SnapManager Exchange or SQL Service failed to start

or why .NET-Applications need long to start: "A common cause that I have seen often recently is Certificate Revocation List (CRL) checking when generating Publisher Evidence for Code Access Security (CAS)."[1]

In my case the Exchange Sever didn't had anymore direct access to the internet. The CRL checking during the SM Serverice Startup failed. This took longer than 30 seconds and causes the service start to time out. Adding some lines to the SnapMgrService.exe.config prevent the service to do the online CRL check. No further timeouts, services starts.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <runtime>
        <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>
    </runtime>
    ...

Same issue some month's later with a SnapManager SQL installation. Good to have a cheat sheet for the most wired thing online.

[1] Best Practice - <GeneratePublisherEvidence> in ASPNET.CONFIG

Backup Exec 2010 - Some Hints

LU1805 - LiveUpdate was unable to find any products to Update

• Open the command prompt and browse to the following directory {DEFAULT.EN_US} C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\
• Run BeUpdateOps.exe -AddBE -OptOut 
• Run Live Update

Found on the symantec enterprise website[1] (TECH66265)


NDMP Backup to disk to tape

Can cause troubles... In case of troubles use 2 jobs: one ndmp to tape, one ndmp to disk



... continued


[1] http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH66265

How to backup SQL Server 2008 Express

I’m facing a lot of situations where customers prefer to use a bunch of free SQL Server 2008 Express or SQL Server 2005 Express Editions - mostly installed by every Client-Server-App they use - instead of using a paid but more powerful SQL Server.  The last time I had to use an Express Edition and implemented the backup for the databases I took the time to review my SQL backup script.

 

How to backup SQL Server 2008 (Express Edition) using the command line - the whole script is downloadable below:

• Adjust the parameters within the sql file:

• @BACKUP_PATH = <Backup target path> - the path where the sql server creates the media set for the backup
• @MEDIASET_PREFIX = <Backup filename prefix> - Used to give backups meaningful names. The files get automatically a timestamp attached.
• @RETENTION = <number of backups to keep> - Specifies the of backup sets to keep.

• Call sqlcmd from a command line or trigger a batch job calling sqlcmd and pass through the sql script doing the backup for you:

sqlcmd -i <sqlfile> -o <logfile>

-i <sqlfile>: this sql-file to be executed
-o <logfile>: a log file for stdout redirection

Whats done within the sql script (You don't need to care about this - everything is put into the script):

• Create a media set

EXEC sp_addumpdevice @devtype, @logicalname,@physname

@devtype: In our case set to 'disk' as we do a backup to disk not to tape.
@logicalname: the name of the mediaset created using the defined @MEDIASET_PREFIX and the current timestamp
@physname: the path and filename of the mediaset, simply the backup file

• Iterarte through all online databases - offline databases cannot be backed up and do a backup to the created media set

DECLARE databaseNamesCursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT 
        name
    FROM
        master.dbo.sysdatabases
    WHERE
        name != 'tempdb'
        AND DATABASEPROPERTYEX(name, 'Status') = 'ONLINE'
OPEN databaseNamesCursor;

FETCH NEXT FROM databaseNamesCursor INTO @databaseName;

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
    /* create a backup of the current database*/
    BACKUP DATABASE @databaseName TO @mediaset;
    FETCH NEXT FROM databaseNamesCursor INTO @databaseName;
END

CLOSE databaseNamesCursor;
DEALLOCATE databaseNamesCursor;

• Delete not needed backups 

sp_dropdevice @logicalname, @delfile='DELFILE'

@logicalname: the name of the mediaset to delete
@delfile: if set to 'delfile' the physical file behind the mediaset will be deleted

Download the files: 

- link broken, suggest  you send me an email if you need the scripts -

The owner () of job does not have server access.

New week new troubles: SnapManager SQL created some backup jobs within the SQL Server 2005 - the job itself could not be run/executed.

The owner (...) of job <Job Name> does not have server access.

This strange behaviour i got only with SQL Server 2005. With SQL Server 2008 i could not reproduce it.  The user who created the job and was the owner of the job had SQL sysadmin role assigned. I found some hints to this behaviour: a restart of the SQL Server Agent should work. In my case i didn't work that easy. 

If i change the owner of the job to the builtin user sa the job is able to run...

It would be nice to understand the issue....

SnapManager SQL RPC error on initial configuration wizard setup

 If you get the following error during the initial configuration wizard you should verify if all required SQL Server services are running even if the databases are running fine. Some of the services are set to manual start by default.

[SQL-DMO API Error]: The RPC server is unavailable

SnapManager VI fails to create snapshots

Currently troubleshooting the backup of a brand new VMware 4.1.0 installation... 

VMware shows up with the following error:

Cannot create a quiesced snapshot because the create snapshot operation exceeded the time limit for holding off I/O in the frozen virtual machine

After some research[1][2] i found a hint to follow these steps:

1. Backup the following regkey: _HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem _
2. Erase the regkey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216} an below
3. Reboot
4. Verify that things are working by running

Even if it might worke well you never should follow these steps!

Better: Uninstall the VMware Tools and Reinstall them using the custom installation option. Disable the VMware VSS provider component and retry the backup.


----
[1] http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11987
[2] https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=2014932