REPOST: Deleting backups on a share

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  Hi Charles,
  
  What is your ERASEFILES setting time period configured to be? Is it possible that multiple SQL Backup jobs are contending to delete the same files?

  Brian Donahue December 01, 2006 11:17

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  Could you please post the error message? You can find the message in the SQL Backup logs, which by default is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Red Gate\SQL Backup\Log\<instance name>.
  
  Thanks.

  petey December 02, 2006 10:08

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  Brian,
  
  Normally, we just look for anything older than a day to erase. In order to test things, I've been using 1 hour instead. There are no other processes touching this share. So no there is not another backup job that it is competing with. That was my first inclination was I/O contention, followed by account permissions.
  
  Peter,
  
  This is the log...
  
  SQL Backup log file
  12/7/2006 12:51:09 PM: Backing up Dev (transaction log) to:
  \\server\share\LOG_(local)_Dev_20061207_125109.sqb
  
  12/7/2006 12:51:09 PM: BACKUP LOG [Dev] TO DISK = '\\server\share\LOG_(local)_Dev_20061207_125109.sqb' WITH NAME = '<AUTO>', DESCRIPTION = '<AUTO>', ERASEFILES = 1h, COMPRESSION = 1, THREADS = 1
  
  12/7/2006 12:51:10 PM: Backup data size : 832.000 KB
  12/7/2006 12:51:10 PM: Compressed data size: 10.000 KB
  12/7/2006 12:51:10 PM: Compression rate : 98.80%
  
  Processed 0 pages for database 'Dev', file 'Dev_log' on file 1.
  BACKUP LOG successfully processed 0 pages in 0.014 seconds (0.000 MB/sec).

  ---

  
  12/7/2006 12:51:12 PM: Deleting old backup file: \\server\share\LOG_(local)_Dev_20061206_123003.sqb
  12/7/2006 12:51:13 PM: Warning 160: ERASEFILES error: Failed to delete file: \\server\share\\LOG_(local)_Dev_20061206_123003.sqb.
  
  Of course, I've changed the name of the database and the file paths to something generic. Otherwise, this is exactly what we're seeing.
  
  Thanks for any help you can provide.

  charleyevans December 07, 2006 13:57

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  Can you try running a test command using the command line interface (SQLBackupC.exe), under an account which you know has rights to delete files on the network share, and see if the files are deleted? Thanks.

  petey December 08, 2006 10:27

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  That worked fine from the command line. The file was erased and the backup was successful. The odd thing here is that the same account has been used throughout this entire process.

  charleyevans December 08, 2006 11:42

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  Interesting. If the SQL Backup Agent service startup user is identical to the one you used to run the command line interface test, the deletion should have succeeded.

  petey December 09, 2006 01:07

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  Yes, it should have. Also, interestingly enough, when I run the command using xp_CmdShell I get the same error as when it is run through the red gate sp. I am going to expirement and see if I can get a job to run the batch file.

  charleyevans December 09, 2006 21:08

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  This ended up being a permissions issue, as I first suspected. The backup service agent account had full permissions on the share, but not on the physical drive. Once full permissions to the drive were granted, things started working. Thanks for all of your help. It led me down the path I needed.

  charleyevans December 11, 2006 11:33

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