ESF TECH NOTE: BACKUP EXEC "AFTER-HOLIDAY" ERROR MESSAGES
This tech note applies to users of Backup Exec (Seagate/Veritas) for Netware.

If you have Backup Exec scheduled to perform daily backups of your server at night, then you will likely receive error messages when returning from a holiday or extended weekend.

The message log screen will likely read something like this:

SESSION IS IN NEED OF ATTENTION

This is because the tape is ejected automatically after a completed backup, and since the tape was not replaced over holiday, the scheduler could not proceed to the next backup job.

To clear these messages and prepare the server for the next normal backup, perform the following steps:

  1. PRESS [ENTER] ON THE KEYBOARD. (IF THIS DOES NOT WORK, THEN PRESS [TAB] THEN [ENTER]

  2. ON THE DETAILS SCREEN, YOU WILL SEE A PROMPT REQUESTING A NEW TAPE AND A CHOICE OF YES OR NO TO CONTINUE. PRESS N FOR NO

  3. YOU WILL SEE A RESULTING MESSAGE WITH THE JOB COMPLETION STATUS: ABORTED. PRESS [ESC] KEY TO RETURN TO THE JOB MANAGER SCREEN

  4. YOU WILL SEE THE ABORTED STATUS REPORTED ON THE LAST MESSAGE LINE. ON THE TOP OF THE SCREEN, THE NEXT JOB STATUS SHOULD READ "READY"
The server is now ready for the next backup. You can now insert the currently scheduled tape.