Please start any new threads on our new site at https://forums.sqlteam.com. We've got lots of great SQL Server experts to answer whatever question you can come up with.

 All Forums
 General SQL Server Forums
 New to SQL Server Programming
 Drive not visible for backups

Author  Topic 

samu_78_nyc
Starting Member

11 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:09:58
Hi all,
I have a 1 TB network drive on a Windows 2005 sql server that is visible at the OS level.I am trying to use this for my SQL backups but this drive is not visible from SQL server. All the other drives appear fine except this drive. The OS team already checked everything and as its visible at the OS level they point to SQL server as the one having problems.
Any suggestion would help..
-Thanks all.

sakets_2000
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1472 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:14:18
sql server doesn't read network drives.
Go to Top of Page

sakets_2000
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1472 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:15:43
You will have to do with SAN or a local drive.
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:23:43
Are you using a UNC path or mapped drive?


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:30:16
It will I am doing it every night.
And every 15 mins


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

sakets_2000
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1472 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:30:29
quote:
Originally posted by jhocutt

Are you using a UNC path or mapped drive?


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking



Even if you have the network drive as a UNC drive, Sql server still won't see it I think...
Go to Top of Page

sakets_2000
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1472 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:40:01
quote:
Originally posted by jhocutt

It will I am doing it every night.
And every 15 mins


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking



That requires some configuration change at the time of installation...not sure if its at the OS level or on sql server side though.
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:41:16
If the SQL Server service is running as a network user and not the Local System account.
Then it will have access to the network.

Mapped drives are an issue because the service has to map the drive otherwise it is not available.
A batch file will work but is flakey. UNC pathing orks fine as long as the services are running as an authenticated user that has access to the shared folder, or you create a share that does not require authentication (bad idea).


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

sakets_2000
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1472 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 09:48:10
Thats informative, I hadn't heard of SQL Server services running as a network user till today.
Don't you face performance issues having it on network if thats the case ? I don' know much about NAS,can they be as good as SANs ?(am assuming you are using NAS )
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 10:08:20
Im using a shared drive on a windows2000 server as storage and it works just fine.
Granted I am only backing up about 40 gigs of data, but no problems.


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

samu_78_nyc
Starting Member

11 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 11:48:15
Hi all,
Thanks for all the replies. It's a SAN drive and I could use it to create or delete any sub directories. please let me know if you need any additional information and how to look up the OS level information if needed.
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 12:04:00
Ok, so from SQL Server you can create and delete directories but not backup?


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

samu_78_nyc
Starting Member

11 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 12:35:22
Hi,
I could use the drive to save results from a query and run the queries from the files but when I am trying to set up my backups, the directory is not visible.
Go to Top of Page

jhocutt
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

385 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 12:41:15
Did you try just typing in the UNC path.


"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein
"Not only does God play dice, but he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
-- Stephen Hawking
Go to Top of Page

rmiao
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

7266 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-21 : 16:03:06
>> I hadn't heard of SQL Server services running as a network user till today. Don't you face performance issues having it on network if thats the case?

You can start sql services with domain account, but not put db files on network share.
Go to Top of Page

samu_78_nyc
Starting Member

11 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-22 : 09:29:51
Hi,
I typed in the path of the directory and it works fine for the system db backups.
I have a new problem now as I changed the transaction log backup that runs for every two hours to the new directory. The job history says the backup is successful but I do not see the file in the directory. I changed the directory back to the previous directory and the job says the backup is successful but now I do not see the file in both old and new directories.
Do we need to have the log backed up to the same directory where the differential or full backup is? If the job says the backup is successful, where do I look up for the file?
All the jobs are set up as a maintenance plan where I am modifying them.
-Thanks all...
Go to Top of Page

rmiao
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

7266 Posts

Posted - 2008-02-25 : 13:56:11
Don't have to be in same directory, check sql server log to find out what happened.
Go to Top of Page

dbull
Starting Member

1 Post

Posted - 2008-06-10 : 17:08:13
Hi,

Back to the original topic somewhat. I'm trying to add a filegroup and data file to an existing database. SQL Server doesn't seem to see the drive I want to put the new storage onto. It's a local drive, but doesn't show up if I try to browse to it, and if I enter it explicitly in the ADD FILE syntax, I get an error:


Msg 5133, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Directory lookup for the file "L:\MSSQL\Data\raster_Data02.ndf" failed with the operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
Msg 5009, Level 16, State 8, Line 1
One or more files listed in the statement could not be found or could not be initialized.
Go to Top of Page

MS_SQL_ER
Starting Member

1 Post

Posted - 2008-09-09 : 16:06:22
Hi,

I'm having same issue. How.. I say, How do I get SQL SVR (05) to see my network drives? I'm logged in as a domain administrator via NT Authentication. This account has admin privileges on the local drive, the network drive I'm trying to use for backup and with SQL SVR (and the db I'm trying to backup). I'm using the UNC for the path in my script, and the sp_addumpdevice procedure. I still get OS error 3 "Access Denied". I read the note up above to run the service as user with network privileges... but I don't think that's my problem as I can't see any drive but C:\. Any ideas?

Go to Top of Page
   

- Advertisement -