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On one of our main servers (a Poweredge R510 running Server 2008 R2 Standard 6.1.7601 SP1 Build 7601), we run Symantec Backup Exec 2010 R3 (Version 13.0 Rev. 5204, 64-bit). Each night, we have a scheduled task to back up our main shares/drives/etc (roughly 1.8TB) to an IBM Ultrium-HH5 (LTO5) tape drive.

Here's the fun part; Every day the backup 'waits' to be seen in order to finish. For a more detailed description, what I mean is that the schedule runs perfectly fine. The scheduled task's properties look fine (permissions, selections, notifications, alerts, etc.) and it starts perfectly each night. The job rate stays around 3.2GB/min (on average, sometimes faster) and usually completes the backup and verification process in about 8.5 - 9 hours.

BUT, the job only finishes if Backup Exec is open. It can sit at a backed up byte count of 1.8TB with the elapsed time spilling well past 12 hours, but as soon as you open Backup Exec the job will change its status to 'Successful' within 15 minutes (and subsequently eject the tape). If you don't open the application, the job will stay in limbo indefinitely.

I've been researching this issue, but without much luck so far. Do you guys have any ideas, thoughts, suggestions of what I should check, etc? Let me know if there's any more information I can supply.

Any help would be appreciated on this bizarre issue!

Thanks~

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions George and Pauska, but no dice unfortunately.

EDIT #2: Solved! There was an alert that was requiring acknowledgement before it finished the job, but the alert never popped up when Backup Exec was open. We changed the alert to automatically clear after 1 minute and now the backups are finishing on their own.

Korbman
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Backup Exec is supposed to run just fine without the GUI open, so I'd start checking the service that it runs under. Perhaps it's lacking some permission(s)? Symantec has a pretty extensive knowledgebase where you can find a lot of information regarding troubleshooting.

One quick test could be to set the service that backup exec runs under to allow interaction with the desktop.. no idea if it'll work though.

Scott Pack
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pauska
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  • Exactly, which is why it's such a curious issue. I've been checking into the backup exec services to see if there's any issues there and everything looks good. I'll give your advice a shot and let you know how it goes. – Korbman May 10 '12 at 19:08
  • I see you've edited your answer that this didn't work, but I'll add a comment that it sounds very much like a service issue. I would try creating a new account, configure it as documented here: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO22515, and then change Backup Exec services to use that new account and see what happens. – Jeff Miles May 11 '12 at 14:34
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Also, check your Priority and Availability, Job Priority is set to Highest, leave Availability unchecked and see if you check Enable auto cancellation in X number of hours.

George
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  • It's currently set to 'High' priority, but I'll bump it up and see if that helps at all. I shy away from enabling the auto cancel for now, just because I want to see if I can get it to stop automatically instead of killing it after a certain amount of time. – Korbman May 10 '12 at 19:24
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Solved! There was an alert that was requiring acknowledgement before it finished the job, but the alert never popped up when Backup Exec was open. We changed the alert to automatically clear after 1 minute and now the backups are finishing on their own.

If anyone else ever has this problem, just be sure to check out your alert settings!

Korbman
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