WMI, SQL Express, Backup Exec and Zero

This post is not a technical resolution post, more a can you help with this issue post.

Have a box that was working, then some MS updates broke something on the box. Tried to reinstall Backupexec and failed on SQL Express.

Uninstalled all of it, cleaned out registry and some other bits, files, etc.. and still will nto go.
Downloaded a new SQL express and that installed okay, as did the updates.

Backupexec still will not work, tried Darren's advice about VSS the other day, still nothing.

Symantec has been working on a different problem and this was a secondary box which was to do full backups of laptop users but now is needed to work properly.

When running the WMI diags it shows issues, followed the steps to rebuild and clean but still no luck. WMI is reported as a pre-install error by Backupexec.

Any input welcome as I try other ways to get this done?

BackupExec Logs Using Too Much Space? Poor Domino

This is for a friend but an excellent reminder to everyone else.

If you happen to notice your C drive rapidly losing disk space even though nothing is there, no temp files, no swap files, etc.., this may be your problem.

When you installed Symantec's BackupExec, did you install it to the C drive?
And if this was an older server, did C not have too many Gigabytes, like say 25?

Well slowly over time you may experience disk space evaporation. Not as nice as the Angel's Share of Scotch Whisky because this can and will impact your Domino server.

How you might ask? A small list of reasons:

File compaction or any utilities need SPACE to do their dirty work to make your server feel like a teenager every morning or weekend, depending on when you run these. As a rough estimate I like to have at least 2.5 times the disk space free as the LARGEST .NSF file. This ensures we have growth capabilities and some time before we come to a screeching halt.
Server stops processing. The console looks frozen. Well what do you do when you run out of energy...sleep! So does your server. It can hang on with swap file RAM and such but wait too long and it says hello to the fishes and goes quiet.
Mail stops routing. If there is not enough space to temporary store attachments and such conversions, no mail flows.
Replication errors and conflicts. I know you figured this one out already.
FTI or Full Text Index stops indexing or gets corrupted, and thus searches do not work properly. Help desk calls ensue and if you are not running a monitoring program (DDM/GSX Monitor/Vitalsigns)you lose! You get no chocolates, good day sir!

I could go on but you get the idea.

So how do you 1) know if this is happening? 2) Prevent the logs from gobbling up space like Pac-Man?

DDM, Domino Domain Monitoring the last few years I have been pushing on Admins to make even simple usage of DDM. It will help you in so many ways even if you set up the basic warnings. You can listen to it or get the slides from my Slide tab above or this link. At a minimum set up a disk space warning so when the server gets below, 10GB, or whatever is 2.5x the largest database, you know about it and can start planning.

Now to prevent the problem from happening to begin with from Symantec.
There is a utility installed in your Program files\Symantec\Backup Exec\ folder called Beutility.exe.
This program acts like a super administrator to the BackupExec settings.
You see you can not just change the location of the logs by clicking on Tools-Options from the menu bar, go down to Job Defaults and find Job Logs and edit it. The field is not editable.

So open up the BEutility file and click on All Media Servers and then right click on your server and select Set job log and catalog location. Then click on the check box to change the locations and enter the new location. Save and it will prompt you to restart the services and handle it all for you.
Screen shots and more details from this Symantec Technote Article: TECH50241

You can verify it worked by clicking on Tools-Options from the menu bar, go down to Job Defaults and find Job Logs and you will now see it changed.

Hope this helps my friend, and you, if you ever see this happening.

Symantec BackupExec for Domino Fix for Hang

I was not very happy with Symantec for dropping my ticket because we took too long to resolve it. See earlier post.
Some people at Symantec did care enough to get in touch with me and help resolve a problem that as it turns out plagued both Darren and I.
Thanks to Russ and Ron for their help.

The issue was after installation you want to set up your backup for Domino.

But when we would go to click on the list of Domino databases, well you clikc on the drive letter first, it would never come back and show the list. Eventually you have to exit or stop the processes and that got annoying.

What took 4 months+ to figure out is there was a file in the wrong place on the server.

The ndgts.dll file which should be found in c:\lotus\domino was in c:\lotus\domino\data incorrectly.
 What we both found was we also had a version in the correct place. the correct version was in the correct place, but the incorrect version, which looked to be from Domino 8.5.2 or 8.5.0 must have been installed incorrectly during a fixpack update or some other way. Maybe my IBM support friends will have some insight.

Deleting the file from the wrong place, rebooting the physical server(to clear the dll from memory) allowed the process to continue.

As Russ said on the comments to the other post:

It turned out in both cases that there was an older Domino DLL (NDGTS.DLL) in the Domino data folder that the Backup Exec agent was finding before getting to the proper version in the Domino binaries location. Have a look here for the resulting fix Technote. http://www.symantec.com/docs/S:TECH164926

Thank you to Symantec again.