Re: ntabckup fails randomly in 2003 (run from batch)

I would try scheduling this job in the context of a ScheduleOnly Admin that never logs on.


On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:24:40 +0200, Tomasz Chmielewski <> wrote:

>I'm having a problem with ntbackup in Windows 2003 - it fails/hangs
>randomly when it is run from the command prompt or a scheduler.
>
>I wanted to run it from a batch script (separate backup to a file for
>C:, E:, systemstate etc.)., as a scheduled job (every night).
>
>Unfortunately, ntbackup fails/hangs randomly - it happens on 4 Windows
>2003 servers (one Exchange/AD, one AD, one file server, one SQL server,
>all running terminal server).
>
>It also fails/hangs randomly when I run it from a command prompt manually.
>There are no system logs about a failed job, ntbackup log is empty, and
>ntbackup GUI itself doesn't show up (even when I run the script from the
>command line manually).
>
>Here are the parameters with which I start ntbackup in a bat script (it
>is similar for all 4 servers):
>
>
>set SERVERNAME=SRV1
>set BACKUPTYPE=differential
>p:\soft\pstools\pskill ntbackup
>
>start /wait ntbackup backup C:\ /M %BACKUPTYPE% /SNAPn /F
>"F:\backup\%date%-%SERVERNAME%-C-%BACKUPTYPE%.bkf" /L:s /J
>"%SERVERNAME%-C-%BACKUPTYPE%-%date%"
>
>start /wait ntbackup backup E:\ /M %BACKUPTYPE% /SNAPn /F
>"F:\backup\%date%-%SERVERNAME%-E-%BACKUPTYPE%.bkf" /L:s /J
>"%SERVERNAME%-E-%BACKUPTYPE%-%date%"
>
>start /wait ntbackup backup "@F:\backup\F.bks" /M %BACKUPTYPE% /SNAPn
>/F "F:\backup\%date%-%SERVERNAME%-F-%BACKUPTYPE%.bkf" /L:s /J
>"%SERVERNAME%-F-%BACKUPTYPE%-%date%"
>
>start /wait ntbackup backup "@F:\backup\exchange.bks" /M %BACKUPTYPE%
>/SNAPn /F "F:\backup\%date%-%SERVERNAME%-exchange-%BACKUPTYPE%.bkf"
>/L:s /D "%SERVERNAME%-exchange-%BACKUPTYPE%-%date%" /J
>"%SERVERNAME%-exchange-%BACKUPTYPE%-%date%"
>
>start /wait ntbackup backup systemstate /M normal /SNAPn /F
>"F:\backup\%date%-%SERVERNAME%-systemstate.bkf" /L:s /J
>"%SERVERNAME%-systemstate-%date%"
>
>
>It fails randomly on C:\, E:\, F:\, exchange or systemstate (on any of
>the 4 servers) - the command prompt shows ntbackup process started
>(start /wait ntbackup backup...), but no GUI appears, no log, no
>ntbackup.log, no .bkf file created, it just hangs like that forever (but
>the Task Manager show that ntbackup is running).
>
>
>
>With the same parameters it doesn't hang/fail on Windows 2000 (but the
>/SNAPn function isn't used then, as it's not available in 2000).
>
>I triad using ntbackup binary from Win 2003 SP1 (with no SP1 applied),
>but it fails, too.
>
>I have found some similar problems on google with ntbackup failing
>randomly when run from the command prompt, but none had any solution.
>
>Anyone experiencing this also?
>
>Tomek

Jerold Schulman wrote:
> I would try scheduling this job in the context of a ScheduleOnly Admin that never logs on.

You mean creating a user with administrative rights (like joe.admin),
and run the backup process with his credentials?

OK I'll try that, maybe it'll help (though I doubt, really - why should
it help?).


Tomek

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:14:42 +0200, Tomasz Chmielewski <> wrote:

>Jerold Schulman wrote:
>> I would try scheduling this job in the context of a ScheduleOnly Admin that never logs on.
>
>You mean creating a user with administrative rights (like joe.admin),
>and run the backup process with his credentials?
>
>OK I'll try that, maybe it'll help (though I doubt, really - why should
>it help?).
>
>
>Tomek
>
Yes, that is what I meant.
It may help because do this loads the clean uncluttered joeAdmin user profile.

Jerold Schulman wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:14:42 +0200, Tomasz Chmielewski <> wrote:
>
>
>>Jerold Schulman wrote:
>>
>>>I would try scheduling this job in the context of a ScheduleOnly Admin that never logs on.
>>
>>You mean creating a user with administrative rights (like joe.admin),
>>and run the backup process with his credentials?
>>
>>OK I'll try that, maybe it'll help (though I doubt, really - why should
>>it help?).
>>
>>
>>Tomek
>>
>
> Yes, that is what I meant.
> It may help because do this loads the clean uncluttered joeAdmin user profile.

OK, I'll try that.
Today I removed /SNAPn from my scripts to see if this issue has
anything to do with a volume shadow copy.
I'll try the admin trick, too.


Tomek