Yes -- after I wrote the post, I found out that the backup is being
performed by the tape backup system's agent, which hooks into SQL Server.
The only thing is, this has been going on for years, and has never
interfered with SQL Server Agent before. Also, the tape backup agent's
backups never appeared in the SQL log before. (The software is Veritas
Agent, I believe.)

So, in summary:

1) Vertias Agent has been running for years doing nightly backup to tape,
without interfering with SQL Server Agent, and without its backups appearing
on the SQL Server log.

2) On 4/17, an update to Windows 2000 Server was installed, and, that
evening, the Veritas Agent backups started appearing on the SQL Server log.
(The sys admin swears he didn't update or change anything with Veritas Agent
or SQL Server -- only the Windows 2000 Server update.)

3) After the Veritas Agent backups started appearing on the SQL Server logs,
the night of 4/17, the regular SQL Server Agent maintenance and backup jobs
stopped working. They would execute, but would remain on "executing step 1"
indefinitely. When I tried to run each step manually, the results were the
same, with the exception of the backup. When I ran the SQL Server Agent
backup job manually, it did backup the master and msdb databases; but it
hung indefinitely when backing up my database.

So that's the situation. Now how to get out of it and get SQL Server Agent
to start working again.

Neil


"Roy Harvey (SQL Server MVP)" <roy_harvey@snet.net> wrote in message
news:uvke1454aqpg4rriceqh5uo3aenuedcktd@4ax.com...
> It has been a long time since I've worked with SQL Server 7.0, and I
> don't have the docs handy, but the thought I have is that a third
> party backup tool is running the database backups. As shipped SQL
> Server can only back up to a disk file (local or remote) or a tape
> drive physically attached to the server. However they provided hooks
> for third party backup software vendors to write an agent that runs on
> the SQL Server; the agent initiates the backup and routes the data to
> the backup program running on a centralized system. That allows
> backup directly to tape with the tape drive on another server.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Roy Harvey
> Beacon Falls, CT
>
> On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:43:33 GMT, "Neil" <nospam@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>>Having problems with SQL Agent in SQL 7. Just noticed that my backup
>>hasn't
>>been running since the 17th. Went into SQL Agent, and the 4 jobs that it
>>does (integrity checks, optimizations, transaction log backup, and db
>>backup) were all hanging -- still running "step 1" from the 18th.
>>
>>I stopped SQL Agent and restarted it, and tried running the integrity
>>checks. It hung.
>>
>>Stopped SQL Agent and restarted it and tried running optimizations. It
>>hung.
>>
>>Stopped SQL Agent and restarted it and tried running db backups. The
>>backups
>>job runs three backups: master, msdb, and my database. Interestingly, the
>>backup job created a backup for master and msdb, but didn't create a
>>backup
>>for my database. The job just continually showed that it was being
>>processed
>>when I looked in EM, under Management, SQL Server Agent, Jobs.
>>
>>I stopped SQL Agent again, and restarted it. Then I did a manual backup of
>>my database. The manual backup worked fine. Also, the database itself
>>seems
>>to have been working fine these past 11 days. But, for some reason, SQL
>>Agent won't run the jobs for my database.
>>
>>As noted, the last successful running of the jobs was on the 17th, between
>>4
>>and 5 a.m. On that same day, between 3 and 4 a.m., the sys admin applied
>>some Windows 2000 Server security updates and rebooted the server. Then
>>the
>>jobs ran an hour later. Then, on the 18th, the integrity checks ran
>>successfully at 4:10. After that, nothing ran successfully.
>>
>>Even stranger, still, are the SQL Server Logs.
>>
>>The SQL Server logs show SQL Server stopping at 3:29 am on the 17th
>>(probably at the time of reboot), and then restarting at 3:35 am, and then
>>completing the backups of the three databases at 4:37 and 4:38 am. That's
>>all fine.
>>
>>Then, that night, at 10:08 pm on the 17th, there's a log entry that reads:
>>"Using 'xpsql70.dll' version '2000.28.09' to execute extended stored
>>procedure 'xp_msver'"
>>
>>Then, at 11:00 pm that same night, EVERY database was backed up (master,
>>model, msdb, Northwind, pubs, my database, and another I have there called
>>test1). They all got backed up at 11:00 pm on the 17th, even though I have
>>no maintenance plan that specifies that they should be backed up.
>>
>>Then, after the 17th, according to the logs, those 7 databases got backed
>>up
>>every night between 10 and 11 pm -- but at a different time each night:
>>10:41 on the 18th; then 10:37 the following night; then 10:41; then 10:42;
>>then 10:51; 10:57; etc. Clearly, these backups are happening at the end of
>>another job, which is taking longer and longer.
>>
>>But the question still remains: what caused these 7 backups to happen in
>>the
>>first place? The Windows 2000 Server updates that the admin applied the
>>morning of the 17th? And why do my regular Agent jobs not execute, but
>>just
>>hang indefinitely?
>>
>>Also, though the log shows these 7 backups running every night, I don't
>>see
>>the backups anywhere. Looking at the properties for one of the log
>>entries,
>>I see the following:
>>
>>Database backed up with following information: Database: Northwind,
>>creation
>>date and time: 2002/05/19(12:03:16), pages dumped: 371, first LSN:
>>26:426:1,
>>last LSN: 26:428:1, sort order: 52, striped: 0, number of dump devices: 1,
>>device information: (FILE=1, TYPE=VIRTUAL_DEVICE:
>>{'Northwind_00__8b6a35a5_2ead_4045_8bc2_c975392f 0020_'}).
>>
>>So it's backing up to a virtual device, which explains why I don't see the
>>backups anywhere.
>>
>>Anyway, any ideas as to what might be going on and how I may be able to
>>fix
>>it so that my regular maintenance jobs and backups are able to run again
>>would be appreciated. Thanks!
>>
>>Neil
>>