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Using xcopy for backing up files and folders July 11th, 2016 If you want to backup a specific folder and do not want to use backup software there is always the xcopy command. Xcopy is primarily used to back up files and folders across a network to a specified device. This example is how to back up a folder on the network to a thumb drive on a server. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Programming , Windows | Comments Off on Using xcopy for backing up files and folders Backup Exec error Buex: Failed – Physical Volume Library Drive not available. Backup Failed, errorCode=-536837876 August 18th, 2015 Overview Backup Exec is throwing the error Buex: Failed – Physical Volume Library Drive not available. Backup Failed, errorCode=-536837876. Prior to this error a tape was stuck” in the tape drive. Holding the eject button in for 15 seconds resets the tape drive and the tape is ejected; however, subsequent backups cannot find the physical library (tape drive). Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Backup Exec , Windows | Comments Off on Backup Exec error Buex: Failed – Physical Volume Library Drive not available. Backup Failed, errorCode=-536837876 Protobase error message: M47 000000000157 FAILED COMM DIRECTOR NOT RUNNING August 12th, 2015 * Restarted the credit card modem * Opened device manager and disabled and re-enabled the COM1 port. * Commands we ran from a command prompt: cd \pb pbfe -i1.in This is a fake credit card transaction” type 1.out Check the error message is should say invalid credit card if the modem is working” Tested on the servers running Protobase and it is working now. Posted in Windows | Tags: Protobase | Comments Off on Protobase error message: M47 000000000157 FAILED COMM DIRECTOR NOT RUNNING Migrating VSI-FAX 6.1 to a new server August 11th, 2015 Moving VSI-FAX to a new server is relatively simple and VSI-FAX 6.1 is compatible with Windows 2008 and 2012. Here are the steps to migrate VSI-FAX: Read the rest of this entry » Posted in VSI-FAX , Windows | Comments Off on Migrating VSI-FAX 6.1 to a new server Adding RDX device to Backup Exec 2012, 2014, and 12.5 May 24th, 2015 Overview: The business was using a tape drive to back up data from various systems using Backup Exec. The tape drive was experiencing problems, so rather than purchasing another tape drive the decision was made to purchase SSD drives. Purchasing SSD drivers for backup purposes is considered the norm. However, there are a few considerations before moving from a tape drive to a RDX device. If the organization needs to be SOX (Sarbanes – Oxley) compliant and are currently using a tape drive, the tape drive will need to be in working order for audit purposes since the previous seven years’ worth of backups are on tape. RDX devices do not provide the data compression of tapes. If the data being backed up to tape was 200 GB with a compression ratio of 2:1 the backup takes 100 GB on tape but will take 200 GB on an RDX device. The up-front costs of implementing a RDX solution is lower that a tape system, but the SSD disks tend to be 2 to 3 times the price of comparable tapes. Expect to get one year out of the SSD disk before it needs to be replaced, so over a period of time the costs associated with a RDX solution will equal the cost of the tape solution. Many RDX solutions are USB in nature where tapes drives are generally SCSI, so the backup will be limited by the USB speed. As the SSD disk becomes fragmented, expect the backup to take a longer period of time to complete. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Backup Exec , Windows | Comments Off on Adding RDX device to Backup Exec 2012, 2014, and 12.5 Clean up Prophet 21 P21Forms directory on Windows servers using forfiles command May 12th, 2015 Purpose Many applications create files for logging the functionality and errors occurred during operation. There are times the log files are not cleaned up and start to accumulate within a folder on the operating system. Using the forfiles” command to reduce the number of files in a directory (folder) for faster indexing (listing) of files in Windows 7, 8 and Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, and 2014. Analysis Running nightly backups of websites to an external USB drive reduces the space on the drive since every backup is being retained for archive purposes. The files are compressed to save space, but accumulate due to no cleanup module. Using the forfiles” command from the command line, in Task Manager, or within the actual backup script will reduce the number of files within the directories (folders). Note: Forfiles will only accept single arguments for search criteria, so if the directory (folder) has multiple search criteria, in the nightly backup example there are both .tar and .bak files that need to be removed, so you will need to perform a loop within a batch file. Note: Be careful with wildcard characters like *” and ?” since forfiles will bypass the recycle bin. Note: This is a way to delete files from the command line or a batch file and not a way to bypass other deletion methods. Explorer.exe will consume CPU and memory while running so consider running forfiles during off-hours. Note: Test forfiles with a non-intrusive command like dir to examine the files selected before running forfiles command section with a dir command. Process Open a command prompt by typing cmd in the search or run text boxes in Windows. At the command line type forfiles /? and press Enter If you receive the message forfiles is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable batch file or program” the means the environmental path is not in the path statement on the PC or server. 64 bit system: C:\Windows\System32\forfiles Use the full path in the command (recommended for automated tasks) or add the path to the Environmental Variables – Path statement Let us analyze the following command: forfiles /P L:\Backups\MyWebsite\ /M *.tar /D -200 /C cmd /c del @file” /P is the path directive. In the example the folder is on the L: disk and under the Backups folder. /M is the search pattern. The search pattern should be as close to finding the files that the command will execute against. /D is the date for the files that will be acted against by the command. In this example -200 means delete any files with a .tar extension that is over 200 days old. /C is the actual command. cmd /c del @file” is what will be executed against any .tar files that are over 200 days old in the L:\Backups\MyWebsite\ folder. /S **CAUTION** with this flag. This means recursive and will follow into subdirectories within the main directory. This could have undesirable effects and should be tested with a non-final command like cmd /c dir @file”. Taking the previous command forfiles /P L:\Backups\ /S /M *.tar /D -200 /C cmd /c del @file” will delete all TAR files over 200 days old in any folder under L:\Backups. Logging in forfiles can be accomplished by creating a log file, like forfiles /P L:\Backups\ /S /M *.tar /D -200 /C cmd /c del @file”C:\temp\myfiles.txt This is a small example of what the forfiles command can do to clean up large number of files on a Windows system. Posted in Windows | Comments Off on Clean up Prophet 21 P21Forms directory on Windows servers using forfiles command BackupExec or Backup Exec VSS issue with Windows System Path November 26th, 2014 Problem: V-79-10000-11226 – VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot technology selected returned: Unexpected provider error”. Ensure that all provider services are enabled and can be started. Check the Windows Event Viewer for details. The following volumes are dependent on resource: C:” . Analysis: Since this was a VSS writer issue on a Windows 2008 R2 server, the first thing I ran was vssadmin list writers” to see what writers were failing. The failing writers were all Windows system writers like the WMI Writer. So I re-registered the writers running a batch script, but you can accomplish the...