You have a node whose scheduled backup is reported to have FAILED.
A failed backup generally means that Spectrum Protect was successful in starting a backup but that it was unable to complete it successfully. Further investigation is required to determine how much of your data was backed up. It could be some, all, or none of it that got sent to the Spectrum Protect servers.
Objects on a user's machine that may cause a schedule to fail include:
- Files that are exclusively locked open by another program and cannot be backed up, such as database files.
- Files that are corrupt, making them unreadable.
- Files that are excessively large, causing them to make the network connection time out.
- Folder/File structures that breach Spectrum Protect maximum file length restrictions.
- Folder/File structures that create memory issues on the client machine, causing backup to fail.
Another possibility is that Spectrum Protect is wrongly configured. If it is looking for a file system of partition that does not exist then such a backup would be deemed a failure - e.g., if Spectrum Protect is set to back up D: but there is no D: drive present.
TROUBLESHOOTING FAILED SCHEDULED BACKUPS
1. Checking the dsmsched.log file
If you are IT Support Staff, or are an advanced user and are confident reviewing and interpreting log files, then please follow the suggestions below. You will need to open the file dsmsched.log. The location of the file is platform specific.
Once dsmsched.log is opened (see below), you will need to search for ANS entries. These are in the format of ANS####?, where the # represents a number, and the ? represents either an E (Errors), W (Warnings) or I (Informational).
Informational (ANS####I) messages will not indicate the cause of a scheduled backup failing or being severed; the problem is usually indicated by an error (ANS####E) message. The relevant message could occur at any time during the failed backup, so it is important to check what dsmsched.log lists for the whole of the night when the backup failed. The remainder of this page explains how to view dsmsched.log; and it then lists the most commonly found error messages, along with their solutions.
Examining dsmsched.log using a text editor
- Browse to the appropriate location and open dsmsched.log.
- Once the log is open, which may take a while if it is large, scroll to the bottom of the log file where the most recent information will be.
- Use the text editor's search function to check back through the log for ANS entries, checking those that end in either an E or a W.
2. Error messages
For each ANS####E or ANS####W entry, you need to review the text which follows the error code to determine whether this could have been a cause of the scheduled backup failure. You will most likely find the message ANS1512E Scheduled event ... failed and at least one other message as well.
Examples of common messages that cause scheduled backup failures are listed below.
> 'ANS4037E Object ... changed during processing'
Spectrum Protect may send most of your data but ultimately report overall scheduled backup failure if other files are left open. Spectrum Protect only deems a schedule to have failed if one or more files have been prevented from backup in a certain way. Not all file failures cause schedule failures but Windows in particular does sometimes lock open files in such a way that it causes Spectrum Protect to call a schedule failed when really only a small number of files failed to get backed up.
In general it is best to try to close all files and programs before a backup runs. To locate the problem, first of all please check your dsmsched.log to see if any file failures were caused by one or more files being changed while Spectrum Protect was trying to back up. There may be lines like:
06-10-2023 23:00:35 ANS1228E Sending of object '/home/hfsuser/Desktop/myfile' failed.
06-10-2023 23:00:35 ANS4037E Object '/home/hfsuser/Desktop/myfile' changed during processing. Object skipped.
06-10-2023 23:00:35 ANS1802E Incremental backup of '/' finished with 1 failure(s)
Additional information near the end of dsmsched.log will show the total number of failed files. In order to find the relevant part of text it is usually easiest to go to the end of the document, and then scroll upwards until you find an end-of-schedule report similar to the following example:
06-10-2023 23:00:35 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS BEGIN
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects inspected: 170,348
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects backed up: 3
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects updated: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects rebound: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects deleted: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects expired: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects failed: 1
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects encrypted: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total objects deduplicated: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of objects grew: 0
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of retries: 5
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of bytes inspected: 6.79 GB
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of bytes processed: 401 B
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total bytes before deduplication: 0 B
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total bytes after deduplication: 0 B
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total number of bytes transferred: 1.54 KB
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Data transfer time: 0.00 sec
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Network data transfer rate: 0.00 KB/sec
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Aggregate data transfer rate: 0.14 KB/sec
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Objects compressed by: 0%
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Deduplication reduction: 0.00%
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Total data reduction ratio: 100.00%
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Elapsed processing time: 00:00:10
06-10-2023 23:00:35 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS END
06-10-2023 23:00:35 --- SCHEDULEREC OBJECT END DAILY_2300 06-10-2023 23:00:00
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Scheduled event 'DAILY_2300' completed successfully.
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Sending results for scheduled event 'DAILY_2300'.
06-10-2023 23:00:35 Results sent to server for scheduled event 'DAILY_2300'.
It is quite normal for a few files to fail to get backed up. In particular log files that are currently being written to at time of backup will fail; a local policy of daily log rotation will ensure that the log data will be backed up at the next backup.
If you find that the files that failed also failed on days when the schedule completed successfully, then those file failures are very unlikely to be what caused the schedule to fail as a whole.
If you cannot close the files that are causing the schedule failure before scheduled backup occurs, then you should exclude them from backup. Files that are continually open, such as database files, would fall into this latter category.
> 'ANS1071E Invalid domain name entered' or 'ANS1063E The specified path is not a valid file system or logical volume name' or 'ANS1134E Drive is an invalid drive specification'
If Spectrum Protect is configured to back up drives or partitions that it cannot see, then scheduled backups will fail with a message like one of the following:
ANS1071E Invalid domain name entered: '/data/fred'
ANS1063E The specified path is not a valid file system or logical volume name
ANS1134E Drive is an invalid drive specification
Either the error message itself, or a message preceding or following it, will state which drive or partition is causing the problem.
There are three likely possible reasons for such an error:
- The listed domain entry does not exist as a drive or partition:
- A folder/directory could have been specified as a separate domain. This will cause an error because only drives or partitions may normally be used as domains, hence Spectrum Protect cannot find the example drive /data/fred and so it deems that the schedule has failed. In this case, /data/fred must be a folder/directory that is part of the larger partition /data or part of the root partition /.
- Alternatively, it could be that a drive is listed as part of the backup domain but is no longer present on the machine. Perhaps the drive has been removed, or perhaps (on Windows machines only) the Spectrum Protect backup domain contains references to UNC paths that are no longer valid (for example if the machine has been renamed).
- There is a space in the domain name. In this case quotation marks need to be used around the drive name, because otherwise Spectrum Protect will assume that you mean several domains. For example the above error message would occur if you wanted to back up the drive /data/fred backup but you specified the incorrect DOMAIN /data/fred backup instead of the correct DOMAIN "/data/fred backup".
To fix this problem:
- Run Spectrum Protect (Mac users must use Spectrum Protect Tools for Administrators) and go Edit > (Client) Preferences > Backup tab, then correct your backup domain.
> 'ANS1149E No domain is available for incremental backup. The domain may be empty or all file systems in the domain are excluded.'
The message indicates a problem similar to that described in the previous section; however rather than the backup domain having been set incorrectly, it has instead not been set at all.
This can be fixed by changing the backup domain so that it includes at least one valid drive or partition. To do this, see our instructions on excluding drives and partitions from backup; but instead of excluding a drive, ensure that at least one is included in the backup domain.
> 'ANS1492S Invalid virtual mountpoint ...: File not found' (Linux/Unix only)
The error message indicates a problem similar to that described in the previous section. In this case, Spectrum Protect could not find a directory that has been nominated in dsm.sys as a virtual mount point. For more information on virtual mount points.
To fix the problem, remove the line in dsm.sys or else correct it to point to an existing directory. Then check for the offending virtual mount point's name in dsm.opt: if your domain is not set to ALL-LOCAL then you will need to remove or correct it there too. Lastly, stop and restart the Spectrum Protect scheduler.
> 'ANS1512E Scheduled event ... failed' - but no other ANS warning/error messages
Sometimes Spectrum Protect may think that the schedule has failed because of a communication problem with the server. In this case, you will be able to tell from the end of dsmerror.log and dsmsched.log that no files failed during the backup.
For example, you may see a report like the following in the dsmsched.log file:
06-10-2023 23:01:20 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS BEGIN
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects inspected: 170,341
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects backed up: 6
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects updated: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects rebound: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects deleted: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects expired: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects failed: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects encrypted: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total objects deduplicated: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of objects grew: 0
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of retries: 5
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of bytes inspected: 6.79 GB
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of bytes processed: 402 B
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total bytes before deduplication: 0 B
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total bytes after deduplication: 0 B
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total number of bytes transferred: 1.53 KB
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Data transfer time: 0.00 sec
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Network data transfer rate: 0.00 KB/sec
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Aggregate data transfer rate: 0.13 KB/sec
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Objects compressed by: 0%
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Deduplication reduction: 0.00%
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Total data reduction ratio: 100.00%
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Elapsed processing time: 00:00:11
06-10-2023 23:01:20 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS END
06-10-2023 23:01:20 --- SCHEDULEREC OBJECT END DAILY_2300 06-10-2023 23:00:00
06-10-2023 23:01:20 ANS1512E Scheduled event 'DAILY_2300' failed. Return code =12.
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Sending results for scheduled event 'DAILY_2300'.
06-10-2023 23:01:20 Results sent to server for scheduled event 'DAILY_2300'.
Spectrum Protect has inspected 170,341 files and has backed up 6 of them. The number of failed files is zero.
The Spectrum Protect client has experienced an error when signing off from the server and has recorded this as a failure. However, it is clear that the scheduled backup itself has completed and the failure message can be ignored.
> 'ANS4023E Error processing ...: file input/output error' or 'ANS4046E There is an error processing ... the object is corrupted and unreadable' or 'ANS4047E There is a read error on .... The file is skipped.'
If Spectrum Protect is having trouble reading certain files, then it could be because they are corrupted. If this is the case then you will see error messages in your dsmerror.log about certain files being unreadable by Spectrum Protect. For example, they may take the form:
ANS4023E Error processing '/var/log/test.log': file input/output error.
ANS4046E There is an error processing '/var/log/test.log': the object is corrupted and unreadable.
ANS4047E There is a read error on '/var/log/test.log'. The file is skipped.
If the fault is only software-related, then the problem can be fixed by checking the disk. Basic steps are as follows, though you may want to do further research before implementing them.
- Windows:
- In My Computer, right click on the offending drive (such as C:), select Properties > Tools > Error-checking > Check button
- If available, tick the box marked Automatically fix file system errors
- Run the scan, if prompted confirm the request to run a disk check when the computer next restarts to fix file system errors on the next reboot.
- If the problem persists, a more thorough disk check can be performed by running chkdsk /r from the command line.
- Mac:
- In Finder, select Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
- In the left-hand window, select the relevant drive
- Select First Aid tab > Verify Disk or, if appropriate, Repair Disk.
- Linux:
- Use the command fsck to check your disk. Please refer to your system documentation for the appropriate procedure.
In the worst case scenario, if you have file errors despite trying to fix them, or if you are concerned that your hard disk may have a fault, please see your local IT for advice.
> Windows VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) problem causes backup to fail (Windows servers only)
By default, Spectrum Protect is set to back up Windows system files (System State) for server accounts. It does this by using the Windows VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service). If your Windows server is failing its backups then this may be caused by a problem related to the interaction of Spectrum Protect with VSS.
If you find errors reported in dsmerror.log which mention System State or VSS then this is likely to be the cause of the failed backups.
For example:
20-11-2018 20:28:42 ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered.
TSM function name : baProcessRequest
TSM function : VSS Create Local Backup failed
TSM return code : 1
TSM file : incrdrv.cpp (6866)
In such a situation, you will probably also find that you can back up your data drives manually, but not System State.
If you do not need to back up System State data then you can work around this issue by excluding it from backup. Spectrum Protect effectively classes System State as a separate drive, meaning that you can exclude it from the backup domain by using our instructions on how to exclude files, folders and drives from backup.
If you wish to back up System State, check that you have the latest version of Spectrum Protect for your version of Windows as recent versions fix certain issues with System State backup. If required you can download the latest HFS Spectrum Protect package.
If a Spectrum Protect upgrade does not fix the problem, please contact us at hfs@ox.ac.uk including your log files.
3. Summary
You should now have performed enough troubleshooting to ensure that you know why the scheduled backup failed and hopefully put corrective measures in place to ensure subsequent scheduled backups are successful. If you have been unable to determine the likely cause of why the backups are failing then please contact us at hfs@ox.ac.uk including your log files.
If you have not already done so, we recommend that you run a manual backup.
To find out when your next scheduled backup is, please see the FAQ item When is my scheduled backup due to run?.
