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Home > Thinking out aloud - Dave Hunter's SharePoint Blog > Posts > SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device
My thoughts and findings on Microsoft Information worker technologies, including MCMS and SharePoint 2007 (MOSS).
SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device

You may have seen this error Error: Object SharePoint_Config failed in event OnBackup. For more information, see the error log located in the backup directory. SqlException: Cannot open backup device '\\servername\backup\spbr0001\0000001.bak'. Operating system error 5(error not found).

After reading this article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262704.aspx I resolved the issue. The steps I took were:

  • Set the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) Windows service to run as a domain account. Will require a restart of the service and IIS.
  • Setup sharing on the backup folder. Grant access for the identity that the Central Administration Application Pool runs under, the database SQL account, the identity that the Timer service runs under, to change and read rights.
  • On each of the SharePoint servers check you can access the share.
  • On each of the database servers check you can access the share.
  • Set the folder security, grant privledges for the identity that the Central Administration Application Pool runs under, the database SQL account, the identity that the Timer service runs under to all rights apart from Full Control.
  • When running the backup specify the UNC path to the backup share, instead of the folder location (c:\backups\).  For example: \\SPSDev\Backups

This will fix backups that are performed using SharePoint 2007 Central Administration.

If you are running backups from STSADM you will need to grant access to the share and write access to the folder security for the user that runs the STSADM -o backup command.

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Comments

Couldn't access the link

Couldn't access the link
at 02/04/2008 14:01

Re: SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device

Link is now fixed, Microsoft have reworked their backup information on Technet.
Dave Hunter at 03/04/2008 12:35

Followed the above recommendations but...

Indeed followed recommendations but my back up was performed when I put folder location c:\backip instead of \\server\backup. Thought that it could be due to the reason that I have all (SQL2005+MOSS2007) on one server
at 17/11/2008 14:57

Re: SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device

My back up was performed without errors when I put folder c:\backup instead of \\server\backup. with \\server\backup I kept on getting the above error
at 17/11/2008 14:59

Re: SharePoint 2007 Backup Failed - Cannot open backup device

That's because SQL Server is on the same server as SharePoint.  With a farm deployment (at least one sharepoint server and sql server) you need to specify the UNC path.

Hope this helps
Dave
Dave Hunter at 21/01/2009 17:26

 Dave Hunter

I'm currently a Senior Consultant at Netstore 2e2. I specialise in Microsoft Information Worker technologies (especially MOSS, MCMS and .NET), with over 8 years of experience within this area of specialism. 

I have gained two certifications for MOSS and WSS and look to complete the full certification track soon.

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