SQL Backup 5.0 problems

Powerway

First for the most critical problem.

We are testing SQL Backup 5 and have experienced this issue on the two test servers we have used.

When attempting to restore an encrypted and compressed SQL Backup 5.0 full backup, we get the following error during the "Checking password" phase

Error reading file: Unexpected end-of-file reached

SQL Backup Exit Code: 612

We got this on a couple differtential backups as well. Not every file is corrupt. The files look to be the correct length, but when the error is reported, it appears SQL Backup hasn't read fully through the complete file.

Two different pieces of hardware with two completely different disk subsystems. I do NOT believe this is a hardware issue.

Backups were taken with compression 2, 128-bit encryption, 2 threads, verification ON.

This is a show stopper for pushing SQL Backup into production and a very scary issue for us.

Issue 2

On one server, SQL Backup delete backups correctly per the job setup parameters. On the other server, SQL Backup was NOT deleting files per the jobs timing parameters on getting rid of older files. They just kept piling up.

Issue 3

We also have the issue when trying to use a domain login during setup. We attempt to use the same login which our SQL Server instances use and the SQL Backup install continues to reject the login. After the install, I just went into services and changed the login for the SBCoreServices service and restarted it and it starts fine.

You very well may be trying to test the login as an interactive login which most of us will not have that security policy set. Or it could be some other security policy that's causing the problems.

alchemistmatt

I have also seen the unexpected end-of-file reached error three times in the last two days, though it was appearing during an automated backup rather than during a manual restore. I am calling Sql Backup via the extended stored procedure, sending it a list of ~20 DBs to backup, and including "VERIFY" in the command to request that the backups be verified. Out of ~500 backups over two days, three of the backups failed the restore step with the log file showing Error reading file: unexpected end-of-file reached just after the "RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK" command was issued. This shouldn't be the result of network communication errors since the backup drive is inside the same server as the DBs reside. The Sql Server Error Log has this info

2007-05-07 06:13:10.01 spid65      Error: 18210, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2007-05-07 06:13:10.01 spid65      BackupVirtualDeviceFile::ClearError:  failure on backup device 'SQLBACKUP_5968D447-699C-440E-86E9-35F095E485BE01'. Operating system error 995(The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.).
2007-05-07 06:13:10.01 spid65      Error: 18210, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2007-05-07 06:13:10.01 spid65      BackupMedium::ReportIoError: read failure on backup device 'SQLBACKUP_5968D447-699C-440E-86E9-35F095E485BE'. Operating system error 995(The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.).

Powerway

I just checked the SQL Error Log on both my test servers and I found 6 instances of the BackupMedium error on one server and 16 instances of the error on the other server. They do seem to correspond to backup activity during the automated job testing period.

Powerway

Just completed another full backup which I'm unable to restore. Error message in SQL Backup is the

Error reading file: Unexpected end-of-file reached

SQL Backup Exit Code: 612

Error message in SQL Error Log

05/07/2007 19:39:07,spid75,Unknown,BackupMedium::ReportIoError: read failure on backup device 'SQLBACKUP_766B53BA-0551-4F09-BAED-5549FB79C0DC'. Operating system error 995(The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.).
05/07/2007 19:39:07,spid75,Unknown,Error: 18210<c/> Severity: 16<c/> State: 1.

Red-Gate, I can dup this on two servers. Give us a status update when you return from holiday.

petey

Would it be possible to send us a backup file that you are having problems restoring? Thanks.

Powerway

petey wrote:

Would it be possible to send us a backup file that you are having problems restoring? Thanks.

While I had a couple smaller differentials last Friday that exhibited this issue, I deleted them and started over not knowing that I would be able to dup this on another machine.

I have one full backup that's 40 gig right now that exhibits the problem. Let me make a differential every half hour tomorrow and hopefully I'll have a small differential that shows this issue.

I'll let you know when I have a smaller sample I can send you.

alchemistmatt

petey wrote:

Would it be possible to send us a backup file that you are having problems restoring?

I too am unable to send you any sample files, but for a slightly different reason. For every failure I've seen, the backup succeeded but the error occurred during the restore. Due to problems related to backing up over the network (for which, unfortunately, MAXDATABLOCK=524288 fixed the problem in Sql Backup v4.5 but does not fix the problem in v5.0) I switched to backing up to a local drive then using the COPYTO command to auto-copy the backup file to a remote server. However, if the backup is successful but the RESTORE VERIFYONLY command fails, the COPYTO command is not executed by the sqlbackup extended SP. Since I have setup a cleanup script that deletes files in my temporary (local) backup file every 12 hours, I therefore no longer have the files that caused the "Unexpected end-of-file".

The behavior I would much prefer to see is that the COPYTO command is run if the backup succeeds but the VERIFY doesn't. Command used:

exec master..sqlbackup '-SQL "BACKUP DATABASES [ORF_V27] TO DISK = ''D:\Redgate_Backup_Xfer\<DATABASE>\<AUTO>'' WITH NAME=''<AUTO>'', DESCRIPTION=''<AUTO>'', COPYTO=''\\proto-1\DB_Backups\Albert_Backup\<DATABASE>'', ERASEFILES=20, FILEOPTIONS=3, COMPRESSION=3, VERIFY, LOGTO=''F:\SqlServerBackup\'', MAILTO_ONERROR = ''username@mydomain.com''"'

HJoyce

Workaround - convert to native SQL Server files

In the rare case when a backup file gives the "Error reading file: unexpected end-of-file reached." on restore, the file can be converted to native SQL Server files which can be restored successfully.

You need to use the CONVERT command via the extended stored procedure.

e.g.
master..sqlbackup N'-SQL "CONVERT ''D:\SQL Backup 5 files\ERROR.sqb'' TO ''D:\SQL Backup 5 files\ConvertedFile.bak'' with password = ''mypassword'' "

Since this error is only occurring when there are multpile threads writing to a single file it will create multiple backup files which native SQL Server can restore.

This will be fixed in version 5.1 which will be released as soon as possible, but in the meantime please use this workaround for any affected backup files.

Helen Joyce
SQL Backup Project Manager