WHS isn't doing automatic backups?

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KevinG

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
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My WHS has been running for a few days now. There are 2 client pcs connected to it (so far).

On one of them (call it machineA), I kicked off a "manual backup" which finished just fine, on the other (machineB) I just allowed it to do its "automatic backup" that evening. It worked perfectly...

However, I've just noticed that the automatic backup has never run on machineA over the past 3 days. And I also noticed that the automatic backup of machineB didn't run last night. Any clues or log files that I can look for?

Thanks.
-Kevin
 
Were the computers turned off?

:)

They need to be in standby or similar to get backed up... and the settings have to allow wake from hiberate/standby
 
They are never "off". They are always in standby at night when this is supposed to happen.

Where is the specific setting that says "allow wake from hibernate/standby"? I'm fairly certain that I would have turned that feature on if I had seen it (so it's likely to be on). Is there any log file or other indication of why an automatic backup wouldn't (or couldn't) run?

Thanks.
 
I think you are going to have to set "wake on lan" in the bios, and then get an addin for WHS to do this. Just yesterday I was reading something somewhere about this. Google WHS wake on lan and see what you get.
 
Kevin open up the console
Go to configure backup and make sure you have it set to wake up the computers.

Also on my workstation in the BIOS there is a setting for Standy I can choose S1 or S3 mode. I dont remember what is what but I know what when I have it set to the one im not using it wont wake it up

And check your WOL settings.
 
Turns out that the setting isn't in the console at all...I looked all over for it. After searching the "Help", I found that it is actually on the tray icon on the client machines...I checked, and both are set to "Wake this computer for backup".

Are you certain that automatic backup is using WOL to wake the computer for backup? I assumed that it used some other method...mostly because the one computer that it did successfully automatically backup twice (but not the third day for some reason) should have WOL turned on in the BIOS...but I'll go check now to make sure.

Here's something that makes no sense at all... In order to test this, I put my computer in standby, went over to the server and expected to be able to tell it to backup that computer now...but it was grayed out! It won't let me test the automatic wake feature! Dumb!

-Kevin
 
So, it turns out that WOL has absolutely nothing to do with this. See this link:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/8f5ba3a6-6f5f-49d9-aa11-0d42a982d82e

The server tells the clients when it will need to wake up, and the client schedules a wake up for itself... Now, the only thing that this link suggests is that it might have something to do with being on a UPS (both of these computers are on UPS, but both have different brands). However, I've been using acronis for years...and I've been using a scheduled job to wake the computer from standby (and do nothing) 10 minutes before the scheduled acronis backup starts and that has been working just fine...so I don't have a clue why this computer isn't getting backed up, and THERE"S NOTHING to debug it, apparently.

The event viewer shows successful backups of the other computer (but not the failures!).

*sigh*
 
No luck last night either. I'm disconnecting the UPS USB cable from the computer for tonight...If that doesn't work I'll uninstall the UPS software from the client...
 
AFAIK a system cannot "wake itself up" at a particular time because the processor is not running. In low power sleep modes the motherboard and memory retain power and the memory image stays in place, the processor just goes to sleep. To wake up is instantaneous (more or less) but something has to "trigger it".

I do this with my Windows Media Center PC. I use the PC Power button on the remote to "turn off" the PC, but it is really just going into a sleep mode. I use the same button to "wake" it back up and it is back on within two seconds or so. I do not understand the details (though I am interested in learning them if someone else here could point to some reading material), but I do know that there is a USB receiver for the IR remote. So the computer is "waking on USB" essentially.

As I said I do not understand the details, I just managed to get it working (so it must be easy!).
 
Yes, a system can wake itself from suspend or hibernate. Like I mentioned above...I've been using that concept for years to do overnight backup with acronis...Acronis is scheduled for 2:10 AM, and a scheduled task wakes the computer at 2:00 AM. It has never failed me...

So, this computer is certainly capable of waking itself up...I'm hoping it's the UPS thing...I'll know in the morning. :)

-Kevin
 
*Sigh*

No luck... It continues to back up the other computer every night...but not this one...

I've now uninstalled the Belkin Watchdog software...we'll see if that helps.
 
I guess I'm mostly talking to myself here...but just to bring closure to this issue if anyone else ever hits this thread via a search...

I got a successful automatic backup of the problematic machine last night...It seems that removing the UPS software did the trick.

I am now seeing something very strange with timestamps. If I go to the whs console from the pc that was giving me problems, the timestamps on all of the backups are off... If I RDP to the server itself, the timestamps are correct.

Both machines are set to the same timezone, and they are both syncing their clocks to the same server...
 
I am wondering if you aren't getting it to turn on for the backup, then turning right back off before the backup occurs.
 
Have you checked to make sure that the Task is actually being scheduled?

Maybe the computer doesn't think WHS has the permissions necessary to schedule a backup?

Do you have the console installed on both computers? I just got an EX470, so am playing around with it still and was wondering how to backup other PCs, I was just coming to the conclusion that I need to install the WHS console to each PC I want a User / backup on?
 
Maybe I wasn't clear. It's working now. Somehow the UPS software was interfering.

Furthermore, the timestamps have fixed themselves as well...All is perfect now.

All that being said...better logging of these failures (on the client and on the server) would have been a nice touch. ;-)

Edit: It turns out that the server (with toolkit 1.1 add-in installed) can dump logs for you. They are pretty verbose, and I'm not sure that they would have helped...but there's lots of logs available in there...
 
KevinG said:
Maybe I wasn't clear. It's working now. Somehow the UPS software was interfering.

Furthermore, the timestamps have fixed themselves as well...All is perfect now.

All that being said...better logging of these failures (on the client and on the server) would have been a nice touch. ;-)

Edit: It turns out that the server (with toolkit 1.1 add-in installed) can dump logs for you. They are pretty verbose, and I'm not sure that they would have helped...but there's lots of logs available in there...
Click to expand...

Theres an event logger Addin that seems to be a nice little touch for those interested.
 
Maybe I wasn't clear. It's working now. Somehow the UPS software was interfering.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you found and reported the solution. (BIG Thumbs-Up)!

I've always had UPS units but have never installed the software.

There's so many unknown details to WHS and I appreciate reading first hand experiences. ;)
 
nitrobass24 said:
Theres an event logger Addin that seems to be a nice little touch for those interested.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the event log doesn't show *anything* useful here...WHS is logging elsewhere, and the toolkit allows you to dump those logs to the shared folders.

Old Hippie said:
I'm glad you found and reported the solution. (BIG Thumbs-Up)!
Click to expand...

No problem, I *hate* when I'm googling a problem, stumble onto a thread where someone has the *exact* same problem, and the thread ends with a "nevermind, I figured it out." :eek:

-Kevin
 
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