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Symantec System Recovery and NAS drives

JonRX00
Level 3
Partner

Hi Guys,

 

I currently have 2 clients which both run Small Business Server 2011 standard.

They are both HP Server's.

They both run Symantec System Recovery 2011, both have NAS drives attached.

We currently have it set up so that the Server's backup to the NAS's, and then an off-site copy is created to an external hard drive.

Recently we have been experiencing issues with the Server 'hanging' a lot, especially when we try to RDP into the Server's. Shortly followed by a full network crash.

The only thing we can find in common is the above things, i.e. SBS 2011, SSR 2011, NAS, and external HDD off-site copies.

Has anyone else had this issue, or could they possibly provide any insight into the problem.

 

Any help would be of great value. Thanks.

10 REPLIES 10

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

Is it hanging during the backup or at random intervals?

Shortly followed by a full network crash

What exactly do you mean by this comment?

JonRX00
Level 3
Partner

Thanks for your reply.

'Shortly followed by a network crash'

By this I mean that the Server then becomes completely unresponsive to any sort of imput. Printing stops working. DNS stops working. DHCP stops working. It is not until we reboot that the system becomes resposive again, or unplug the external off-site backup.

 

Backup is trying to run when it becomes unresponsive.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

Backup is trying to run when it becomes unresponsive.

So are you saying that it is unresponsive even before the backup starts??

EttinH
Level 3

is anyone logged on to the servers at the time of backup? if not are they properly logging off or simply closing the session?  Reason I ask is because I've had similar experiences with Windows XP where a user logs on, leaves their system which in turn locks their computer eventually.  It's a normal process for, however I have noticed that it does affect the backup if it is currently running, making the system unusable.  I have verified that it is infact the backup which is causing this issue as I was able to kill the backup process remotely (took a while).  Once completed, normal operations resumed.

 

Also, when your backups run, are they running at 100%?  you can see this from View > Progress and Performance.  If the performance bar is all the way to the right, Fast, it is running at 100% which consumes the most resources.  Being that this is on a server, I would suggest reducing that to a lower level.

JonRX00
Level 3
Partner

Thanks for the prompt responses.

 

Yes. We always properly log off, and no disconnected sessions are running.

I had not tried it before, but I have now turned down the Performance on the backup.

In response to Chris Riley, I am not sure if the backup is already running when it freezes, as I cannot log on to check.

We have been able to narrow it down. The Server becomes responsive the exact second that the Off-site Backup drive is unplugged.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

We have been able to narrow it down. The Server becomes responsive the exact second that the Off-site Backup drive is unplugged.

I assume you mean unresponsive?

Obvious question; is the offsite copy still running when the drive is removed?

Have you tried using the Windows 'safely remove hardware' option to see if this helps?

JonRX00
Level 3
Partner

No, sorry. I mean it becomes Responsive.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

So if you dont attach the offsite drive, you dont see any problems??

Might be worth letting the backup run without offsite for a few days to see if this really is the cause or not.

JonRX00
Level 3
Partner

Yeah, we have had it running like this for a few days and the backups run fine, and we are also not seeing any Server freezing or problems.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

OK, so next thing I would try is to just connect the offsite drive but actually disable the offsite copy.

In other words, the offsite copy is not going to run but the offsite drive will still be attached. This should tell us if the issue is only with the drive itself being attached, not related to the actual offsite copy job running.

If you see the same problem here, I would recommend contacting either the hardware vendor of the USB drive and/or Microsoft. You might be looking at a driver issue.