Data Protector Express randomly stopped running jobs

[William Gault]

Running HP Data Protector Express 3.50-SP2 on a server and had a regularly scheduled daily backup routine. For no user caused issue (the server hasn't been touched for at least a month), the backup stopped running mid week. There's no errors in the backup logs, and no failures, and the job lists as being completed the last time it was run.

I went into the properties of the job, and it displayed as being scheduled to run each of the days it was supposed to have run. After clicking 'OK', the backup started and it's now running...

Is there any known bugs that cause this random cessation of activity, or any way I can prevent this from happening again?

[D Wong]

Hi William:

There are no known issue when using properly scheduled your backup job.

Have you checked that your backup schedule has all the correct tape cartridge for your backup job?

[William Gault]

Thank you for responding. I have the job properties set to "auto format all media", with all the overwrite options set so it shouldn't matter what tape is in the drive.

Any time I go into the options, and click okay, no matter what time it is (the job is scheduled for 1:30AM) the backup will start for no particular reason at all, since I didn't change anything.

I imagine that I could possibly delete the job and recreate it, and everything may work out okay... but I think this is buggy behaviour and I'd hate to experience it again.

[D Wong]

Hi William:

Normally, I recommend to "Auto format only blank media". Remember that each time you run the backup job with DPX is setup to "Auto format all media" the job is trying to format the tape cartridge each time the job is run.

Also, I do know of a firmware bug for 1/8 G2 Autoloaders where the firmware was not properly ejecting the tape cartridge. Make sure you have the latest firmware for you tape product. I was not sure what tape product you are using, since you did not mention the device.