Unable to initialize Remote Agent on Netware error

[organman]

Hi !
I'm running ver. 9.1 4691 on a Win2k server and use it to backup a Netware 6.5.5 server running Groupwise 6.5.6.
The problem is that when Groupwise is backed up I get his error message:
Unable to initialize Remote Agent

However the data is backed up.

This problem occured after migrating the server to new hardware, it's now running on a DELL PE1950 box with a dualcore CPU.
When doing the migration I also installed support pack 5 for NetWare.

I did not have this problem on the old hardware where I was using Netware 6.5 with support pack 3.

What could be the problem here ?

 

[LawnBoy]

Have you tried recreating the job?

 

[organman]

I have created a new job from scratch and this job has
the same problem as the old job.

 

[LawnBoy]

If you migrated the client that might be the problem. Try removing it and reinstalling using the Admin Console.

 

[organman]

Here's what I did:
1.Stopped the agent on the Groupwise server (BESTOP).

2.Renamed the bkupexec directory on the Groupwise server.
(yes, I did migrate the client from the old server)

3.On the BE server I went to Tools, Serial numbers and Installtion, Remote Install and selected my Groupwise server.
The remote agent installed successfully.

4.Created a new backup job (with an old selection list)
and ran the job.

Still the same problem.
When looking in the job log it looks like this:

Unable to initialize Remote Agent
Set Information - GRPW.GroupWise System/GRPW.GroupWise System/1[DOM]GRUMSDOM: 1[DOM]GRUMSDOM:


Performing Remote Agent backup
Set Information - GRPW.Novell Directory/GRUMS/Schema:


Performing Remote Agent backup
Set Information - GRPW.NetWare File System/GRPW/VOL1: VOL1:

Performing Remote Agent backup
Set Information - SH01.NetWare File System/SH01/VOL1: VOL1:

It seems to me that the remote agent does work for all parts in the job except for the Groupwise bit.

Any other ideas ?

 

[LawnBoy]

Maybe that old selection list is the problem. I have given up using them on my Netware servers.

If that's not it... You may be having a problem with the Netware TSA. I know SP5 changed the behavior of TSAFS, and I'm not sure whether GWTSA is still supported (functionality is now in TSAFS).

I have a BE remote agent on NW 6.5.5 running GW 6.5.5. I'm using a Netware 6.5.5 box for the media server instead of W2K, but the remote settings ought to be the same. We can compare TSA settings if need be.

 

[organman]

OK, the selection list I referred to as old is not the original list but one that I created today.

If GWTSA is not loaded on the Groupwise server I can not see
or select Groupwise on my media server, so I guess I must have it loaded.

I've just rebooted the Groupwise server and the time is almost 11 here and my regular backup will start and run for 3 hours and I will be sleeping.

I'll report back tomorrow the result of the backup job.

 

[LawnBoy]

I'll bet the reboot doesn't help (this is Netware, after all).

I think you'll need to switch to using TSAFS instead of GWTSA. When I can I'll look up the exact command structure.

 

[organman]

The reboot did not help, same problem.

 

[LawnBoy]

What I have done is:
In sys:system\autoexec.ncf I have commented out the gwtsa.ncf command.
In sys:system\smsstart.ncf I changed the line that reads

LOAD TSAFS.NLM
to 
LOAD TSAFS /EnableGW=yes

This works for me, ymmv.

 

[organman]

OK, that command switch was new to me.
So I searched Novell's web site and downloaded TSA5UP19.
Replaced all NLM's with the ones from tsa5up19 including the new TSAFSGW.NLM.

Now my SMS start files look likes this:

SMSSTART.NCF:
LOAD SMSUT.NLM
LOAD SMDR.NLM
LOAD TSAFS /EnableGW=yes

GWTSA.NCF:
LOAD SYS:\SYSTEM\TSAFSGW /HOME-VOL1:\GRUMSDOM /HOME-VOL1:\GRUMSPO

Then back to the BackupExec media server and created a new backup job.

But the result is the the same, "Unable to initialize Remote Agent" when backing up the Groupwise domain.

 

[LawnBoy]

I know nothing about the tsa5up* patches, or the TSAFSGW. Mine works with the vanilla sp5 files. I was under the impression that you should not run TSAFS /EnableGW=yes while you run GWTSA. One or the other.

I'd suggest you take this to the NW 6.5 forum and see if anybody there has suggestions.

Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[organman]

Thanks, you did help me.
I actually don't run GWTSA but TSAFSGW.NLM is started from the GWTSA.NCF file.
The TSAFSGW.NLM adds the funtionality that GWTSA had, this means that if you use TSAFSGW the Groupwise objects will be seen in the backup application such as BackupExec or ArcServe.

 

[organman]

Problem solved !

When I switched from using GWTSA to TSAFS I took the new NLM's from tsa5up19.exe.
But there is a problem with SMDR.NLM so I used SMDR.NLM from tsa5up18.exe instead.
With this version of SMDR everything works fine.

There is a document on Novell's web site that describes this, Document ID 3000544.