Backup Exec agent not responding

T

Trilithon

Registered
Hi,

I'm using a Mac OS X Server ver 10.4.3 and I've installed the Veritas MacOS X agent for remote backup called "be_agnt.tar". We have been able to run succesful backups for some time now (Using Backup Exec 9.1 for Windows Servers installed on a win2k server) but a few days ago I applied a service pack to the backup exec software (SP4) and now I can't connect to the remote agent from my backup exec server. This is only true for backups and restores since I still can make selections of what data to backup thru the agent. So it seems that something is blocking access to the agent service when issuing a backup or restore job. I've re-installed the agent but still no improvement.

Anyone with any ideas or similar problems?

Regards,
T
 
Trilithon said:
Hi,

I'm using a Mac OS X Server ver 10.4.3 and I've installed the Veritas MacOS X agent for remote backup called "be_agnt.tar". We have been able to run succesful backups for some time now (Using Backup Exec 9.1 for Windows Servers installed on a win2k server) but a few days ago I applied a service pack to the backup exec software (SP4) and now I can't connect to the remote agent from my backup exec server. This is only true for backups and restores since I still can make selections of what data to backup thru the agent. So it seems that something is blocking access to the agent service when issuing a backup or restore job. I've re-installed the agent but still no improvement.

Anyone with any ideas or similar problems?

Regards,
T
Click to expand...


First, make sure the agent proccess is really running (use top)

Second, find out what port it's listening on and see if netstat -an reveals if it's open

Third, you can use LSOF to see if the process is holding an open socket (use the network option) or use can use my utility, Mac HelpMate.

Fourth, you can use TCPflow to monitor the conversation between the agent and the server if one is really taking place or similarly use TCPdump.
I'm going to be in SunnyVale CA presenting some training next week, but I'll have some free time if you want to drop me a line - just download Mac Helpmate and click on the picture and you'll easily be able to reach me - dean [at] macworkshops.com. If we can hook up, I can troubleshoot remotely using a special tool I developed.
 
sourcehound said:
First, make sure the agent proccess is really running (use top)

Second, find out what port it's listening on and see if netstat -an reveals if it's open

Third, you can use LSOF to see if the process is holding an open socket (use the network option) or use can use my utility, Mac HelpMate.

Fourth, you can use TCPflow to monitor the conversation between the agent and the server if one is really taking place or similarly use TCPdump.
I'm going to be in SunnyVale CA presenting some training next week, but I'll have some free time if you want to drop me a line - just download Mac Helpmate and click on the picture and you'll easily be able to reach me - dean [at] macworkshops.com. If we can hook up, I can troubleshoot remotely using a special tool I developed.
Click to expand...

First, I ran ps -aco pid,command | grep agent.be
which told me that there were 2 pid's running and that is what to expect.

Second, running netstat -a told me that the server is litening on port 8192 which is the right port.

As far as the other suggestions I'll try you helpmate on monday when I get to work. I have a rather limited remote access to the server from home unfortunatly.

One thing that might be worth investigating is the ports used since I recall reading a veritas support article where they mention the agents use of the ndmp port (10000). This port is used my the veritas agent from version 10 and forward. I'm using 9.1 but after upgrading to 9.1 SP4a the troubles began so maybe veritas has incorporated the ndmp port in that update by mistake?

If this port is used by any other third-party software, the agents communication would fail. Now, I know that it isn't used on the Xserve but
I can see that the veritas beremote.exe is utilizing the ndmp port.

I tried to alter the "services" file on both the Xserve and the veritas server so that the ndmp port whas dedicated to port 8192. This did't solve the issue either so I changed it back. Maybe your helpmate can give me some answers...
 
I was just about to suggest looking at the ports. The primary concern here is restoration, though. Not to be harsh, but does this solution inspire confidence in you? It doesn't matter how much data you can backup, if you can't restore it, your in some trouble! :)

I know many more folks who have had this solution fail for them than work in their environments. Of course, you don't want to find out too late, when it becomes an issue of restoration. Also consider the support level you will receive in the case of issue.

As I tell my clients, a great backup solution can keep your job, but the first time it fails to restore, it can cost you your job as well!
 
Go3iverson said:
I was just about to suggest looking at the ports. The primary concern here is restoration, though. Not to be harsh, but does this solution inspire confidence in you? It doesn't matter how much data you can backup, if you can't restore it, your in some trouble! :)

I know many more folks who have had this solution fail for them than work in their environments. Of course, you don't want to find out too late, when it becomes an issue of restoration. Also consider the support level you will receive in the case of issue.

As I tell my clients, a great backup solution can keep your job, but the first time it fails to restore, it can cost you your job as well!
Click to expand...

I know that this isn't the best solution and if I 'd been the one to set it up it wouldn't look like this, for sure...:rolleyes:

The good news is that I've been asked to evaluate the need for an entirely new backup/archive solution for both environments but until I'm done with that I'm stuck with this so for now, I need to figure something out.

We have a tape library (40 tape AIT robot) that we utilize for both backup and archiving. This rob.lib. is connected to our SAN via FC-AL and managed by the Veritas Backup server. As for now when the agent isn't working, I just copy all the data from one volume on my OS X server to another volume on that server by hand every friday night and this isn't exactly perfect. I need the space on the target volume for other things than temporary backups.

I would like to be able to utilize the rob.lib. for my OS X backups as well, as I did when the agent was functioning.

First, do you know if I can use any built in command to make a full backup of the first volume on friday and on every other night just backup the data that's changed? You mentioned "ditto" last time for copying data but can it do more?

Second, what would you personally suggest I use instead of my current Veritas backup software? I'm leaning towards using diskbased nearline backups and thereafter tape for longterm archiving. I also would like to use the same hardware for both environments (Win & OS X).

Thanks
 
So, there are lots of options out there. There are built in tools that can handle disk to disk backups for you. Using things like rsync, psync and so forth can help you perform incremental backups.

The issue becomes dumping your data to tape.

There are two ways to consider backup. Some folks want to have a solution that spans all their platforms and needs. Some folks decide on a solution per platform, so that different 'experts' can be in charge of their solution.

Mac OS X has many solutions that provide cross platform backup. The two most popular enterprise solutions are Atempo's Time Navigator and BakBone's NetVault. Both are enterprise class solutions, which include plugins for many popular applications (Exchange, SQL, Oracle, etc). Another solution, which is less costly, but also doesn't quite have the feature list that these other two provide, is Tolis Group's BRU. All three have demos for you to try on their respective sites.

Disk to Disk to Tape solutions are truly the most robust you can implement and are no longer cost prohibitive. Moving your backups to Mac OS X can actually save your company money, as Xserve RAID storage is very low cost and provides high performance.

If you want to just find a way to dump your Mac OS X data to tape in a cheap, efficient manner, consider BRU. If you think that you may want to provide a complete solution for your whole company, Atempo and BakBone will provide things like synthetic/consolidated full backups. The concept behind these is that you take a full backup once, ideally to disk. You then take incremental backups thereafter. Once a week, or on your schedule, you create a new point in time backup, which will combine your last full backup with the incrementals, without having to pull a new full from your live servers. This is exceptionally helpful in completing backups in a short window and also will prolong the life of your tape library.

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a paper that's available on my site (as well as a few others, so don't get confused if you find it elsewhere!). You can get a copy at http://www.district13computing.com/docs/backup3.pdf

Hope this helps! :)

Michael
 
Trilithon,
Were you ever able to get this resolved? I am running into the same problem but with BUEexec version 10 and OS 10.4.6. The agent is running, I can select files from the selections dialog in BUExec, but I fail when I attempt to backup.

Any more insight would be greatly appreciated
Lupo
 
lupobutcher said:
Trilithon,
Were you ever able to get this resolved? I am running into the same problem but with BUEexec version 10 and OS 10.4.6. The agent is running, I can select files from the selections dialog in BUExec, but I fail when I attempt to backup.

Any more insight would be greatly appreciated
Lupo
Click to expand...


Hi Lupo,

I've managed to get things up and running again. In my case I solved it by replacing my accounts under "Network" -> "Logon Accounts" in BUExec with the exact same accounts. It seems that you just have to set them up again even if you use the same account credentials as before. In my case I also changed from the local admin account on my DC to the doamin admin account. According to the manuals this shouldn't be neccecary but I did it anyway and now it's working. Hope that this helps!

If you need more info I'd be glad to help.

Regards
T
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread... I would have resurrected a less-old thread here: http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-s...c-os-10-4-4-server.html?highlight=backup+exec but this one is already closed.

Anyway, I've been having this problem for some time now. For the life of me I can't get this thing to work. I'm still on 10d and just tried installing SP2 and that didn't help.

Basically it allows for me to select things to backup, but when the backup tries to run it fails. Mac is listening on 8192, BUT, Backup Exec is trying to talk on 10000. Ran a netmon and I can see it trying to talk to the mac on 10000. The mac client is still the legacy client and uses port 8192... why would backup exec use 10000?

I've tried the suggestions... changing login accounts, removing the password, adding passwords, everything... tried it on multiple macs... can't get this thing to work. I have yet to try a different media server, but the media server is working fine except for this problem.

Anyone else find a real definitive solution to this problem? Thanks!
 
I am also having issues with Backup Exec. In my case I am running Backup Exec 11D and I have an Intel based Xserve with an Xserve RAID attached. The problem I am running into is, I can backup everything on the root directory of the internal drive of the Xserve but I cannot get the RAID to backup successfully. It keeps complaining that I need to enable ACLs and extended attributes on the RAID, and I have no idea was those are. I did turn on Access Control Lists in the Workgroup Manager but the backup still doesn't work.

Any ideas?
 
My problem is weird. I can fix my problem, I just haven't done it yet.

I installed a fresh install of backup exec 10d on a different server and was able to successfully backup my Mac via the agent. I compared registry values between the two boxes, my old and the new fresh install and everything was almost the same, and I ended up changing the one or two values that were different to match. So all settings in the registry were the same. Still couldn't backup my Mac from my old server.

Then I used the beutility program to backup my database, then choose to "Recover Database" and choose "reload from base". This starts you off with a fresh database.

After that, I could now backup my Mac just fine. At the time I've reverted back to my database by this time choosing "Recover Database" and selecting "Reload from backup".

My Backup Exec server is an upgrade of a 8.x that was upgraded to 9.x and now 10d. Something must be whacked inside of the database.

The 'fix' for me is probably going to be to start over with a fresh database. I just haven't done that yet because I don't want to redo all of my jobs just yet. I would have never suspected the database would be the issue, but I guess it is. I did clear out all of my login accounts except for the main one, and that didn't help.

Repair and Rebuild Indicies on the old database both did not help.

I don't anticipate any of this will help you with your xserve problem, but if someone else has the same problems I've had in the past, perhaps they will find this post and can at least test to see if starting with a fresh database fixes their problem too.

EDIT:

I fixed the problem, without having to start with a fresh database. I had read the post from Trilithon but was only deleting and recreating the accounts I was trying to use to connect to the mac. Instead, this time I went through and recreated all of my logon accounts, even the ones I've had for years that I never even tried to use when connecting to the mac. I recreated them using the same accounts. This time now my Mac jobs work fine! That's really messed up. I wasn't even using those accounts to try and connect to the mac, but for some reason it didn't like something to do with them. Some sort of bug with Backup Exec, I'm guessing related to my upgrades of Backup Exec over the years.
 
I have same issue.

Windows 2003 running Backup Exec. Linux agent installed on Fedoracore 3 machine. Agent installed and runs with no errors. I can browse the linux tree for selecting to backup. But when it runs, it says

The resource could not be backed up because an error occurred while connecting to the Backup Exec for Windows Servers Remote Agent.

Agent is listening on port 10000 (ran beremote --log-console), is this same port Media machine is listening on?

This is a new install, no update, Version 11d.

Anything else I can check?

Here is the tail end from --log-console

4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : No Oracle SID's were discovered
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_FindDrives: Creating DLE: [ROOT]
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: entered -->\\ZAPHOD\users<--
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ******************************************************************************
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Initial DLE Tree
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : -->[ROOT]<-- address 0x0000095658C8 type 22 subtype 0 feature bits 0x03020601 0x00000000 dataId 49 bedsId 49 bedsVer 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : End of List
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_ResolveDevName: [\]
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: resolve returns -->\\ZAPHOD<-- as the machineName
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: and it's me!
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: but we couldn't be found
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ====>VX_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_CreateTempDLE: Creating DLE: \\ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: trying to attach to ourselves
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ====>VX_AttachToDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Resetting hard link info
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Hard link info has been reset
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_AttachToDLE: initializing mount list
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_AttachToDLE: create mount list returned 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : BlowupChildren: Did not find DLE \\ZAPHOD\[ROOT] in list. Creating new.
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : No Oracle SID's were discovered
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_SurrogateCalling: ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Attach to: \\ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: attached to ourselves
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: didn't find -->\\ZAPHOD\users<--
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: detaching from ourselves
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Detach from: \\ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Resetting hard link info
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Hard link info has been reset
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ******************************************************************************
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Modified DLE Tree
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : -->[ROOT]<-- address 0x0000095658C8 type 22 subtype 0 feature bits 0x03020601 0x00000000 dataId 49 bedsId 49 bedsVer 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : -->\\ZAPHOD<-- address 0x000009565C80 type 22 subtype 0 feature bits 0x03020603 0x00004002 dataId 49 bedsId 49 bedsVer 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : -->\\ZAPHOD\[ROOT]<-- address 0x0000095900F8 type 22 subtype 0 feature bits 0x03020601 0x00000000 dataId 49 bedsId 49 bedsVer 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : End of List
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_BlowOutMachine: returning 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : FS_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 1 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 2 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 3 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 4 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 11 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : RMAN_CreateTempDLE: Function called
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 14 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ====>VX_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_CreateTempDLE: Creating DLE: \\ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : 22 = 0x00000000
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : ====>VX_AttachToDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Resetting hard link info
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : Hard link info has been reset
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:03 2007 : VX_AttachToDLE: initializing mount list
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_AttachToDLE: create mount list returned 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : BlowupChildren: Did not find DLE \\ZAPHOD\[ROOT] in list. Creating new.
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : No Oracle SID's were discovered
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_SurrogateCalling: ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : Attach to: \\ZAPHOD
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : FS_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 1 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 2 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 3 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 4 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 11 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : RMAN_CreateTempDLE: Function called
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 14 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : ====>VX_CreateTempDLE
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 22 = 0xE000FE23
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : 34 = 0x00000000
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : ERROR: CreateBSD: Couldn't find \\ZAPHOD\users
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : startBackup: CreateBSD() failed!
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : Backup Job Stop(10) - Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : VX_RemoveDLE: DestroyDLE()
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : @@@@@@@MyCloseSocket called with sockfd = 5(0x5) retval = 0
4a1ebb0 Thu Feb 22 13:53:04 2007 : @@@@@@@MyCloseSocket called with sockfd = -1(0xffffffff) retval = -1

Ragards,

Durwin
 
I hate to resurrect such an old post, but I had this same problem recently and found this post while searching for a solution, only to be dismayed that there was none. After some digging I found a solution:

Even though I was able to browse the agent's file system real-time from the BE console, jobs failed every time. Running the agent in debug mode with -d revealed that the password stored in the agent.cfg file is not transmitted as-is - Veritas changes the case and may also strip out special characters (-, _, etc.). Setting a new password using all lowercase with no special characters and updating the "connect as" logon account within BE console allowed backups and restores to run properly. Hope this helps!
Vince
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top