Schedule puzzle
I’m using TI 2017 and in the main it works okay. I do however have one puzzling behaviour with this product. It is set to wake the computer at 14:00 every day for differential backups. I did have some issues at first getting TI to see the share on my Synology NAS but that now appears solved.
The puzzle I have is that if I'm actually using the computer at 14:00 Acronis misses the backup. If I open up the application there is no error message i.e. Acronis failed to backup or failed to find backup folder etc. At the top of the screen it simply lists the last backup as e.g. yesterday, with next back scheduled for e.g. tomorrow. No mention of what happened to todays backup whatsoever. If the computer is in hibernate mode then everything works as expected.
Is this normal behaviour?
Wake up computer. The other options are unticked.
Please download and use the MVP Log Viewer to check what messages may be written to the log files created by Acronis, these may shed more light on this issue. Link below in my signature or see the sticky post in this forum.
Hello again Steve,
Update to the log I sent to you directly yesterday. I left the computer in hibernate today and like clockwork Acronis woke up the computer and carried out the scheduled backup task. It appears then the issue arises if the computer is already awake i.e. that's when the backup isn't initiated - how odd.
I suggest looking at the Schedul2 logs. Compare the log for the time when the task runs on schedule to the time when it is not running. I've had an unresolved problem where at times the backup would not run and it seemed to be related to coming out of sleep mode. In those cases, the Schedule2 task did start on schedule, but it just did not start the backup task. I wonder if this is a similar case.
David, sorry but with this new forum I am not notified when I am send private messages so had not seen your log file information.
The log itself shows a successful backup action but also shows that this was for a manual start of the task, not for the failed scheduled task.
2017-06-09 14:06:47:282 15772 I00640002: Operation DAVID-PC started manually.
As Bruno has suggested above, you may need to look at the other logs such as those for the Scheduler task to see if these show any indication of why the task didn't run per the schedule?
In reply to David, sorry but with this… by truwrikodrorow…
Thanks for your response Steve and Bruno. Would I use the app you've created in order for me to view these logs?
BTW it was me that started the successful manual backup.
Use the MVP Log Viewer. On the Log Type menu select Schedul2.
Thanks Bruno. Will do this later as I'm at the in-laws at the moment.
Now I'm really confused. Used the MPV viewer again and selected Schedul2. However, the logs run from the 15th May (day of Acronis installation) and they end on the 3rd June. There's nothing after that and the 3rd of June is the date of the full image file using the differential model. It is also the date I managed to get Acronis running and backing up correctly.
I assume I'm using the correct method for accessing my Synology NAS? At first I tried the method of selecting 'network' then pointing Acronis at Diskstation > Diskstation.Home > Backup share. This would run only if I had the computer on. If it was hibernating, then for some reason whilst it would wake up it couldn't access the NAS. I would get file not found or similar messages. I tried deleting the smb entries in the registry re-entered credentials etc. but all to no avail.
What I did then was I mounted the 'backup share' as Z drive on my PC which uses the IP address of Diskstation in order to access the NAS. This works and is what I'm using currently.
Now I'm really confused. Used the MPV viewer again and selected Schedul2. However, the logs run from the 15th May (day of Acronis installation) and they end on the 3rd June. There's nothing after that and the 3rd of June is the date of the full image file using the differential model. It is also the date I managed to get Acronis running and backing up correctly.
I assume I'm using the correct method for accessing my Synology NAS? At first I tried the method of selecting 'network' then pointing Acronis at Diskstation > Diskstation.Home > Backup share. This would run only if I had the computer on. If it was hibernating, then for some reason whilst it would wake up it couldn't access the NAS. I would get file not found or similar messages. I tried deleting the smb entries in the registry re-entered credentials etc. but all to no avail.
What I did then was I mounted the 'backup share' as Z drive on my PC which uses the IP address of Diskstation in order to access the NAS. This works and is what I'm using currently.
I appear to have a double post yesterday, so apologies to everyone, I'm not even sure how it's happened.
My second apology concerns the last couple of paragraphs of that double post, i.e. how Acronis was accessing the NAS.
I had assumed because that's how I set it up, that Acronis TI backup was accessing my Synology NAS via the mapped network drive to the NAS backup folder using Windows explorer and the NAS IP address.
However, that now appears not to be the case as I disconnected the mapped drive and yet Acronis has still backed up okay today. Looking at the Acronis setup it's definitely backing up to 'my network place'. Mind you I'm not sure how, as I definitely pointed Acronis to the mapped network drive.
This app obviously has a mind of its own.
I have now managed to get the schedul2 logs and have sent extracts to Steve with the relevant times and dates (i.e. 9th June failed, 10th okay, 11th okay). The 9th June being when I was actually using the computer when the scheduled task was supposed to start. The 10th and 11th the computer was in hibernate state.
I don’t pretend to understand the logs so I’m hoping Steve can make sense of them.
I was confused when you said there were no Schedul2 logs after June 3rd, but now it seems you've found them. I would also be interested to see the log extracts you sent to Steve.
Hi Bruno,
Just sent the extracts directly to you. 14:00 is the relevant scheduled task time for each day. The 9th June is the failed one where I start it manually.
Cheers.
David, to work with the Schedul2 log information, please can you use the Acronis Scheduler Manager (link in my signature) and use this to get list showing the task numbers for your scheduled task, i.e. is it 1-10 or 1-2 ?
In the get list output, the task identifier is the same as the Scripts folder .tib.tis file name for the task, where you will need to open each of these files in a text editor and check the actual task name for the GUI in the <display> ..name here .. </display> brackets for the XML content.
I am seeing task 1-2 starting at 13:59 on both the 10th & 11th but not shown on the 9th.
This looks to be a prerequisite for task 1-10 being launched "Trying task 1-10 as TIME_NORMAL" at 14:00 on these days - this leads to "Task 1-10 completed with exit code=0" at 14:29 on these days where exit code=0 = successful.
This is the key difference between the log for the 9th compared to the other days.
I do see "Trying task 1-10 as MANUAL" at 14:06 on the 9th, which I believe is when you ran the missed schedule task manually.
It may be worth using the Scheduler Manager to clear all task schedule entries out, then reconfigure the task(s) via the main ATIH GUI to reset the schedule. Use task zap to clear all schedule entries.
I sent a back channel reply, but to follow up... I had what appears to be the same issue and my workaround was to restart the Acronis Schedule2 service on a scheduled task shortly before the backup is to start. You can read about it in this thread...
I had opened a support case with Acronis and the final resolution of that case was that the developers knew about it and would fix it in ATI 2018, due later this summer.
Hi Steve, Bruno,
I will have a look at this later tonight as I have family visiting today and she who must be obeyed has given me a scheduled task - prepare dinner. ?
I have just sent you an update Steve.
Sorry but the PM had no Title so cannot click on it to open the message.
I have sent you an update Steve.
Hi Steve,
Sent you a further update including some logs.
David, it would be better to try to keep updates to the one place here in the main forum topic rather than in private messages. I am not alerted to new messages with this new forum software as well it not being very obvious which are new in the way they are shown. I will raise this with the forum moderator as a separate issue (among a number of others) with the new forum.
From the 'get list' output, the issue would appear to be that the Acronis Protection tasks are not launching correctly when your scheduled task fails to run.
1-1 C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ga_service.exe
1-2 C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ga_service.exe /ransomware
The schedul2 log showed no mention of these two tasks for the 9th but both are shown in the logs for the 10th & 11th days.
Purging all the scheduled tasks via 'task zap' with the Scheduler Manager tool then reconfiguring the schedules may resolve this, but otherwise you should open this as a Support Case with Acronis and perhaps link it to Bruno's case (he should be able to give you his case number to reference).
Hi Steve,
I have read your message. The 14 day differential cycle ends after Tuesday's backup, so I will leave it until the cycle has finished then purge the system as you suggested. I am going to make sure the computer is on again today when the backup should take place just to see if it does the same thing again.
I will provide an update later today.
Hello again Steve/Bruno,
Update as promised. I have had the computer in use today for the 14:00 hrs backup and the backup took place without any issue whatsoever.
I don't know why there was a blip on the 9th June, but everything now appears to be working again i.e. coming out of hibernate to backup and backing up when I'm actually using the computer.
For the time being I will just have to put it down to gremlins, though I will continue to monitor the situation.
Thanks once again to the both of you for all your assistance.
David, thanks for the latest update and hope that the gremlins stay away!