connection to server failed

[Ron_S]

Below are ONLY MY messages in sequence from a different support site. They are seperated by the "#".

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Veritas Backup Exec can not select files to backup. Error is "connection to server failed".
Windows 2000 Small Business Server, Exchange 2000 and Backup Exec 8.6. I help a church that does not have paid support when they start having problems. I've worked in computers for some time but not much in the mentioned areas. So that you do not assume too much knowledge on my part in those areas consider me a novice.

I'll try and avoid writing a book but some background. Problem started after installing a new version of McAfee security suite for W2K/2003 for small business. Directed to a Digital River site for the downloads. Enter the validation number and it was accepted. The installation was done by the browser after clicking on the listed download.

Everything seemed to go OK. After the installation finished had these symptoms. Took 5 minutes to get the desktop up after logging on. IE6 would not even come up. Backup Exec had an empty form. Stopped all McAfee services. IE6 would come up but could not connect to any web sites. Uninstalled McAfee. IE6 worked and Backup Exec appeared to work but I think I missed that files could not be selected for backup. Did this 2 more times with same result. Called McAfee support. Was pointed to a different site. Did the installation from that site. Everything "appeared" to work then. But again I missed that Backup Exec could not select files for backup.  Both the bad and good installs showed 17 licenses, which was correct. We bought 1 server and 16 workstations. It is possible the bad install did not correctly detect that this was a server.

I found this on Symantec support site. This fixed the problem for the person asking for help but makes no sense.
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Hi James,
 
I had exactly the same problem and it is an authentication issue.
 
If you're using the system administrator account (yourdomain\administrator) as the Backup Exec logon account (which I think is the default) then the services should also be using the same account.
 
I was set up this way and still had the problem you mention.
 
The resolution was to ensure that the administrator account was only a member of the built in Administrators group (which you can't change) and the DomainAdmins group and no other security groups.
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Logged on as Administrator who is a member of
ADMINISTRATORS
DOMAIN ADMINS
DOMAIN USERS
ENTERPRISE ADMINS
GROUP POLICY CREATOR OWNERS
SCHEMA ADMINS

I'm assuming there is a permissions problem. Three possible solutions I've seen are.

One. Reinstall Backup Exec. The office administrator is gone for at least a week and I can not find the Veritas CD.

Two. Changing the groups for the administrator, as above. I do not want to introduce more problems by changing group membership. I could add a new user and try and get BE working. However; what determines "who" BE is running as?

Three. Find the hosed up permissions and fix them. This would be my preference.


I have gotten Microsoft build-in backup to backup files to an External USB hard drive.

ron

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I am at the site. Logged on as TLCMN\Administrator. Forgot to mention that they are using ACTIVE DIRECTORY.

When you say "Windows Services Applet" are you refering to SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL | ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS | SERVICES ? When I go to SERVICES I do NOT see anything about "LOG ON AS" or are you referring to the tab for the services. I do see the LOG ON AS  for the BE services. They are set to "TLCMN\ genserv".
There is no account that I can find in this domain of "genserv". I do not know what It was set to before.
These are the services.
Backup Exec 8.x Agent Browser
Backup Exec 8.x Alert Server
Backup Exec 8.x Device and Media Service
Backup Exec 8.x Job Engine
Backup Exec 8.x Notification Server
Backup Exec 8.x Server

I do not see an AgentAccelerator.

Where in BE do I change the "services credentials"?

I have not changed anything yet.

ron

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Thanks again

I now have it partially working. I did change the 6 BE services listed above to log on as TLCMN\Administrator. This morning I found that all 6 BE services are started. When I bring up the BE application and watch the services  the Backup Exec 8.x Job Engine dies and I am back to the original problem. The Event Viewer | System Log | Service Control Manager shows "The Backup Exec 8.x Job Engine service terminated unexpectedly". No other information.

I can RESTART  the BE Job Engine from the Services window. Now BE appears to be fully functional. I can select files to backup. This happens every time. I'm logged on as TLCMN\Administrator the same account used in the LOG ON AS tab in the Services window.

I am currently doing 2 full backups since there has not be been a backup for a couple of weeks. One tape drive so this will take most of today. I DO NOT know what will happen when BE is left to do the scheduled backups on it's own. A TEMPORARY work around maybe to leave BE running all the time. Any ideas on where else to look for error messages.

Thanks again for you patience
ron

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I would like to put this question on hold. Just returned from the site. Even though the backup job was running it really was NOT doing anything. Some further checking found that the Job Engine is not running the requests. Can not eject a tape, inventory a tape, etc. No errors - the jobs are queued up. They may need to get some paid support. This is sucking up a lot of my time.

ron