Error message shown "Maximum job count has been reached for the storage unit"

[Richard_Senda3]

Hello,

I have been having an issue with NetBackup for over a year now that has not been resolved by Symantec tech support, the Symantec case ID is 412-338-721 which I raised over a year ago.

The problem

When trying to resume a backup job that is either in the “suspended” or “incomplete” state, the error message “Maximum job count has been reached for the storage unit” is shown in the Activity Monitor even though the maximum multiplexing limit for the storage unit, policy and schedule has not been reached.  This happens under the following circumstances:

• The backup job being resumed is multi-streamed, that is, consists of a parent plus children
• There are other backup jobs running that are writing to the same Storage Unit as the suspended or incomplete job

I see this problem in NetBackup versions 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.1 and 7.1.01 in both Windows and RedHat Linux platforms.  This problem does not exist in NetBackup 6.5 or earlier versions, it started with NetBackup 7.0.

Steps to reproduce the fault

1. Create a Storage Unit that has a single tape drive.  In that storage unit set the “Maximum concurrent write drives” to 1.  Tick the box “Enable Multiplexing” and set “Maximum streams per drive” to a number greater than 3.

2. Create a backup policy, set it as follows:
 Attributes tab:
                “Take checkpoints every: 10 minutes”
                “Policy type: MS-Windows”
                “Policy Storage – set this to the storage unit created in step 1”
                “Policy volume pool: NetBackup”
                Leave all other settings on defaults
 Schedules tab:
               Create a Full backup schedule.
               Set “Media Multiplexing” to 32
               Leave all other settings on defaults
 Clients tab:
               Add in a single Windows client
 Backup Selections tab:
               Use the Directive ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES

3. Create a second backup policy, set it as follows:
 Attributes tab:
                “Take checkpoints every: 10 minutes”
                “Policy type: MS-Windows”
                “Policy Storage – set this to the storage unit created in step 1”
                “Policy volume pool: NetBackup”
                Tick the box “Allow multiple data streams”
                Leave all other settings on defaults
 Schedules tab:
                Create a Full backup schedule.
                Set “Media Multiplexing” to 32
                Leave all other settings on defaults
 Clients tab:
                Add in a single Windows client
 Backup Selections tab:
                We must create at least 2 streams:
                NEW_STREAM
                C:\
                NEW_STREAM
                D:\

4. Start both backup jobs running, they should both be shown as Active in the Activity Monitor and start writing data to the tape.  You should see 3 jobs and 1 parent.
 
5. Suspend all backup jobs, wait until all jobs are shown as suspended in the Activity Monitor
 
6. Resume the first backup job, the one that does not have multiple streams, wait until it is shown as Suspended in the Activity Monitor
 
7. Resume the second backup job from the Parent job, you will see the error “Maximum job count has been reached for the storage unit”
 

You will remember from the Storage Unit settings, we set the Maximum Streams per drive to a number greater than 3 and that we set the Multiplexing limit to 32 in each backup schedule.  Therefore, the maximum multiplexing limit has not been reached.  We can confirm this as follows:

8. Suspend all backup jobs again
9. Resume the multi-streamed backup job and wait for it to go Active in the Activity Monitor
10. Resume the single streamed backup job and wait for it to go Active in the Activity Monitor
You will see that all streams go Active and backup completes successfully.

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

Richard.

[Marianne]

Similar issue as described in this discussion? https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/mutilistream-job-does-not-start-after-resuming-suspend-state

Scroll to the bottom of the thread - there is an EEB available. Ask your Symantec engineer for it.

[Richard_Senda3]

Yes this is exactly the same issue, I did report this issue quite some time ago to both Symantec and in the forums, my original post here ->

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/unable-resume-suspended-backup-jobs

I did log this problem with Symantec in June 2010 when I first found it with NetBackup 7.0.  I am not happy with how the support Engineer handled the case, from what I could see from the case log, the Engineer did not attempt to reproduce the problem on lab equipment and took up hours of my time taking reams of logs when I had already supplied detailed steps on exactly how to reproduce the problem.  I also reported to Symantec this problem was present in NetBackup 7.0.1 when it became available through the first availability programme, again, no action was taken by the support Engineer to analyse the problem.  I found yesterday that the case I logged 412-338-721  was closed back in April without my agreement or knowledge and without supplying me with a fix.

Moaning aside, after a year, at least there is now an EEB which I will request.

Many thanks for your help.

[Richard_Senda3]

I requested the EED from support, have been told it is for Windows 2003 only, there is no EEB for any other platform.  I have master and media servers running on RHEL and Windows 2008 64bit so unfortunately, this doesn't work.

I will plug away at it with support.

Richard.

[Marianne]

PLEASE do NOT accept this as an answer. You are paying the same maintenance fee as Windows customers.

Insist on a solution for YOUR version.