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do i need remote agent for backing up shared/mapped directories?

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
I am using the 11d trial and

Selection : various mapped /shared directories from various machines (xp pro, w2k server, NT, etc)

Destination: backup to disk folders on two external USB hard drive.We can call then USB hard drive A and B

The backup went fine, however restoring seems to have some problems.

Most backups restore fine from usb drive B. There are intermittent complaints which go away if you try to run the same job over again.. the error is

"The job failed with the following error: The media server has lost the network connection to the remote agent"

However backups cannot be restored at all from usb drive A. I believe it worked once..or twice..but now it just gives the same error " the media server has lost the network connection to the remote agent"

My understanding is that the remote agent is just if you want to fully backup a server (system state, windows files, etc)

1)
Why would it complain about the agent connection if it is restoring from the USB hard drive?

2)
Are external USB hard drives not ideal as a backup to folder device?
12 REPLIES 12

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
1) Not real sure what is happening here. is this just data restores, or complete system restores?

2) USB HDs should be OK but

a) Make sure you create B2D on removable media not standard B2D folders
b) You will be limited by the speed of the USB bus (as opposed to SCSI speeds)
c) You will need to make sure that each physical drive is mounted on the same unique drive letter each time you use it. That is - Drive1 must always be mounted as R: Drive2 as S: etc.

Bradley_Willads
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified
Howard,

Mapped drives are not supported within Backup Exec. Do you have the Remote Agent software installed on your remote computers? This is free for workstations, but requires a license for servers.

I believe the issue stems from communication between the media server and the target server, not the media server and the device.

I would recommend if you haven't, that you install the remote agent software on your remote computers. You can do thsi from within the Backup Exec administration console by clicking Tools > Install Remote Agents.

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
Thanks for your replies.

Ken,

1) I am just restoring data, not a complete system from the usb hard drive.

2) thanks for the tip for the external hard drive.

Bradley,



Mapped drives are not supported? So even though I can backup/restore the files sometimes..its not recommended and therefore my results?

You said you believe the issue stems from the communication between media server and target server. Just a question, I am not sure how that connection is necessary during a restore of data? The data should all be coming from the usb hard drive? please correct me.

I will definitely try installing remote agents on each of the remote computers and will reply back here after some testing. In the mean time could you shed some light on the question above? Remember, that I am just backing up data in shared directories, not entire operating systems.

Bradley_Willads
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified
Howard,

Mapped drives won't show up in your backup view...I'm not sure how you're selecting those. I assume that you're selecting them through Entire Network, and then browsing for them.

When a backup or restore is run, the Media Server wil attempt to establish a connection to the Remote Agent running on the target machine. If this connection isn't established, we attempt to push data across the network, while not utilizing NDMP.

If you install the Remote Agent software, we establish that NDMP connection, and stream the data across the wire much more efficneitly. We also have timeout and retry functionality built in to the Remote Agent. That functionality isn't available if you don't use the Remote Agent.

Amruta_Bhide
Level 6
Hello Howard,

Could you please Update us on the issue?

Thanks
Regards

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
Hey guys,

I was backing up folders that were shared over the network.. not mapped drives.. sorry for the confusion.

Anyway,

I followed your advice and remotely install the agent on one of the windows 2000 servers. I installed all three options and rebooted the server manually. I have verified that the Backup exec services are running.

I then tried to restore select files from an old backup and new backup.

I tried the same restore job over four times and it would error out at different times with the same error (connection lost to remote agent etc..)

It seems to error out at different bye counts and the job rate varies from 1mb/min to 6mb/min

It almost seems random because restore jobs that failed at the end of the day repeatedly yesterday would restored just fine this morning when I tried it again.(this is on the backup server, data backed up on the usb hard drive and @ 98mb/min)

Bradley_Willads
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified
Howard,

Can you restore the data to the local machine? You can use the File Redirection tab within the Restore Job.

I think that this may be an underlying network issue. This will help us determine that.

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
I have been using file redirection to the local machine the entire time.

please advise
thanks for your help!

Bradley_Willads
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified
Howard,

OK, maybe this is an issue with the USB drives. Let's see if we can isolate the problem. Can you run a backup to a backup to disk folder that resides on the C:\ drive, or another physical drive on the server? Then attempt to restore that same data to another location on the media server, to see if you get the same results as that of the USB drive.

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
That is exactely what I thought. So I have tried backing up to another usb drive and on the local disk.

I just tried restoring a new backup on the local machine to a different folder on the same machine.. same error. I have been successful before in the past with that option though..it just seems to work one minute and fail the next...

Bradley_Willads
Level 5
Employee Accredited Certified
Howard,

Do you have an email address that I can correspond with you at? I'd like to request some log files to help you troubleshoot this further.

Howard_Chiu
Level 4
Bradley,

howard@bcltechnologies.com



Thanks!