Disobedient NTBackup will not run Scheduled Task

[Batman]

Has anybody else had a problem with scheduled backups not running?

We have several servers running 2003 and all of them backup to AIT tapes. There's one I set up recently that will perform a manual backup perfectly everytime but if I schedule the backup it does nothing.

I have restarted the task scheduler service and I also found an article suggesting that having rdp sessions left logged in could be a problem, so I tried killing off all but the console. Still no luck.

We do have two virtual machines running in VMWare on this server but I think we've had problems since before we started using VMs.

Anyone had/have similar problems? Any tips I can try?

[kmount]

Checked the event viewer to see whether it does anything or just doesn't listen to the schedule?

I assume manually it works OK?

Have you specified an account to be used and then changed the password maybe?

[meastaugh1]

What does the task scheduler log say?

[laserblazer]

Is it coming back with a media cannot be found error? There are a few threads on this ntbackup B2D scheduled job problems

[andy_d]

Interestingly we've been having what sounds like the exact same problem since we got an AIT3 Turbo drive in one of our servers

I choose the drives to backup, set it as a scheduled task and thought, well, that'll be that...

Checked the next morning, and got a blank log... OK, so I looked at it again, and thought, ah right yeah, i'll add /um onto the end of the task, so it'll pick up the free media.

So I thought, let's see what happens with this... and it worked fine on the first day, but isn't working properly now. It seems to generate a blank log file after 30 minutes.

So I thought, fine, until I sort it, I'll just set it backing up manually, by choosing to run the scheduled task.. Which works!... backs up fine, verifies fine, generates the log file fine, which is what's confusing... BUT when I did this the other day, it sat "mounting the media" for 30 minutes, then quit.

So I choose to do the backup on the tape that was in, by not choosing to manually run the scheduled task (which HAD been working fine by choosing to manually run it) and it worked.

So it's just the schuedule that's being a pain.... odd....

[Batman]

Checked the event viewer to see whether it does anything or just doesn't listen to the schedule?

I assume manually it works OK?

Have you specified an account to be used and then changed the password maybe?

Yeah, the backup logs aren't much help because sometimes it creates one and sometimes it doesn't. Last one created said "Cannot locate the specified media or backup device". There is definitely a tape in there and, as you say, manual backups work without a hitch.

Task Scheduler logs show the backup job starting and completing 20-30 seconds later with the message "The task completed with an exit code of (0)", which I am told is supposed to mean it was successful.

I was using the administrator account, I'm now using a backup user account but I get the same results with both. I don't think it's a user problem.

[laserblazer]

I've tried loads of things to try and fix this but it is still intermittent. So now, the Office Manager sets it off manually before she leaves. Think we might invest in Veritas when we get some money.

[OutToLunch]

How are you setting up the scheduling? I don't have AIT/tape but had major major problems getting ntbackup to play nice directly with scheduled tasks. Solution was to transfer the commandline for ntbackup to a .bat file then schedule this running. May be worth a shot, has worked perfectly for me ever since.

See Server 2003, NTBackup and Scheduled Tasks for my original Q&A

[Polski]

We had all kinds of problems until we changed the scheduled task to include the following command.

/um

Switch: /um Description: Finds the first available media, formats it, and uses it for the current backup operation. Use the /p switch to designate a device-type media pool when you use the /um switch so that Backup searches for the appropriate type of media, such as 4mm DDS. When you use the /um switch, Backup searches the following media pools for available media: Free pool, Import pool, Unrecognized pool, and Backup pool. When available media is found, the search stops and the media is formatted and then used without prompting you for input. This command is not applicable to tape loaders and you should only use it if you have a standalone tape device. The /UM switch should be at the end of the command line and should not be enclosed in quotes.

[Polski]

Daft question, but is your media pre-formatted?

[MPorter]

Hi

Don't know if this is relevant, but I remember we needed to use ntbackup to back up some stuff for a while. I noticed that if I used mstsc to log in to the server, and create the scheduled task, it wouldn't run. If I was sat at the server itself, all was well. This was backup to file (external drive), rather than to tape.

Maria

[Batman]

Yup, that's what I found in the MS article I said about.

Thankfully, the /um switch seems to have done the trick for me. Thanks for your help everyone

[Luiz]

Ok,

I understud about the /um at the end of command line to backups in tapes devices. But i have daily automated backups in diferent tasks (one task for each day of week) to generate monday.bkf, tuesday.bkaf, etc...

The tasks are identical and was created with the same user, using the same user for the job. Some days work, some days not. In my schedule tasks the status is the same for all jobs (0x0) and in schedule log the task run for just few seconds (5 or 6 seconds).

Any sugestions?

Sorry about my bad english, i'm from Brasil and it's my first post.

Thanks everybody