Getting "Warning....Failed to consolidate backups."
I am running build 6942 of TIH 2011 with the Plus Pack installed. I have a custom scheme, incremental backup schedule with a new full backup scheduled after every 5 incremental backups. I store no more than 1 recent version chain.
The backups are always validated and I never get any error messages and all seems to go well with one exception. I always get a message near the end of the log file that says:
23 Warning 4/17/2012 8:58:01 PM Failed to consolidate backups.
This message occurs on every job, whether it is time for a consolidation or not. After the fifth incremental, a new full backup is always created and validated as expected and I'm currently on the 13th series of this configuration without any other issues.
Is the "failure to consolidate" message a non-issue or is there something amiss?
Thanks!
Hello Scott,
No, I have not done a manual validation recently, but will certainly try that. I will also try altering the number of retained full backups to see if that makes a difference. Good suggestions, thanks. Will report results.
Well, this is getting more curious the more closely I look. I just checked the logs and all the backups that have run since I made my original thread post (4/18, 4/19, 4/20, 4/22) have completed without the usual "Failed to consolidate backups" message. It's like one of those weird situations when your car is making a terrible noise for miles and miles until you finally pull into the mechanic's shop.
Well, I went ahead and altered the job settings to allow a 2nd version chain to be kept, but I didn't do that until today. After the backup ran, I checked the logs and discovered that today's run was fine, but all of the others back to just AFTER my original post in the early hours of 4/18 were fine too. Oh well, I guess I'll monitor it for awhile and call it "cured" if no other issues.
However, just to be sure, I want to post the before and after versions of my logs because there is something odd about the backup file names that I hadn't noticed before. On all the backups which contain the "Failed to consolidate" message the file name is appended with a lengthy set of extra digits that I did not include. I presume these are some sort of internal tracking tags that ATIH uses to keep track of the incremental version files? But oddly, they disappear on the log files where the error message also disappears. Does anyone know what this represents? Here is one of the old log file entries with the extended file name followed by the most recent log entry that seems more normal (whatever "normal" is...)
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1 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:49 PM Operation MRPISKY_ started.
2 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:49 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
3 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:49 PM Analyzing partition 'H:'...
4 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:50 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
5 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:51 PM Analyzing partition '2-1'...
6 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:51 PM Analyzing partition 'C:'...
7 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:51 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
8 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:51 PM Analyzing partition 'E:'...
9 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:52 PM Priority changed to High.
10 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:52 PM Create Incremental Backup Archive Password Protected From: System Reserved (2-1), NTFS (C:), D... Compression: Normal
11 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:54 PM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
12 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:54 PM Locking partition 2-1...
13 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:54 PM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
14 Information 4/16/2012 7:33:54 PM Locking partition C:...
15 Information 4/16/2012 7:34:11 PM Backing up to file: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(12)6.tib"
16 Information 4/16/2012 7:35:10 PM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
17 Information 4/16/2012 7:35:10 PM Locking partition E:...
18 Information 4/16/2012 7:37:55 PM Pending operation 144 started: 'Saving partition structure'.
19 Information 4/16/2012 7:37:55 PM Pending operation 144 started: 'Saving partition structure'.
20 Information 4/16/2012 7:37:55 PM Validate Backup Archive Location: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(12)6.tib"
21 Information 4/16/2012 7:37:55 PM Pending operation 3 started: 'Validate Backup Archive'.
22 Information 4/16/2012 8:51:47 PM Consolidate Backup Archive Location: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(12)6.tib" Destination: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(12)6_764F64D7-24C1-4E1D-A8E1-D2EF8C2175C0.tib"
23 Warning 4/16/2012 8:51:47 PM Failed to consolidate backups.
24 Information 4/16/2012 8:51:47 PM Operation has succeeded.
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1 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:41 AM Operation MRPISKY_ started.
2 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:41 AM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
3 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:41 AM Analyzing partition '1-1'...
4 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:41 AM Analyzing partition 'C:'...
5 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:42 AM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
6 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:42 AM Analyzing partition 'E:'...
7 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:42 AM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
8 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:43 AM Analyzing partition 'H:'...
9 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:44 AM Priority changed to High.
10 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:44 AM Create Incremental Backup Archive Password Protected From: System Reserved (1-1), NTFS (C:), D... Compression: Normal
11 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:46 AM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
12 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:46 AM Locking partition 1-1...
13 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:46 AM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
14 Information 4/22/2012 10:55:46 AM Locking partition C:...
15 Information 4/22/2012 10:56:02 AM Backing up to file: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(13)5.tib"
16 Information 4/22/2012 10:57:02 AM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
17 Information 4/22/2012 10:57:02 AM Locking partition E:...
18 Information 4/22/2012 10:59:03 AM Pending operation 144 started: 'Saving partition structure'.
19 Information 4/22/2012 10:59:03 AM Pending operation 144 started: 'Saving partition structure'.
20 Information 4/22/2012 10:59:04 AM Validate Backup Archive Location: "H:\Acronis - Paul\MrPisky\MRPISKY_(13)5.tib"
21 Information 4/22/2012 10:59:04 AM Pending operation 3 started: 'Validate Backup Archive'.
22 Information 4/22/2012 12:10:22 PM Operation has succeeded.
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For reference, I'm backing up to an external 2TB Fantom drive via eSATA port. I do not backup sector to sector and I use normal compression. I was backing up with one version chain kept and a new full backup after every 5 increments. I've now altered that scheme to retain 2 full version chains with a new full version created after every 3 increments.
One final thing that may be of interest. Prior to running today's backup, there were already three increments and one full backup in the chain. After editing the settings to allow 2 full chains and new full backups after every 3 increments, I fully expected a new full backup chain to be started today. Instead, a fourth incremental backup was performed per the original settings. It seems the new settings do not affect the existing chain(s) created under old settings? Or am I missing something?
Many users have posted that editing existing task causes unpredictable results. While it may correct itself after it creates 3 new backups after the change, or, you may also eventually find that you have to create a completely new task . Point the new task to a new and empty folder or sub-folder. My recommendation is to use individual folders for each backup task.
Thanks Grover,
Yes, that has also been my experience in the past. I usually have to completely recreate the backup job using a new name and dedicated folder to get it stable again. Running a manual validate right now, will see how it turns out from there.
EDIT: Manual validation is good. Will wait to see if consolidations occur as scheduled or whether a new job must be created.
I ran some extra manual backups to speed up the process and everything seems to be working as planned. The version chain that existed prior to editing the backup schedule was automatically deleted today when a new full backup was complete. I was interested to see if Acronis would see it or ignore it. I'm now running a scheme where I keep two full backups, each with three increments, but I changed the validation to run as a separate task once a week. I was validating every backup, but I have read some posts that indicate that may be overkill. This will speedup the processing time quite a bit too. I haven't see any further "failed to consolidate backups" messages in the logs, so all is good there.
I really hate to see all the bad reports about TIH 2012. My favorite version was TIH2010, but 2011 seems to be working well for me too. I think I liked the 2010 interface a lot better though. Sure wish Acronis could stop focusing on adding so much new fluff and functionality and get back to doing what it does best.
Thanks for all the helpful comments here.