I have been upgrading customers servers lately, and it seems I have been doing a lot of Server 2008 installs. Overall the installs have gone well, however on almost all when I install Backup Exec on the new server and try to create the backup job, the selection list is empty. Now I know there are locations from which to backup files, especially since the hard drives are attached directly to the server, so why will Backup Exec not let me select them?
In Backup Exec, where I expect to see the selection list all I see is a message that says, "Connection With Server Failed". Turns out there can be many reasons for this message ranging from Windows Firewall, to permissions. In these cases I am singed in to the server with Administrator privileges so I at first think it cannot possibly be a permissions issue. However all times for me it has been.
First things to check for troubleshooting are that the Backup Exec Services are started and running. I know seems like a no brainer, but in troubleshooting you have got to cover all bases. You also want to make sure that the services are starting with the appropriate service account. What I found to be the best help in resolving this issue is the following article on Symantec's site. http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/254239.htm
Essentially there are some group policy settings that are not set, and thus the users do not have the appropriate permissions to create and view the selection lists. At first blush it seems like the article may not really apply as it seems like it is outdated, but the steps in it worked to resolve the problem for me on multiple occasions.
To fix the issue you want to edit the Default Domain Controllers group policy. In the Default Domain Controllers group policy you want to select Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Local Policies, User Rights Assignments. The you want to find "Act as part of the operating system", double click and verify the desired user is there, or add it if not. Then you want to do the same thing for the following additional user rights assignments; Backup Files and Directories, Create a Token Object, Logon as a Service, Manage Auditing and Security Log, Restore Files and Directories, Take Ownership of Files and other Objects. Once you have verified the appropriate user is added to all of those, from the command prompt run gpupdate /force and then restart the Backup Exec services and you should be able to see your selection lists.
I believe this is only an issue on Domain Controllers, but not sure. I never used to see this issue on Server 2000 or Server 2003 with the older versions of Backup Exec such as 10, 11, but have been seeing it regularly on Server 2008 with Backup Exec 12 and 12.5.
I am not sure if this applies or helps, but I always make a specific account for running the backup processes and services. I can then assign that account all the special privileges and group memberships it needs, without changing other "important" accounts. I make those assignments when creating the special account.
ReplyDeleteThis has saved me a lot of grief over the years. I will admit that I have not yet had the experience of working with 2008 server and newer versions of Backup Exec together, so perhaps this tip no longer works by itself.
Certainly, it is an odd (and I suspect frustrating) behavior that you got a sophisticated backup program, but can't pick anything to back up!
FH