Okay, so maybe it isn’t the bane, but it’s certainly a bane. Probably in the top three right now.
Environment: Backup EXEC 12.5 SP2 (fully updated) running on Windows Server 2008 SP2, backing up, among other things, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 x64, running on Windows Server 2003 x64.
Setup: Due to horrible issues with Backup EXEC’s (referred to as ‘BE’ from now on) handling of GRT (Granular Restore Technology) with tape backups, BE runs a B2D (Backup to Disk) job to backup the Exchange mailboxes, and then a second B2T (Backup to Tape) job does the standard backup, plus grabs the B2D directory.
Problem: The B2D job fails intermittently with the following error:
Cannot extract mailbox messages from the Exchange backup. V-79-57344-759. -1213 The database page size does not match the engine on the backup to disk job.
Troubleshooting: According to this article, Hotfix 319699 is supposed to resolve the issue, in most cases. According to the article, though, it only applies to 12.0 and Service Packs, 12.5, and 12.5 SP1. The issue is supposed to be resolved in SP2, which I’m currently running.
After spending an hour on the phone with Symantec support, as the article says to call them if the Hotfix doesn’t resolve the issue (it didn’t for me), I was basically told that the version of BERestore.exe in the C:Program FilesSymantecBackup ExecRAWS directory was older than the version on the BE Server (12.5.2213.101 compared to 12.5.2213.144).
Resolution: So far, the fix seems to be to manually copy the C:Program FilesSymantecBackup ExecAgentsRAWSX64Updates directory to the Exchange server, then sort by date and apply RAWSx642213RSP2.msp, plus every update newer than that. Once the updates are complete (it took me about 10 minutes to run all 8 applicable patches), reboot the server.
After doing so, I ran the B2D job and it completed, however that isn’t necessarily proof that this worked – as the problem is intermittent, it’ll take another week of scheduled jobs to tell for sure whether that resolved the problem.
For the time being, my fingers are crossed.
