Recover for Exchange, Log File Chain is corrupted

Hello Paul!

Thank you for finding time to report about the issue, I will be glad to help you with it!

Unfortunately due to the lack of investigation information I cannot be sure in the exact cause of the issue, but the details you have kindly specified point on the gap in transaction logs communication. Let me explain: 

when Acronis Recovery for MS Exchange is creating an incremental backup it refers to some particular entry in transaction logs. Should the entry be missing, it will report that no log - thus no full backup - is found, and will create new full archive.

Usually it happens in case there is any third party protection software backing up/using Exchange - after the backup it may clear some transaction logs and cause this problem. I have contacted Development team as well for more details and found out that we had such compatibility issue with the old builds of Acronis Backup and Recovery Software: when we ran system backup after/before Recovery for Exchange, we accidentally caused a mess in the transaction logs. This issue was fixed in the latest build. So in case you are using Acronis Backup and Recovery for that machine please make sure that you have the latest version installed - currently it should be build 11345 and it can be found here. The problem should disappear after its installation.

In case there is no third party protection software using/backing up Exchange database and you have no Acronis Backup and Recovery installed or used for that particular machine, than we will need some additional information to find out the exact cause. Could you please kindly provide us with the following: 

1. Acronis Info
2. Description of the exact sequence of actions that lead to the issue;
3. Build number of the application (Help -> About). Was the application installed on a clean machine or on top of another build?
4. Screenshots of the error messages if there are any or a detailed description of the issue;
5. The whole Acronis folder from the Microsoft Exchange machine:
   

   Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\

   Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008: C:\ProgramData\Acronis\

6. Windows System Information File from the machine where Acronis Recovery for Microsoft Exchange Agent is installed;
7. Windows Event Logs from the Exchange machine that correspond to the failure. Please do not forget to specify the time when the error occurred or clean up the Event Logs before reproducing the issue:
   • Start-Run - type eventvwr.msc
   • Right-click on System and Application and select 'Clear All Events'
   • Exit Event Viewer and reproduce the issue;
   • Start-Run - type eventvwr.msc
   • Right-click on System and select 'Save log file as..', save as System.evt file
   • Right-click on Application and select 'Save log file as..', save as Application.evt file

Please kindly contact us with this information gathered. It will give us the full picture of the problem and help to identify the exact reason of the problem you have faced.

I would appreciate if you could kindly keep us updated.

Should you have any additional questions or face any further difficulties - just leave a comment here or contact any Forum Moderator via PM - and we will definitely help you!

Thank you in advance.

Our exchange server is virtualized, so only the Acronis exchange product is installed on it. The host Hyper V Server backups up the VHD of our mail server using WBS, if that makes any differences.

Details:
Acronis Recovery for Exchange Server version 1.0 build 220

As far as the exact sequence to lead to the issue, I am just doing a scheduled full backup of the IS every week, with incrementals daily. It has been working fine since we installed it, then started throwing that error. It then decides to run a full backup everyday instead of the way it is scheduled.

The more important server information I would rather not post on here, can I PM attachments or email them?

Thanks

Dear Paul!

Thank you for your reply and for the valuable information provided.

I regret to inform you that WBS backup works with VSS infrastructure, thus VSS activates and the needed logs are truncated.

Unfortunately currently there is no workaround available. I assume you will not stop backing up the VHD by means of WBS, so as a possible solution I may suggest you to use our Acronis Backup and Recovery solution since it doesn't flush transaction logs or perform full backups of the database.

I completely understand how inconvenient this issue is and be sure I have forwarded information regarding it to our development team so that could take it under consideration and take an action on it.

I would appreciate any info sent me via PM and any feedback provided. Please don't hesitate to share your concerns with us - we will be glad to help with all your questions.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience again and let me know whether there is anything else I can do for you.

Thank you!