NetBackup Policy doing strange things

[Colin_North]

My config - Windows 2003 master and media server, running NBU 6.5.6

My problem - I have a Windows NT policy that performs a backup of 2 folders and sub-folders on a Windows 2003 x64 server. The policy was running daily without any issues, then for some reason it was running twice a day within the backup window. I checked the policy config and nothing out of the ordinary was set. So I deleted this policy and started from scratch with a brand new one.

So the second policy I created runs runs every day as planned and appears in Activity Monitor, and shows the tapes it has written to. But if I check the Backup/Archive/Restore interface somedays the backup job is listed and available for restore and other days it isn't listed at all. In fact the jobs that ran last weekend showed up in the BAR interface yesterday, and today they are gone.

Also, if I look at the media list showing all of my tapes, somedays it will show that the tapes in question have a date assigned to them and other days there's no date assigned.

I have enabled logging on the client in question, but cannot see any errors. In all my years of using NBU I have never seen this one before.

Any ideas before I have to contact support?

[Andy_Welburn]

window"

That would make me think "frequency" ...... but

"In fact the jobs that ran last weekend showed up in the BAR interface yesterday, and today they are gone."

would make me think "Contact Support" (unless they've got a very low retention period)

[Colin_North]

Andy,

I already checked the frequency and retention periods... these are normal just like my other policies. So yes, I feel a call to support is due - oh dear.

Colin.

[Andy_Welburn · Accepted solution]

Only other thing that comes to mind is if someone's been a bit "free" expiring media?

[Colin_North]

Andy,

Good call - Just found out that someone has been running a script to expire old media, but this has also been expiring media with a date assigned that's currently loaded in any of our tape robots.

I have had a word in their ear.

Colin.

[Andy_Welburn]

Unrepeatable words I presume!

***EDIT***

Doesn't explain the multiple backups during a window - or have they been playing with manual backups too?