Veritas EXPERT needed.
Author
Discussion

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
Got a fun problem with Backup Exec to track down. The customers backup completes but there are the following errors.

Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\\\\Server-W2K\\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes\ ?0D4661A08C246C100F5F756C26BB1F04881A3BA0CECBD066" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.
Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\\\\Server-W2K\\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes\ ?03A30D509C246C10F32F9DF866293744EA451BF298E9DE62" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.
Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\\\\Server-W2K\\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes\ ?F7072C797C246C10614BF79109EFC37438F2B385DB244F2C" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.
Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\\\\Server-W2K\\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes\ ?BDA3A82E8C246C1089ECDC22699E777488B57EDAD6D39E62" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.


There were other errors, but as they pointed to actual mailboxes I could get rid of the offending files. The problem is how do I identify these files? As there is no time stamping I can't cross reference anything back to the event viewer. At the moment I'm exporting the whole public folder into a .PST file to see if that throws up any corrupt files. Failing that does anyone have any ideas how I can track down the corrupt files? Opening every file in each of the mailboxes is NOT an option

_DeeJay_

5,057 posts

284 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
I'm not sure what the references are for. However, If you've got some spare storage/time you could export the mailboxes using EXMERGE which will identify message copy failures, and probably find the dodgy mailboxes.

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
Good thinking.... It's EX 5.5

Muncher

12,235 posts

279 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
There is one guy on here who is a Veritas Expert, used to work for them, maybe still does.

aranell

868 posts

254 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
What version of Backup Exec?

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Friday 17th March 2006
quotequote all
I think it's puggit who used to work for them, but I'll keep bumping till the expert arrives

The version is either 8.x or 9.x I think, not in work till Monday.

Unless anyone has any bright ideas for diags I'll run an Ex 5.5 migration into .PST's as suggested earlier, that could track the buggers down.

spivvy

1,535 posts

284 months

Saturday 18th March 2006
quotequote all
depends how big you your mdb files are you could run a verify on the use eseutil and do an offline check on the files

if you can't take your server offline for a long time take a copy of the mdb files onto another machine and copy the eseutil exe and supporting dll's onto it also and run the program against these files ,you need as much space as the size of the biggest mdb file that may indicate where the problem is


cuneus

5,963 posts

272 months

Saturday 18th March 2006
quotequote all
Try a backup with the built in backup from the OS: if you have issues with this then there is real trouble

Mailbox backups are a unless you REALLY have to go there

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Saturday 18th March 2006
quotequote all
Eseutil didn't find anything, I tried that the other day. I might try an isinteg -alltests etc to see if they are lost attachments. As with all these things, diagnosing backups are a pain as they take forever to complete.

Export to .PST's with the migration wizard, poss.
Native backup of just the mailboxes, good idea.

I do have a copy of the troublesome priv store I could play with offline to track down the repair that works best if the export/backup can't locate them.

I fixed one mailbox by exporting to .PST, the corrupt file wouldn't move as expected. Delete the server mailbox and then reimport everything minus the failed corrupt file into a new mailbox, job done.

Shame BE doesn't timestamp the failure as I could cross reference it to the event log when it accesses the mailbox to back it up.

puggit

49,820 posts

278 months

Saturday 18th March 2006
quotequote all
Here I am

Switch off the live file virus scanning please

Edited to add - I haven't been technical for a few years now, so bear with me - I'm rusty!

>> Edited by puggit on Saturday 18th March 21:36

puggit

49,820 posts

278 months

Saturday 18th March 2006
quotequote all
Muncher said:
There is one guy on here who is a Veritas Expert, used to work for them, maybe still does.
I did work for them 2nd/3rd line tech support for Backup Exec - but I'm glad to say I escaped, a terrible company to work for...

I met Mrs Puggit in the job - sadly for her she got sucked back in when the small company she went to work for got bought by Veritas.

I now work for a small software company, selling enterprise backup software, email archive software, and continuous data protection software for laptops and for Exchange servers (very exciting, unique software)

_dobbo_

14,619 posts

278 months

Sunday 19th March 2006
quotequote all
puggit said:
Muncher said:
There is one guy on here who is a Veritas Expert, used to work for them, maybe still does.
I did work for them 2nd/3rd line tech support for Backup Exec - but I'm glad to say I escaped, a terrible company to work for...

I met Mrs Puggit in the job - sadly for her she got sucked back in when the small company she went to work for got bought by Veritas.

I now work for a small software company, selling enterprise backup software, email archive software, and continuous data protection software for laptops and for Exchange servers (very exciting, unique software)



When I had a support issue with backup exec, I had seven phone calls, from Sanjit, Pindar, Sanjay, Purjinda, etc etc. Not one of them had the vaguest clue what was going on so I got stuck in and worked it out myself. Port conflict, job done.

I assumed based on the names and accents that Veritas don't run a uk based tech support operation any more!

puggit

49,820 posts

278 months

Sunday 19th March 2006
quotequote all
_dobbo_ said:
When I had a support issue with backup exec, I had seven phone calls, from Sanjit, Pindar, Sanjay, Purjinda, etc etc. Not one of them had the vaguest clue what was going on so I got stuck in and worked it out myself. Port conflict, job done.

I assumed based on the names and accents that Veritas don't run a uk based tech support operation any more!
BE support has moved to India, I lost my job to the Indians twice (after having to train them!!!). Frankly they were terrible and just didn't get it.

There is still some BE support in emea, but it's reserved for the bigger clients (as far as I can work out).

NBU support is still in emea, but I'm hearing rumours that as NBU doesn't fit within Symantec's target area (small-mediaum businesses) that it may get pulled

_deejay_

5,057 posts

284 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
puggit said:
Muncher said:
There is one guy on here who is a Veritas Expert, used to work for them, maybe still does.
I did work for them 2nd/3rd line tech support for Backup Exec - but I'm glad to say I escaped, a terrible company to work for...

I met Mrs Puggit in the job - sadly for her she got sucked back in when the small company she went to work for got bought by Veritas.

I now work for a small software company, selling enterprise backup software, email archive software, and continuous data protection software for laptops and for Exchange servers (very exciting, unique software)


Puggit - could you drop me a mail please. We use Veritas Netbackup (and it's possibly the worse backup product I've had the misfortune of using) but we need to 1) upgrade it, 2) implement email archiving and 3) find a laptop backup solution.

ta,
D

Podie

46,649 posts

305 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
BliarOut said:

Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\\Server-W2K\Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes ?0D4661A08C246C100F5F756C26BB1F04881A3BA0CECBD066" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.


Why are there four backslashes...?!?!

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
Podie said:
BliarOut said:

Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "\Server-W2KMicrosoft Exchange Mailboxes ?0D4661A08C246C100F5F756C26BB1F04881A3BA0CECBD066" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.


Why are there four backslashes...?!?!
Cos I was trying to pre-empt Teds general lack of backslashes by escaping them... But he's only gone and fixed it

Podie

46,649 posts

305 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
BliarOut said:
Podie said:
BliarOut said:

Database or database element is corrupt
WARNING: "Server-W2KMicrosoft Exchange Mailboxes ?0D4661A08C246C100F5F756C26BB1F04881A3BA0CECBD066" is a corrupt file.
This file cannot verify.


Why are there four backslashes...?!?!
Cos I was trying to pre-empt Teds general lack of backslashes by escaping them... But he's only gone and fixed it




Last issue I encountered with that delightful package was that PSTs were not being backed up when they were open (as in Outlook was open)...

... however I fear we've jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire with regards backup...

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
Look at that, he's only gone and nicked the backslashes again

Looks like it's more of an Exchange issue that a BE issue as I've since noticed store.exe goes up to 100% utilisation and it needs a reboot to bring it back down once BE starts accessing mailboxes. Currently running exmerge to export the mail to .PST's to find the offending mesages. Hopefully that'll point to where the problems are.

Sort the problems with EX and I'm sure the backups will sort themsleves. If Exmerge doesn't find the offending messages I'll try an Isinteg.

puggit

49,820 posts

278 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
Is it always the same mailboxes or different ones? If they are always the same its an Exchange issue, so p!ss off and call Micro$oft!

Ooops, sorry - I don't work there anymore - automatic response

BliarOut

Original Poster:

72,863 posts

269 months

Monday 20th March 2006
quotequote all
puggit said:
Is it always the same mailboxes or different ones? If they are always the same its an Exchange issue, so p!ss off and call Micro$oft!

Ooops, sorry - I don't work there anymore - automatic response
How the should I know if the backup doesn't... It's just a fifty digit string

It's going to be an MS issue I suspect, the fun part is just trying to track down which actual mailboxes the duff files live in.