Backup Exec Job Log Settings and Log Management.

Problem

Backup Exec Job Log Settings and Log Management.
 

Solution

Job Log Detail

You can configure default options for job logs that specify the amount of detail you want to include in the completed job log. For the jobs that produce large job logs, you may want to reduce the amount of detail in the job log. The size of the job log increases proportionally to the level of detail that is configured for the job log.

Backup Exec provide 4 Levels of Job Log detail:

- Summary information only

- Summary information and directories processed

- Summary information, directories, and files processed

- Summary information, directories, files, and file details
This option to include summary information, processed subdirectories, a list of all the file names and their attributes in the job log.
This option increases the job log size significantly.
 

Note:
The option "Summary information, directories, files, and file details" should only be selected for troubleshooting purposes or for a technical support case.

Large job logs in XML or HTML format may not open or display as expected in the Backup Exec console. 
Large XML or HTML format files may not open in Browser such as Internet Explorer or Edge browser. 

The combination of Operating System, RAM, CPU, system performance, and XML/HTML rendering may prevent large jobs logs from opening or displaying in the Backup Exec console.

In case you experience this limitation and this has a significant impact on your business processes then please submit an enhancement request via: BackupExec.EnhancementFeedback@veritas.com and refer to this article.


 

If the Backup Exec services are stopped or media server is rebooted during backup job operation, then Backup Exec may end up having malformed Job log XML (aka Job log corruption). Such job log XML’s may face issues while rendering in the Backup Exec console. Backup Exec will attempt to render the malformed job log as text or present a error "Could not load job log" while rendering.

Job Log Location

By Default, the Backup Exec Job log XML files  are located in the Default Backup Exec installation path "Data" folder.

Example: %\Program Files\Veritas\Backup Exec\Data  BEX_<server name>_XXXXXX.xml

The job log location can be changed using Backup Exec BEUTILITY application to store the job logs in another folder or drive.

Job log and catalog location change options

How to change the Job log path and Catalog path in Backup Exec

If a Job or Alert  email notification are configured to Attach the job log as Text or HTML , the amount of space required to store the job log data is increased.
An Email notification if sent with as HTML job log format will generate and save a separate HTML log in the Backup Exec Job path.
This utilizes more disk space as the default XML job log file is created and saved along with the HTML job log file format.

Job Log Retention

By Default,  Backup Exec retains 30 days of job logs.
This setting can be adjusted under the Backup Exec icon - Configuration and Settings - Backup Exec Settings - Database Maintenance and Security options - Number of days to keep data before deleting it from the Backup Exec database - Job logs setting.

Note:
If large detailed job logs do not open in the Backup Exec console, the  Backup Exec Management Command Line Interface (BEMCLI) can be used to convert job log files to another format.

An external application such as a Text Editor/viewer capable of reading large files may be required to open large file formats.

BEMCLI Examples and Reference Only. (Please consult the BEMCLI documentation BEMCLI_en.chm located in the Backup Exec installation directory)

Get-BEJobHistory -FromLastJobRun | Get-BEJobLog

Get-BEJobLog -Path "R:\TEMP\BEX_SERVER_00441.xml"  -OutputStyle text > R:\TEMP\BEX_SERVER_00441.txt

Get-BEJobLog BEX_SERVER_00048.xml -OutputStyle text | Out-File -FilePath .\BEX_SERVER_00048.txt

Get-BEJobLog -Path "R:\TEMP\BEX_SERVER_00441.xml"  -OutputStyle html  > R:\TEMP\BEX_SERVER_00441.html

Get-BEJobHistory -FromLastJobRun | Get-BEJobLog -OutputStyle html | Out-FIle -filepath "R:\TEMP\joblog.html"