empty folders after restore from a differential backup...?

[ManuelMarcosDom]

hello,

since a few month we're using symantec backup exec 2010 r2 in our company.

every new month we make a full backup of each server, the backup images are placed in a backup storage attached to the symantec server.

then every day we make differential backup of each server.

now we wanted to restore one file from one of these differential backups into a different path, but all the only thing which is restored, are the folders without any files or data. if restore from the full backup, then it works...

all backup jobs are running without any error messages every day, and on the two ways i tried to restore were no error messages too.

excepting that one job restored the files and the other not.

Is there maybe something that i'm missing? in the job scheduler - i think - everything is set correctly...

Has anyone an idea where our mistake is?

thanks in advance

manuel

[AmolB]

Are you taking backup of DFS data, if yes then you need to backup the data through shadow copy

components

[ManuelMarcosDom]

no, it's just one virtual machine which runs windows 2003.

the strange thing is, that i can restore files from the full backup but not from the differential backups of the full backup...

[Sush---]

If the file that you are trying to restore is present in the Full backup set as well as in the Differential backup set then the correct procedure to restore is first restore from the Full backup and then restore from Differential backup. You can select the same file in the same job from both the Full as well as Differential backup sets.

Trying to restore only the Differential backup set will not work unless that file was not present when the Full backup was taken and due to which it was not present in the Full backup set.

So go for restore of the file from FULL + DIFFERENTIAL backup set.

Thanks,

-Sush...

[pkh]

If the file that you are trying to restore is present in the Full backup set as well as in the Differential backup set then the correct procedure to restore is first restore from the Full backup and then restore from Differential backup

Why do you need to do this for a single file?  You can just restore the file from the differential backup.  You only restore from the full and differential backup, if you are dealing with a lot of files and you cannot be sure whether the files are on the differential backup.

Trying to restore only the Differential backup set will not work unless that file was not present when the Full backup was taken and due to which it was not present in the Full backup set.

This is not true.  If the file is present in the differential backup, I can just restore that file because it is the latest copy.  If I just created a file after the full backup is taken then it will be present in the differential backup and not in the full backup.

[pkh]

@ManuelMarcosDomenech - You did not say whether you are using VMware or Hyper-V.  If you are using VMware then is your differential job part of a policy and your VM is using hardware ver. 7?  Otherwise, you cannot to a differential backup.  Check page 1390 of your Admin Guide.

[ManuelMarcosDom]

Yes we're using VMware, the diff job is part of a policy and the VM's are on hardware version 7.

i checked page 1390 in the guide, and in our backup job there is nothing excluded.

at the moment i'm updating the remote agents on each server, because my colleague told me today that he had updated the backup exec server few weeks ago.

after the agents are up to date, i will try to to restore again...

could it be that the problem occurs when the remote agents are not as updated as the backup exec server is?

[pkh]

It could be.  After you update the remote agent, you should restart the physical host and take a differential backup.  Restore from that differential backup and not from the older ones which may be bad.

[ManuelMarcosDom]

okay, i will give you a reply after i tried that.

unfortunately i have to wait until tonight before i can restart the server..

[ManuelMarcosDom]

okay, now after i downloaded and installed the updates, a new problem occured.

when i try to restore a file from the differential backup, backup exec does not restore the empty folders, it restores nothing and i get an error message like in this article that the directory '' is not supported by GRT: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH125559&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1308315558360

and like in this article, it is not the first .vmdk where the files are that i want to restore.

a restore from the first vmdk works, from the second vmdk fails.

so i downloaded the hotfix for this error, but i can't install it. looks like it is for an older version of backup exec.

i have checked the full backup and differential backup tasks, updated backup exec and the remote agents, and i really cannot understand why the restore works with the full backups but not with the differential...?

[pkh]

The hotfix is for BE2010.  It should be in BE 2010 R2.

After you have installed the updates, did you push out the remote agent to the host as well as the VM and rebooted them?

[ManuelMarcosDom]

i saw that the update was for an other version, but the problem solved by that updated look like the problem we have.

yes updated the remote agents and rebooted the servers and the problem still exists.

[pkh]

Have you considered upgrading to BE 2010 R3?

[ManuelMarcosDom]

not until yet, but i started the download right now.

do you know if i can install version r3 as an upgrade over version r2?

and do have to define the backup tasks again after an upgrade?

[pkh]

You can just upgrade to R3 from R2.  Before you install R3, stop all the BE services and the BE SQL instance and backup the Data and Catalog directories under the BE installation directory.  This is in case you encountered an error in the upgrade.  When you upgrade, you don't have to re-do your jobs.

[ManuelMarcosDom]

okay, upgrade to r3 done. no errors occured.

now i have to wait until i can restart our fileserver, because of the remote agent.

after that i will let you know, if the upgrade to r3 has solved the problem...

[ManuelMarcosDom · Accepted solution]

long time ago since my last post, but the problem is found and solved.

it seemes that the problem was in the setting for the backup, that it should use the archive bit.

i changed it now to backup "with changed date". after that i'm able to restore files from the full and differential backups.

thanks for all the good help.