Symantec Backup Exec Reference Notes

First version: Year 2014
Last Updates @ 12 Sep, 2021

Recently we upgraded our SAP infrastructure with new IBM xSeries server and also replace the old IBM tape library TS3200 with TS100. In previous Windows 2003, we were using classic NTBACKUP solution to take backup on TAPE library system, but with the new windows 2008 R2 upgrade, we found that that the tape drive support have been removed from the new Server Backup tool. Therefore we were looking for some reliable backup solution which can facilitate our tape library. Finally after searching a lot, we selected SYMANTEC BACKUP EXEC 2012 (with SP4 and latest patches) as our backup solution. Last year We tested its demo and it was fulfilling our requirements and fitting under our budget. I did it’s installation and it went smooth without any errors, but it took me few days to understand how it actually works. Its GUI interface looks pretty much simple and easy to navigate, but I found it very typical to configure Tape Library for auto loading function according to job/day.

Following is a short reference notes I am posting. I will keep updating with day to day tasks and issues I face and how I manage to solve them. Symantec have great number of guides, postings at there site too, but sometimes its hard to find the correct solution when its kinda urgent.

🙂

LIST OF TOPICS

1- The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during freeze operation (9) [4th June, 2014]

2-  Simplified Disaster Recovery: Howto exclude some Folders with SDR ON  [5th June, 2014]

3- Backup Exec (2012 SP4) Services Credentials Lost on every Reboot [6th June, 2014]

4- V-79-57344-42009 – Failed to load the configuration xml file,  [6th June, 2014]

5- Barcode Labeling   [10th June, 2014]

6- Exclude a sub-folder name “xyz” or end with .ft , from every where in specific folder/drive. [15thth July, 2014]

7- Remote Agent Service not starting at Client PC/Server / NDMP Port already in use error

8- error=V-79-57344-33967 / Final error: 0xe00084af – The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed.

9- Account privilege Error when installing Backup Exec

10- Stuck on ‘Discovering Resources’

11- Using SDR (Disaster recovery) restore to other hardware using Tape (31-Aug-2022)

12- A communications failure has occurred with a System State resource

1- The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during freeze operation (9)

If backup failed with following error:

———————————————————————-
V-79-57344-6523314.0.1798.1364eng-systemstate-backupV-79-57344-65233ENRetailWindows_V-6.1.7601_SP-1.0_PL-0x2_SU-0x112_PT-0x3 – Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on: “\\YOURSERVER\System?State”. Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Snapshot technology error (0xE000FED1): A failure occurred querying the Writer status. See the job log for details about the error.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

Writer Name: COM+ Class Registration Database, Writer ID: {542DA469-D3E1-473C-9F4F-7847F01FC64F}, Last error: The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during freeze operation (9).

Writer Name: Windows Management Instrumentation, Writer ID: {A6AD56C2-B509-4E6C-BB19-49D8F43532F0}, Last error: The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during freeze operation (9).

The following volumes are dependent on resource: “C:” “E:” .
The snapshot technology used by VSS for volume C: – Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).
The snapshot technology used by VSS for volume E: – Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 (Version 1.0.0.7).
14.0.1798.1364eng-systemstate-backupENRetailWindows_V-6.1.7601_SP-1.0_PL-0x2_SU-0x112_PT-0x3

        Job ended: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 at 2:49:03 AM
Completed status: Failed
Final error: 0xe000fed1 – A failure occurred querying the Writer status. See the job log for details about the error.

———————————————————————-

issue this command and see if any writer is failing

vssadmin list writers

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if System Writer is TIMED OUT, then simply a system restart would fix the error auto. In my case , windows applied some updates, and when I rebooted the server, it fixed the above issue.

Writers Non-retryable error

In backup exec report, I was seeing following error

The job failed with the following error: A communications failure has occurred with a System State resource.

upon running, following cmd,

vssadmin list writers

I was seeing following error,

vssadmin 1.1 – Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Waiting for responses.These may be delayed if a shadow copy is being prepared.

Writer name: ‘Oracle VSS Writer – R3D’Writer Id: {26d02976-b909-43ad-af7e-62a4f625e372}Writer Instance Id: {590dbfff-51b9-478b-a83f-5345014ebc3b}State: [1] Stable Last error: Non-retryable error

To settle this, Goto Services, and restart “OracleVssWriterR3D” service. and re-run the “vssadmin list writers” command. Hopefully the error will not appear. (your db instance name may differ, adjust accordingly)

2-  Simplified Disaster Recovery: Howto exclude some Folders with SDR ON

Symantec provide Simplified Disaster Recovery option which you can use to restore the whole backup to bare metal system (from scratch) using SDR boot CD. However SDR forces you to backup every critical components including boot drive, system state, or any folder that SDR thinks its critical. But sometimes even excluding a non-critical component can turn off the SDR (for example in my case I was excluding a ‘backup folder’ from G: drive and SDR was turning off , possibly it was thinking that the whole G: drive was critical component for SDR.

For Example:

So in order to forcefully exclude it, I had to use the following WORKAROUND by adding the drive entry in the REGISTRY manually. IMO, So pathetic that SYMANTEC have not added this option in its Backup Exec GUI, because playing with the windows registry can be very dangerous for normal administrators.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Simplified System Protection\User-Defined Exclusion Resources\G:

.

3- Backup Exec (2012 SP4) Services Credentials Lost on every Reboot

This was very annoying that on every reboot I had to enter my domain admin credentials in the Backup Exec Services Section Otherwise I receive “Failed to start service dueto Logon Failure”. It seems BE keeps forgetting the credentials or not storing them.

Solution#1

Make sure the account you are using to manage Backup Exec, must have Rights to logon as service (and few others, read the Symantec rights assignment article) add the account in your Domain controller group policy / local security policy / users right assignment. After addition, force update using gpupdate on both ends, first server then client,

Solution#2

To sort this issue, I used BEUTILITY provided with backup exec installation.

For Windows 2008 64bit, Goto C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec and Open BEUTILITY.EXE

Add your backup exec server in the list (known computers group ,

After adding, Right click on the Server and click con CHANGE SERVICE ACCOUNT

Enter your domain admin account or any account with equivalent rights and click OK,
As showed in the images below …

Now restart and check if the services are starting properly 🙂

At least this tricked worked for me

.

4- V-79-57344-42009 – Failed to load the configuration xml file [6th June, 2014]

Using Symantec backup Exec 2012 Sp4 , When I take full backup (SDR ON) , it completes successfully but with following error:

Job ended: Thursday, June 05, 2014 at 9:31:29 AM Completed status: Completed with exceptions

Backup- MYSERVER-79-57344-42009 – Failed to load the configuration xml file.
C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Catalogs\AGPSAPDEV\CatalogProcessTemporaryFolder\{6BCA5C76-6547-430D-A0D5-37251330D96D}\p2v.xml

To solve this, I applied Backup Exec 2012 Revision 1798 Hotfix 216746 and problem got solved. Download it and apply , Also dont forget to update the remote agents as well (via using BE GUI). I had to reboot the BE server also after applying this fix.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH216746

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 5- BARCODE LABELING  [10th June, 2014]

In our company we have IBM TS3100 Library (which ahve 24 Cartridges slots). Using BE, I wanted to Auto Label every cartridge after the backup. I also used INVENTORY option, but it took much time. During the BE inventory process, the tape is taken from its slot, put into the tape drive to have their internal labels read and then returned to their slots.  This process is repeated for each tape and hence the inventory process for a TS3100 can take a long time. For my IBM TS3100 tape library with 24 tapes (only 5 Used) , an inventory of the 5 slots will take around 15-20 minutes. The tape library can identify a tape from its barcode label without having to read the internal label in the tape drive or doing other action.
When there is a need to update the status of the slots in the library in BE, you can use scan instead of inventory if you have barcode labels.  What scan will do is to read the barcode labels and it is done within a couple of seconds.  Otherwise, you would have to do an inventory

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how
Some Snapshots.

.

You can download the BARCODE GENERATOR from following link.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how

Just make sure that you use only 8 Digits code, and the code must be end with L5 letter. (FOR IBM LTO5 drives)

Example:

MONDAYL5

.

For LTO5 cartridge sticker, I used following size for printing the above label.

0.56
2.75

Put your tapes with the new barcode labels and do a scan of the entire library.Make sure you don’t have a mix of tapes with and without barcode labels.

6- Exclude a sub-folder name “xyz” from every where in specific folder/drive. [25th June, 2014]

Recently I upgraded my file server from Windows 2003 NT.Backup to Windows 2008 R2 Backup Exec 2014. I have a following directory structure …

    MAIN_FOLDER

–  User1
–  Daily_Data
–  Junk_Data

–  User2
–  Daily_Data
–  Junk_Data

–  User3
–  Daily_Data
–  Junk_Data

and so on , users numbers are around 300. I want to exclude “Junk_Data” from every folder, Exclude them one by one is a lengthy task. I exclude Junk_Data from every sub folder by defining following criteria.

MAIN_FOLDER\*\Junk_data
(which means for every user folder Exclude junk_data)

Exclude all sub-folders name end with .ft from every where in specific folder/drive. [15th July, 2014]

Lotus domino have every users folder design data which are not necessary to backup. to exclude every folder which have .ft in end, use following.