BESR Reboots Server When Backing Up

[Systems_Admin6]

I've been running LSR on another server of ours with no issues, so I asked for this newer product (BESR 6.5) when buying this new server. Seeing as there doesn't seem to be any direct support for this product, I'm starting to question that decision.

It's a pretty straight-forward setup. Windows Server 2003, no bells or whistles, just set as a straight file-sharing server. When running BESR backup, it will go about 4-10GB into the backup and then reboot the server. And then the server hangs during the reboot process. Sometimes it'll eventually come up, sometimes it won't. The only errors I get are 'unexpected restart', 'device driver error' (different types of external HD's), or a Symantec program error. Symantec logs don't show anything at all, just the job start time.

I'm running various tests now, but the drives themselves seem to be fine... Any ideas?

[Markus_Koestler]

Hi, we had the same problem with Version 6.0.2.
Our problem was, that at the time we did the backup, a full virus scan on the server was still running. We simply schedult the virus scan to run earlier and the 'unexpected restarts' stopped.

[Systems_Admin6]

I haven't scheduled any AV checks to run on this server yet. I'll try disabling the real-time AV checking and see if that has any effect.

Last night I ran BESR on my system drives for a total of 7GB, and it backed up successfully. I then uninstalled BESR and installed LSR 3.0 for a test run. It generated a program execution error as soon as I tried to run it on my data drives. Maybe I'll reinstall it and try to run it on the system drives tonight to see if it works, then try reinstalling BESR. I also did a manual XCOPY of the data drives to the external HD I'm using. It copied all of the files (except ones in use) with no problem.

Unfortunately, I can't tell LSR/BESR to 'only' backup a 7GB portion of the system drives to test. The only other difference is that my system drives are twin SATA Raptors running in RAID1 off the motherboard, and the data drives are a RAID5 array of U320 SCSI drives. The system warns me that there won't be a driver present for the array controller if I had to do a restore, but that shouldn't make a difference on backup. Especially since the backup is allowed to start at all.

[Systems_Admin6]

Well, I stopped the RealTime AV checking and ran the backup last night. 45 minutes into it I was pretty confident the problem was solved, so I went home... and then couldn't connect. It had crashed 55GB into the backup. The best it's ever made it, but still not working.

[Systems_Admin6]

With AV uninstalled, it hasn't hard-crashed since, but still restarts. It also has problems completing image creation, and gives me multiple DEP errors with services after the reboot. Normal rebooting works fine.

I was thinking a physical or driver error... but I tried Hard Drive Image Backup from www.acronis.com, and it seems to work for me. I'm seeing if my vendor will take back the BESR so I can migrate over. If it works...

[Systems_Admin6]

This should be the final installment here. I finally got BESR 6.5 working. The way I see it, there were three things I did differently that solved the issue.

1) I updated the BIOS of my Adaptec 2130S U320 SCSI RAID controller.

2) I fully uninstalled/reinstalled everything at the console. Previously I'd switched to using Terminal Services so I could do things from my desk.

3) I disabled cooling fan speed control on the motherboard. Although there were no warnings or indications of excessive heat, I noticed that one CPU fan stayed completely shut down with fan control enabled.

I'm not about to go back and fail-test each one, but my money is on #3.

[techno_nerd]

Hi all,

For this one, you may want to do the following:

1> Uninstall both SAV and BESR.
2> Install BESR and open a DOS window and run FIXINSTALL.BAT in the root of the BESR folder.
3> Reinstall SAV.
4> Reboot.

This should help out with this issue.

Thanks,

Technonerd

[Systems_Admin6]

After seeming to run fine, the problem returned. Every so often, I would logon to the server to get an 'Unexplained System Error' which forced a reboot of the server. Over the next few weeks, I brought the temperature down, which seemed to help. I then told BESR to break the backup into 50GB chunks, which seemed to help a little more. The problem would reoccur intermittently, however. Symantec wouldn't help me because I hadn't purchased their support, even though this has been an issue since it was new.

I then got in touch with Adaptec, who had yet another firmware update available. Between the latest firmware for their controller and the smaller backup files, it has been working for the past 2 weeks without error, even with the temperature raised back up. They also have a newer Windows driver for their controller, but I haven't installed it as of yet.

I'm keeping my eye on it.

[Bill_Felt]

Hello,

I have to say I'm appreciative that you stuck with the product through all the problems you have listed in this thread.  You appear to have found solutions to most of the problems (hopefully all) that you have encountered.

I am going to forward this information to our support department and ask them to create a KB document on it.

I know that Backup Exec System Recovery is very disk I/O intensive, and likely pushed the RAID controller pretty hard.

Thanks.