backups failing to write to a remote server

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backups failing to write to a remote server

ericwenger1

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October 5, 2009 at 1:22 pm

#211682

I just started getting these errors during my backups. It appears that the backup file are being created but Im receiving the following message when creating backups to a different server.
I also have another database server that does the exact samething and I'm not receiving this error
while doing backups on that server
[Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 42000)] Error 3202: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Write on '\\Backup\SQL-backups\SQLSRV\afs_reporting_archive_db_200910031948.BAK' failed, status = 121. See the SQL Server error log for more details.
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
thanks for your help!

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homebrew01 SSC Guru Points: 55548 More actions · Answer 1

So, ServerA backs up across the network, to ServerC and fails, but ServerB backs up across the network to ServerC and is OK ? Did you test general ServerA to ServerC connectivity ?

ericwenger1 Hall of Fame Points: 3436 More actions · Answer 2

yes, I checked the connectivity between server a and server c

jagadeesanpv Ten Centuries Points: 1006 More actions · Answer 3

I hope you will be getting the below said error in sql server error log

C:\>net helpmsg 121

The semaphore timeout period has expired

look this KBA http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325487 for more details

Regards,

Jagadeesan

Roy Ernest SSC-Dedicated Points: 38780 More actions · Answer 4

What are the details shown on the Error log? What user is the SQL Server and Agent running under. Does the user have required permission to write to the share?

-Roy

Ed Zann SSCrazy Eights Points: 8694 More actions · Answer 5

I think the SQL backup process is very sensitive to latency caused either by the network or perhaps the device you're writing to. I have had issues with this in the past. In my case I have 20 servers and many databases to backup. I have to spread the backup schedules across my 5 hour backup window, otherwise I may get random write errors. I don't know if it's a network issue or if the NAS device can't keep up.

I believe a best practice is to not use a network device directly for backup, but rather write the file to a local device and use a COPY command to move it to the network. A windows COPY is more tolerant of latency. I have not found this to be a practical approach in my scenario however.

Ignacio A. Salom Rangel SSC-Insane Points: 20443 More actions · Answer 6

I will check the user that is running the SQLAgent if I was you!

My blog

ericwenger1 Hall of Fame Points: 3436 More actions · Answer 7

I'm am now backing up to a local driver on the server and then xcopying the backups to our backup server and I'm not having a problem during the xcopy.

thanks for you help