Policies Didn't Start

[markdavies1978]

Hi all,

I have encountered this a couple of times but not sure where to start looking.

2 backup policies completed their full backup over the weekend but the Cumulative jobs didn't start last night so I have no errors or anyting.

I guess it must have something to do with the scheduling?

I use Calendar based schedules, e.g. Cumulatives run Mon-Fri & Full run Sat-Sun.

Any pointers where to pin point this?

Thanks,

Mark

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Can you share the schedule from such a policy with us?

bpplsched policy name -U

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Also, take a look at this. Lots of comments about calendar based schedules not starting when they should

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/netbackup-policies-wont-start-particular-day

[Stefan70]

Have you checkt

Start-Window and Start-Date of your policy?

Is the afectec policy active?

[markdavies1978]

C:\>bpplsched aiglies1 -U

Schedule:          Full
  Type:            Full Backup
  Calendar sched: Enabled
    Saturday, Week 1
    Saturday, Week 2
    Saturday, Week 3
    Saturday, Week 4
    Saturday, Week 5
  Retention Level: 9 (infinity)
  Maximum MPX:     1
  Synthetic:       0
  PFI Recovery:    0
  Number Copies:   1
  Fail on Error:   0
  Residence:       (specific storage unit not required
  Volume Pool:     (same as policy volume pool)
  Daily Windows:
        Saturday   12:00:00  -->  Sunday     15:00:00

Schedule:          Cumulative-Inc
  Type:            Cumulative Incremental Backup
  Calendar sched: Enabled
    Monday, Week 1
    Tuesday, Week 1
    Wednesday, Week 1
    Thursday, Week 1
    Friday, Week 1
    Monday, Week 2
    Tuesday, Week 2
    Wednesday, Week 2
    Thursday, Week 2
    Friday, Week 2
    Monday, Week 3
    Tuesday, Week 3
    Wednesday, Week 3
    Thursday, Week 3
    Friday, Week 3
    Monday, Week 4
    Tuesday, Week 4
    Wednesday, Week 4
    Thursday, Week 4
    Friday, Week 4
    Monday, Week 5
    Tuesday, Week 5
    Wednesday, Week 5
    Thursday, Week 5
    Friday, Week 5
  Retention Level: 4 (2 months)
  Maximum MPX:     1
  Synthetic:       0
  PFI Recovery:    0
  Number Copies:   1
  Fail on Error:   0
  Residence:       (specific storage unit not required
  Volume Pool:     (same as policy volume pool)
  Daily Windows:
        Monday     18:00:00  -->  Tuesday    05:00:00
        Tuesday    18:00:00  -->  Wednesday  05:00:00
        Wednesday  18:00:00  -->  Thursday   05:00:00
        Thursday   18:00:00  -->  Friday     05:00:00
        Friday     18:00:00  -->  Saturday   05:00:00

C:\>

[markdavies1978]

Start Window & start date seem fine to me.

[RiaanBadenhorst]

Hi,

Having looked at your schedule I would suggest that you switch to frequency based scheduling. You're backing up FULL each Saturday and CINC Monday to Friday. Calender based is usually or most effectively used when you would like to backup on a specific date i.e. last friday of the month, always on the 27th, etc etc.

I'm not just saying this cause its easy to not dig deeper into the issue, but rather from years of NetBackup experience. I'm also 100% sure that most users (trusted advisors) on the forum would agree with this.

It gets a little more complicated when your calender schedule span midnight because Netbackup treats that as two seperate windows, not continuous one.

If you really want to get to the bottom of it you can look in the nbpem log to see what/why its is not starting the jobs when expected.

I would go for frequency based though. Keep this post open and see what the rest say!!

[Andy_Welburn · Accepted solution]

Tech Alert: A potential for missed backups without notification has been discovered in NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server when calendar based schedules have a configured window spanning midnight and go Active after midnight.
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH64029

But not sure of your NB version, nor am I convinced that this would explain why your backups aren't running on a Monday - from what I can determine from this T/N it would be more liable to affect those on a Tuesday etc due to the schedules spanning midnight into the next schedules' day (unless that's not a specific requirement for this bug to manifest itself?)

I would suggest changing your policy to be frequency based - this would be just as workable as the set-up you're running:

e.g.

# bpplsched aiglies1 -U

Schedule:          Full
  Type:            Full Backup
  Frequency:       every 5 days
  Retention Level: 9 (infinity)
  Maximum MPX:     1
  Synthetic:       0
  PFI Recovery:    0
  Number Copies:   1
  Fail on Error:   0
  Residence:       (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:     (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:    (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:     0
  Daily Windows:
        Saturday   12:00:00  -->  Sunday     15:00:00

Schedule:          Cumulative-Inc
  Type:            Cumulative Incremental Backup
  Frequency:       every 12 hours
  Retention Level: 4 (2 months)
  Maximum MPX:     1
  Synthetic:       0
  PFI Recovery:    0
  Number Copies:   1
  Fail on Error:   0
  Residence:       (specific storage unit not required)
  Volume Pool:     (same as policy volume pool)
  Server Group:    (same as specified for policy)
  Residence is Storage Lifecycle Policy:     0
  Daily Windows:
        Monday     18:00:00  -->  Tuesday    05:00:00
        Tuesday    18:00:00  -->  Wednesday  05:00:00
        Wednesday  18:00:00  -->  Thursday   05:00:00
        Thursday   18:00:00  -->  Friday     05:00:00
        Friday     18:00:00  -->  Saturday   05:00:00
#

[markdavies1978]

..Thanks Guys.

I will look into your suggestion.

I have another site with 1 Master Server & 20+ Policies where this has happened once before so I'm gonna have my work cut out to change all these.

Mark