queball Posted December 1, 2004 Report Share Posted December 1, 2004 I have an infrequent but recurring problem with clients getting stuck with the message error -505 (backup client reserved). The Server is running Windows 2000 with the latest retrospect versions. The clients are running Windows 98 with latest client version. Network is a VPN between 2 different sites. VPN backup speed is about 1.5MB/min. I have tried removing the client and re-installing but the problem re-occurs. Before the client reserved problem there is always a communication failure error in the previous attempt. The VPN links are not super reliable. Because the backups are running late at night and the ISP has their maintenance windows late at night there tends to be disconnects over the 1-2 hours it can take to do the backup. I have actually started to schedule multiple backup runs during the night so that it will resume if there was a disconnect on the earlier attempt. (Works well, if it worked the first time then basically nothing happens but if it failed then it picks up with the file that was interrupted the previous attempt) The problem has happened to multiple clients at different locations. Each location is configured the same way with respect to VPN link, Operating system, and client versions. To clear the error I need to have them either reboot the machine or I can go in and kill the retroclient process and start it again manually. If nobody restarts the machine and I don't do it then the problem will not go away, the client is in permanent reserved mode. When you look in the retrospect client window it still says it's in use by the server as if the backup was still running. Log file: + Retrospect version 6.5.350 Automatically launched at 11/30/2004 10:00 PM in user account DOMAIN\Administrator + Retrospect Driver Update, version 5.4.110 + Normal backup using Branch Backup script at 11/30/2004 10:02 PM (Execution unit 1) To Backup Set Branch Backup... Can't access volume Data on RemoteClient01, error -519 (network communication failed) 11/30/2004 10:04:26 PM: Execution incomplete + Normal backup using Branch Backup script at 12/1/2004 1:47 AM (Execution unit 1) To Backup Set Branch Backup... Can't access volume Data on RemoteClient01, error -505 (backup client reserved) 12/1/2004 1:47:17 AM: Execution incomplete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted December 2, 2004 Report Share Posted December 2, 2004 Hi Depending on how the connection is dropped the client machine can get stuck thinking the connection is still active. Its rare but I suspect that is whats happeing in your case. Windows 98 is much more prone to this than NT based OSes. You could try reinstalling or updating the network drivers on the 98 machines. Otherwise you might just have to reboot the machines regularly. Hope that helps Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmconlon Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Quote: Depending on how the connection is dropped the client machine can get stuck thinking the connection is still active. Its rare but I suspect that is whats happeing in your case. Windows 98 is much more prone to this than NT based OSes. You could try reinstalling or updating the network drivers on the 98 machines. Otherwise you might just have to reboot the machines regularly. Yes, that's what happens, but whether it's rare or the fault of windows is questionable. It happens to me several times a week on a linux client. This is another example of the lousy design of both the Server and client. In my case, the Server (6/204 on MacOSX.2.8) fails of its own accord with an Assertion check. The server requires manual intervention to quit the server. It's a good thing this server isn't headless, or I would have to kill the process in the shell, but of course wouldn't have any idea that there is a problem because of the lack of decent logging. In any event, this backup system is so poorly designed, that both the server and client are incapable of handling any upset conditions. When the server fails (for its own self-determined arcane reasons) it fails to close its open connections. So the next time you try to backup, the client will report as busy. Now how would a competent programmer handle this? 1. Server fails gracefully. 2. Server reports these conditions in both GUI and non-GUI manners. 3. Server closes its connection on failures. 4. Server recovers from failures. At the very least it should have a monitor to HUP itself. 5. Client times out its connections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpittinFire Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 Had this problem with an exchange 2k server. Installed updated client and re-initiated the new client on the Backup Server. It worked perfectly, no more 'client reserved' or 'couldn't connect to client' errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonzalogil Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 Have this problem on v7 (Latest build), and latest clients installed on windows machines. It happend on the linux too, basically at least 3-5 times a week the connection is lost when doing backup. (not sure if its client or server), it leaves connection open, and my guess is that the client is too dumb to realize it. Any settings to tell the client to restart if its stuck open on a connection? Rebooting isnt an option, these are servers running so rebooting every other day just in case isnt an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 Hi What errors do you get when the connection is lost? If we can fix that we can probably eliminate the 505 errors. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjk Posted April 22, 2005 Report Share Posted April 22, 2005 A script locks up all the clients and does not release them until it finishes running. Is it possible that some failure during the script run would prevent all or some of the clients from being "unlocked"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Hi, Clients are only reserved one at a time when doing scripted backups so this is really unlikely. I haven't seen it happen anyway. Usually a 505 error will happen only on the machine where the network communication failed. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted April 7, 2006 Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 I'm getting this also, which means out Exchange 2003 server is not backing up unless I babysit it through the night and shutdown / reboot services when it falls over. Not impressed! Will I update for 7.5 shi* no becuase 7.0 doesn't work...! Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted April 7, 2006 Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 Soem more info... I'm running 2003 Server with Exchange 2003 Standard on top. The server is an HP DL380R with 2GB RAM and bucket loads of storage. It runs dual 1GB ethernet ports which are twinned to provide a 2GB pipe to our network backbone. I run Retrospect Multi-Server edition with the value pack add-on for SQL and Exchange. I have downloaded the very latest versions of both the backup server and client and if anythign it has got worse. when I go into the client list, slect our Exhcange server >> properties and then click on 'refresh' Retrospect hangs and after a couple of minutes returns 'server not found - communication error'. Interestingly we have had no complaints from any of our Outlook clients about connection problems, so I'm not wanting to start removing and reinstalling ethernet drivers on our live email server. The problem is Retrospect not dropping the session and then something is not handling the error correctly I have just (whilst testing it) restarted the Retrospect service and turned the client on and off (for the sake of it) and the same thing happens above. If these servers weren't so important it'd be funny and I've now noticed other people are experiencing the same problem as I. Has anything been done about this yet? or at least some testing by EMC to see how it gets into this state? I'm now going to try rolling back the client on this server in the hope it will start working! edit: crashing the pcpds.exe program seems to make things burst into life again?! Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerX Posted April 10, 2006 Report Share Posted April 10, 2006 Does stopping and restarting the "Retrospect Client" service fix it? I need to do that a few times a day to solve -519 and -541 errors. I use PSService in a script to do it. Why are you trying to backup Exchange with Retrospect? I have had much better luck by ratcheting up the retention period in lieu of block level backups and using regular Windows Backup for disaster recovery. I then use Robocopy to mirror the backed up files. I long ago stopped backing up anything truly important with retrospect. It is just not reliable enough to meet my standards[1]. Dan [1] It is strange to write that. Last week I was visiting an old client and the 4.3 server I set up for them years ago is still working fine. I haven't had very good luck since 4.x days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.