ISSUE
QUESTION: How can I troubleshoot a File Level Backup and see the logs?
RESOLUTION
ANSWER: You can elevate the logs on the client you are protecting, and then run the job again. The new log level will drop more of the details into the logs which you can review.
TASKS
First note that most client-side errors occurring during a backup process for a windows client will be logged to the Windows Event View in either the Systems or Applications log. This should be the first place you review backup failures if the output in the unitrends UI is inconclusive. Typically reading log files directly is not necessary to solve Windows file backup issues.
Also note that backup events that are not tagged as "Unitrends" in the windows logs but that may be tagged as ESE, VSS, SQL, or other Microsoft-level processes are errors those programs had that may have prevented backup, and the vendor error codes there should be reviewed, potentially involving contacting Microsoft for assistance with those errors. Error codes from Microsoft itself including HREF* or 0x0* are defects or hard errors in their own code and should be reviewed with Microsoft itself as this indicates an open API call to a windows process resulted in a failure of the windows process itself, and not code provides by Unitrends. Such codes would prevent any backup vendor leveraging those same APIs to fail. These codes are usually found by a simple google search, and for some common errors you may find documentation in unitrends own KB system. We will often import these error codes into Unitrends Appliance UI errors for easier reference to prevent your need to review the system logs directly.
If the Windows event viewer is inconclusive, you should check for wbps_#.log and wbps_#.err files located in C:/PCBP/logs.dir consistent with the time of your backup as they may contain more information.
The *.err log will be more verbose at default log levels and are only created on process failures and are the easier place to start. If that log is inconclusive as well, it may be necessary to increase the product's default logging levels.
To Increase Unitrends client-side log level:
1) Edit the file located at: C:\PCBP\master.ini (typically requires launching a text editor as an administrator to save changes)
2) Change WBPS=0 to WBPS=3 and save the file
3) Run the next job or a 1-Time job (see KB 5580) and not the time your ran the job.
Once you are done reviewing the logs, please change WBPS to 0 in the file C:\PCBP\master.ini