Symantec BEX Differentials fail

[wilvw]

Hello

I am running Symantec BEX 2010 on an IBM SBS with Server 2003 SP2. I have configured the backups to run from Disk to Tape on Monday to Friday Nights. On Saturday & Sunday Nights the backups run Disk to Disk. However from Monday Mornings 9am through to Saturday Nights 10:30pm I have disk to disk differentials running.

The differential backups run to the same drive as the Weekend Disk to Disk Backups, but they use a different folder.

The weird thing is the Differentials would run on a Monday as successful. This will continue until Tuesday about midday (some weeks before Tuesday midday) when the differentials would fail with the error message "-515 The timestamp in next log does not meet the expected timestamp"

Yet after the weekend's disk to disk backups it runs without errors. Only during Tuesday does this error start?

Can someone please explain why this is happening? I already had a look at some of the suggestions from the symantec websites, but this problem persists and I cannot understand why the differentials would run fine after a disk to disk but suddenly on Tuesday (after Monday night's disk to tape) it would stop working correctly!

TIA

Wil

[pkh]

If you are not on BE 2010 R3, then I would suggest that you upgrade to BE 2010 R3 which is the latest version. Your existing licence keys will work.  You can download BE 2010 R3 from either the fileconnect site or

http://trialware.norton.com/files/fc/Backup_Exec_2010_13.0.5204_MultiPlatforms_Multilingual_DVD.iso

After your upgrade, download SP3 from here

Backup Exec 2010 R3 revision 5204 Service Pack 3

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH203157

and install it.

After you have upgraded to SP3, push out the remote agent again.

If you are already on BE 2010 R3, but has not applied SP3.  Do download SP3, apply it and push out the remote agents again.

[Donald_Eady]

what is it that youre backing up? Please take a look at the following document and see if it applies 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH197334

[lmosla]

Make sure that you don't have mainenance tasks that are occurring before the failing job also check out Windows Application and system events for errors.

Have you tried recreating the job?  Are you using policies? If you are, try recreating the policy

[wilvw]

Hi pkh

Thanks for the reply. I just need to ask where can I view my licence number which is required for the download of the files you mentioned? I had a look in my BEX but cannot seem to find it??

Please let me know if it is possible to locate the number in BEX 2010 and if so where I can look?

TIA

wil

[wilvw]

Hi Donald

Thank you for your reply!

I already went through the steps on the page you suggested - ie disable exchange rotational logs etc. There was another symantec site I found where they suggested making changes to the regsitry - I tried this too, but have run out of options and decided to make a posting om Symantec.

Anyways, Many Thanks for your help!

Regards

wil

[wilvw]

Hi LMosla

Yes I am currently using a policy to run the diffs & D2D full backups over the weekend. If I recall I think I did try a different policy to do the differentials and had the same issue.

One thing which doesn't make sense is that the diffs are successful and then suddenly they start failing. This failure leads me to believe that one (or more) user is doing something that affects the differential backups in that they most likely move an e-mail to a public folder?

I already looked at the event logs on the server, but there is nothing pertaining to Symantec BEX.
 

Thanks for your reply

Regards

wil

[pkh]

You don't need your licence keys in order to download the R3 iso from the URL given earlier or R3 SP3.  However, if you need them, they are kept is a file called BESERNUM.XML which is located under Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Backup Exec.

If you are are talking about the licence number required to download files from fileconnect, then you got to get it from the paper licence that you got when you renew your maintenance contract.

[lmosla]

wilvw,

if you are running anti-virus software on the Exchange server exclude the Backup Exec directory c:\Temp\Backup Exec from the scan  

[wilvw]

Hi Everyone

@LMosla We are running anti-virus on the server and I have had a look at the Temp folder. It has a folder called Symantec. The Temp folder also contains other folders with empty txt files. No big deal so I excluded the whole Temp folder on the C Drive. I reran the diffs but it is still failing. I did notice MS updates were ready for installation and have completed those. I now need to restart the server before I want to try again to see if this still fails.

@pkh I am downloading the software you suggested. If after the restart it still fails I will try the updated sofware w/ SP3 and see if this resolves the issue.

[wilvw]

After running Windows Updates & rebooting the server I see the diffs are still failing.

I proceeded to download & run BEX 2010 R3, but when I get to checking environment, it comes up with "The webpage cannot be displayed". From here I cannot click on the Next button. I am running IE 8 on Windows server 2003 SBS. Is the server too old for the software or am I doing something wrong?

The other thing I would like to ask is whether I will be asked if I want to use an existing SQL installation or will the installation just continue? If it does ask for SQL DB instance, what do I select? (existing or create new one)

[pkh]

It could be that IE8 is too new.

If you are upgrading to R3, i.e. you have not uninstall your existing BE 2010, then there will be no prompt to choose the location of the BEDB.  The existing BEDB will be upgraded automatically.

[lmosla]

Try downloading the single download if you were trying to use the 4 files option.