

Hi Archie,

You are saying that from the Backup server you can see for example the c$ of the remote server, correct?

Have u tried to check the same from the remote computer? If you open the BE Remote Agent Utility from the remote computer, you should find on the second tab the publishing. Can you ping the name or ip that is set there?
And the other important, is the service running on the remote server?

But let me understand something, you say that you see the servers (without any yellow triangle under favorite resources) but you can not select the Drives (C, or D).
Did you try to uninstall (manually) and install again the agent with the remote agent checked?
Did you check from tools->licenses that you have entered all the appropriate license keys for the Remote agent?

Regards,
Nikos

[e3media]

Hi Niko,

Correct, I can see the c$ from the backup server.
I can also see the backup server c$ from the remote server.

I've manually uninstalled the remote agent from the remote server, and then reinstalled it from the backup server (I unfortunately can't find an .exe to install it manually).

I'm also a little confused with this licensing issue: if you go to help -> about and click on license information, then it says I have a licence for 'remote agent for windows servers', and that it is installed.

When I do a reinstallation however it does not prompt me for a license key. But as I mention in my previous post, backups have worked in the past so I can't really see it as a licensing issue; we obviously have the correct licensing for it to have worked in the first place.

Thanks for your time,

Archie

[nia · Accepted solution]

Archie,

I have now seen that you have installed the SEP11 on the servers with the FW enabled.
Try to disable completely the SEP from the server (no need to uninstall it) and try again. Consider that SEP11 has also IPS not only FW.
Can you do these tests?
Do you remember or noticed the problem after the SEP installation?

Let us know.
Nikos

[e3media]

Niko,

You're a star. That was it. If I disable 'network threat protection' in SEP 11, the problem goes away. I'm now going to call Symantec and see how I may be able to configure Endpoint to have this option turned on, but to work in conjunction with Backup Exec.

We didn't spend lots of money on Endpoint to not use one of its features.

Thanks again,

Archie

[nia]

I am glad to help Archie.
We used to have some issues with Symantec AV and Backup Exec so I thought that this could be the issue.
Please, let me know the answer of Symantec because I am in the middle of a big SEP11 installation.

Thanks and again, glad to help.

Nikos