Log Shipping Backup Failure

By Ginger Daniel | Backup and Restore

Aug 24

For years the SQL Agent service account on my client’s SQL Server instance ran the Maintenance Plans and SQL Agent jobs with no issues. Many of the SQL databases were set to Full recovery model, and Tlog backups executed on regular bases with no problems.

The client decided to migrate to new hardware in a new datacenter, and decided log shipping the databases over until the go-live date would be the best option for them in their circumstances. We took the databases out of the regular Tlog backup routines and created Transaction Log Shipping routines in its place. The connections to the new instance were seamless, and the Copy & Restore jobs were executing fine. However the Backup jobs were failing!

Why would this be, since the SQL Agent service account had been executing Tlog backups for years!? As it turns out, log shipping uses a different executable for performing tlog backups: sqllogship.exe. The SQL Agent service account must have permissions to the folder location where this executable is located, as shown below. You can locate your executable file by opening the LS_Backup job properties and viewing the job step.

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Once we granted Full permissions to this location for the SQL Agent service account, everything worked as intended. This was the first occasion with log shipping that I have run into permissions issues for the service account on a primary server. Hopefully this is an uncommon occurrence, but it is certainly simple to fix once you understand what is happening.

For more information about blog posts, concepts and definitions, further explanations, or questions you may have…please contact us at SQLRx@sqlrx.com. We will be happy to help! Leave a comment and feel free to track back to us. Visit us at www.sqlrx.com!

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