STATUS 6 error when backing up an SQL Database

[Colin_North]

Hi Guys,
My set up is: Master Server - Windows 2000 Server + NBU 5.0 mp4 + Media Server of the same set up, with all clients on NBU 5.0 mp4.

For the last few evenings I have been having a problem backing up one database on an SQL 2000 Server. The SQL server has several DBs, but there's one that has been erroring with a STATUS 6 error. The following is the extract from last night's SQL backup failures report on the relevant SQL server (from the path - VERITAS\NetBackup\logs\mssql_backup_failures):

TIMESTAMP 20070124001510
MASTERSERVER MASTER01
CLIENT CLIENT_SQL01
INSTANCE CLIENT_SQL01
DATABASE DB01
OPERATION BACKUP
OBJECTTYPE DATABASE
STATUS -1
INFO Error in GetCommand : 0x80770004. The text follows:
INFO An abort request is preventing anything except termination actions.
INFO A panic close was issued to dbclient #0.
INFO ODBC message. ODBC return code <-1>, SQL State <01000>, Message Text
INFO
INFO Error found executing
ENDOPER TRUE

As yet I haven't emailed the DBA responsible for the server, but thought that one of you guys might have some ideas?

Thanks, Colin.

[DavidParker]

Colin,
Not sure if this will help, but take a look at this tech note:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/275115
STATUS CODE: 6 " the backup failed to back up the requested files"

[Dennis_Strom]

I do not know if this will help this problem but it might help in the future. The approach that I have started to take with database's is this. I have the database admin do a dump of his database then i back that up. It all started with an Oracle engineer. We were working trying to get netbackup top back it up, I showed him the stuff I learned here. He asked can I just dump the data base then have you back it up? I of course said yes. Whatever is in the filesystem I will backup.

This approach will most likely not work on huge databases, but I have been approaching more database admins about this. Initially they are hesitant but once they realize that I backup there stuff every night they seem to really like it since they know exactly what they are going to get and what they can do with it.

[DavidParker]

Good suggestion from Dennis there,
I actually do the same thing at my company (depending on whether or not the SQL server has enough disk space to dump the DB's, of course).

One other thing we do in combination with this is let the client machine initiate a 'user-backup' immediately after dumping the DB to a file. That way they don't have to wait for the nightly job to pick it up.

$0.00.5

[Dennis_Strom]

the nice thing about this approach is an agent is not required. So if you are in a cost driven environment, like I am, it is a good approach.

[DavidParker]

Yeah, our boss has said he will be happy to reduce licensing costs with this (not that we had that many SQL agent licenses, but hey).

I like this setup too because it puts more of the 'backup selection' responsibility onto the DBA; they get/have to chose exactly which of their DB's gets backed up instead of relying on me to catch everything (including the non-important stuff).

[Colin_North]

David & Dennis, thanks for your answers - I will get in touch with our DBA and go from there.

Colin.

[DavidParker]

Good deal, Colin!

And don't forget to update us later; we'd be happy to hear about how you resolved your issue.

[Colin_North]

David / Dennis,
Just throught I'd update you guys on this one. I have now got this fixed and all SQL Agent based backups for this particular server are working fine.

I looked through the Windows event logs on the relevant SQL server and found that the SQL Server service was being shut down just before Netbackup was trying to backup the database it kept failing on.

A quick email to the SQL DBA sorted it out - it turns out he had prevously had an SQL maintenance plan running that turned off the SQL Server service and restarted it later on. The maintenance plan was no longer required, so was removed and everyone is happy again.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Colin.

[Stumpr2]

Thank you for following up on your post. It will benefit others.