Backup job fails but maintenance plan succeeds

  • The backups are in the desired destination, they restore just fine, and the maintenance plan log reports no errors.

    The agent job fails, but there are so many backups in the plan that there is no useful error information. I've pasted the step log here, unfortunately it is long but at the bottom you can see an error, but nothing that says why the job is failing:

    Date11/29/2011 2:00:00 AM

    LogJob History (User Databases Full Backup Plan.Subplan_1)

    Step ID1

    Serverxxx

    Job NameUser Databases Full Backup Plan.Subplan_1

    Step NameSubplan_1

    Duration00:37:23

    Sql Severity0

    Sql Message ID0

    Operator Emailed

    Operator Net sent

    Operator Paged

    Retries Attempted0

    Message

    Executed as user: xxx\xxx. ...on 10.0.1600.22 for 32-bit Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp

    1984-2005. All rights reserved. Started: 2:00:00 AM Progress: 2011-11-29

    02:00:01.07 Source: {196E9554-8336-487A-A0F2-F002F92CCB12} Executing

    query "DECLARE @GUID UNIQUEIDENTIFIER EXECUTE msdb..sp...".: 100% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.78 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 7% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.78 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 14% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 21% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 28% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 35% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 42% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 50% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 57% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.79 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 64% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.81 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 71% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.81 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 78% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.81 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 85% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.81 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 92% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:00:03.81 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'\\xxx\bac...".: 100% complete

    End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:14:10.75 Source: Back Up Database (Full)

    Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx\backup...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:09.81 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:15.84 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx\back...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:17.12 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx\...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:21.36 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:21.87 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Executing query "BACKUP DATABASE [xxx] TO DISK = N'\\xxx\back...".: 100%

    complete End Progress Progress: 2011-11-29 02:36:33.00 Source: Back Up Database

    (Full) Ex... The package execution fa... The step failed.

    The system db backup job succeeds. The differential jobs between the full backups succeed. This is not a terrible crisis, as the full backups themselves are actually succeeding, but it raises my blood pressure to come in every morning and see that my backup jobs have failed, and it wastes my time having to go check that they did not actually fail but rather agent threw up on me. This has been happening for about a week.

    Any suggestions??

    😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
    If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?

  • Is the backup job set to run on a specific set of databases, or on "All databases", "All user databases", or "All system databases"? I've seen situations like this before where a database was in the job, but no longer existed on the server, and the job would fail but all the rest of the databases would be successfully backed up.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • It is set to backup All User Databases...

    😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
    If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?

  • Check the backup histories in msdb. See if one of the user databases isn't backing up properly.

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • This is happening to me as well. Backups complete fine but the job reported failure via email. LOGs show the backups and cleanups working as expected. Also started happening on 30 Nov 2011 - was a service pack rolled out around this date?

  • Nigel (12/15/2011)


    This is happening to me as well. Backups complete fine but the job reported failure via email. LOGs show the backups and cleanups working as expected.

    Have you seen what GSquared has suggested, did you check backup info for any dbs missing.

    What other tasks/steps are there in the maintenance plan? May be when the next time this happens and you see a failure, see the SQL Server error log for corresponding entries to know more..

    Also started happening on 30 Nov 2011 - was a service pack rolled out around this date?

    If there was a Service Pack rolled around that date, it will not directly get installed on your SQL Server. It has to be applied, you can check what SP level are you currently at to know this and also check the SQL Server Error log for any information (if you think problem is happening from that particular day)


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  • Just to chime in, I am still having the same issue, and I have checked all the backup histories, and the presence of the physical .bak files and they all appear complete and without error. Certain backups are regularly restored for testing, reporting, and ad hoc query purposes, all restores have completed successfully.

    We had some windows updates installed shortly before this issue started but I've found nothing that indicates it would affect these processes. Also there was also some delay, 3-4 days, after this update before the symptom appeared, which makes me discount that as a contributing factor.

    I am glad to know I am not alone in this issue, but still mystified as to the root cause.

    Thanks for everyone's continued support, just have to say, I love this site!

    😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
    If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?

  • So today i got this error on my SystemDatabasesFullbackup Plan. There are fewer of these, so i can see the full error message:

    Source: Reporting Task for subplan-{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

    Description: The Execute method on the task returned error code 0x80131904

    (Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the

    operation or the server is not responding.).

    The Execute method must succeed, and indicate the result using an "out" parameter.

    End Error

    Other than that the problem is the same, the job failed but when i look at maintenance plan history it is good--all green. So i think this is the same problem.

    I don't have a reporting task on my plan, so this is an internal function that is failing. I think it is in the logging. I found someone else with a similar issue in 2008 R2 on msdn social but nothing that looks like it will help. (The suggested answer was this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938087.)

    I just wanted to update for future users what my continuing research has found.

    😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
    If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?

  • One cause for this is when you have the "Generate a text file report" option check in the maintenance plan and have two or more subplans. For example, I have a plan that performs a full database backup on all databases daily and a subplan that performs a transaction log backup every hour at the bottom of the hour. Because both subplans are using the same log file, if the backup runs at the same time as the tlog backup, the job will fail because it cannot update the log file because it is locked by the other subplan. The backups complete successfully, but the job fails.

    This is why I disable the "Generate a text file report" option.

    With that said, there is another issue that is causing this because I get the error on a SQL2008 box that DOESN'T have the Generate a text file report option checked.

    ...

  • Thanks for the info on the Generate Text Report, I was not even aware that was there, and hidden pretty well, too. However, this was not checked in my maintenance plan, and the problem is ongoing, now starting to affect some of my log backups as well as the big nightly one. Someone out there knows how to stop this error, I know it!

    😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
    If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?

  • I deleted and recreated the backup maintenance plan and it runs successfully now.

    Gremlins.

    ...

  • Did you ever discover the root cause for this?

    It's no real issue to recreate a subplan (in my case), however, I'd be curious to find out why this occurs.

    I couldn't find anything myself.:unsure:

  • Never figured out the root cause - didn't have time to continue digging into it.

    ...

  • Hi All,

    Today I have seen the same situation. Is there any solution for it .

    Regards,

    Mayank Bhargava

  • Hi,

    I add the problem today. Someone said it might be a step that referenced a database that no longer exists, and it was that. I deleted a database, and it was still referenced by the backup step. A simple edit (this database was no longer proposed in the list) solved the problem.

    Hope it can help someone in the future... and maybe me if i can't remember 😉

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