Document ID: 297799
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Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR) is NOT truncating Microsoft Exchange transaction logs during a backup.
Details:
When backing with BESR, Microsoft Exchange transaction logs are not being removed (i.e. Truncated) filling up the drive. BESR uses Volume Shadow Copy service to This is often caused when BESR is not able to properly communicate with the VSS writer for Exchange when a backup is scheduled.
Please verify the following settings are correct when troubleshooting this specific issue:

Perform full VSS backup option is enabled in the Backup job (BESR 8.x and later)
Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0x and earlier uses the Microsoft VSS provider. For these versions, verify that this provider is listed by using the VSSADMIN LIST PROVIDERS command and that the Volume Shadow copy and Remote Procedure Call services are enabled. Restrictions to either of these two services may result in BESR not being able to properly truncate Microsoft Exchange log files.
1. Start | All Programs | Symantec | Backup Exec System Recovery |  Backup Exec System Recovery to launch the BESR console/UI.
2. Click on Advanced Option (left pane); if using the BESR console to administrate multiple systems be sure to select from the Computers pull down the menu the system running Microsoft Exchange.
3. Click the Backup Jobs tab.
4. Right click on the backup job used to backup Microsoft Exchange and choose Edit Settings.
5. Click Next to maintain the options previously configured till the Options page appears.
6. Click the Advanced button.
7. Check the box beside the option Perform full VSS backup.
8. Select OK.
9. Next till last screen and then click Finish (check run backup now if desired)



If future backups do not truncate the logs, there may be an issue with the Exchange VSS writer. Verify the writer status by doing the following;

-Open a command prompt
-Type "vssadmin list writers" and press enter
-Look for the writer named "Microsoft Exchange Writer"
-The status of this writer should be listed as "[1] Stable".

If the writer is not listed, sometimes a simple reboot will cause it to start working again.

After a reboot, if the writer is still not listed, or the status is not stable, the Exchange VSS writer is not functioning properly. Please follow the instructions in this technote:

 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183


Products Applied:
 Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition 7.0, 7.0 7.0.1, 7.0 7.0.2, 7.01, 8.0, 8.0 .01 SP1
Last Updated: August 28 2009 04:21 PM GMT
Expires on: 12-05-2009
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Subjects:
 Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition
   Backup: Backup

Languages:
 English (US)

Operating Systems:
Windows Server 2003

DataCenter SP1, DataCenter SP1(x64), DataCenter SP2, Datacenter SP2(x64), Enterprise (x64), Enterprise SP1(x64), Enterprise SP2, Enterprise SP2(x64), Enterprise ServerSP1, R2, Standard Server SP1, Standard Server SP1 (x64), Standard Server SP2, Standard Server SP2 (x64), Storage Server SP1, Storage Server SP2, Web Server SP1, Web Server SP2

Windows Small Business Server 2003

Premium Edition R2, Premium Edition SP1, Standard Edition R2, Standard Edition SP1, Standard Edition SP2

Windows Server 2008

Enterprise (x64-64bit), Enterprise (x86-32bit), Standard (x64-64bit), Standard (x86-32bit)