SUMMARY
SharePoint 2010 or 2013 backup failed on Search Service Application
ISSUE
SharePoint backup job summary failed with error message.
Command Failed: Executing SharePoint Backup
*Search Service Application\
...
Finished with 0 warnings.
Finished with N errors.
Backup failed for Object.
Object Search Service Application failed in event OnPrepareBackup. For more
information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup
directory.
----- End Client Messages -----
RESOLUTION
in one possible scenario, configuration of Search Service Application was not completed and service was not provisioned.
Finish configuration of Search Service Application, or remove and then re-add this application.
Additionally, the permissions on the Search Service Application Service may not be complete or correct. The following information will ensure you have a supportable permission configuration.
There are 3 specific services related to successful sharepoint backups, and each may have a set credential.
Microsoft Sharepoint Administration Service
Microsoft Sharepoint Timer Service
Microsoft Sharepoint Search Application Service
It is critical to have the following:
Admin and Timer service should use the same credential, and this must match on ALL Farm member servers. These shoudl only be "local administrator" in single-Simple deployments, a farm deployment shoudl always have a dedicated credential assigned. The Search Application Service may have a differing account, but also needs to follow the below standards.
Make sure that this account has following permissions on all servers participating in sharepoint farm:
Do the following on EACH server in the farm:
- Local-Administrators/Backup operators
- Start>Run>Secpol.msc>Security Policy>Local Policy>User rights Assignments and set the following
- i. Act as part of Operating System
- ii.Allow log on Locally
- iii.Log on as Service
- Iv.Log on as Batch job
- Make sure that this account has sysadmin privileges on Sql backend for Sharepoint (on SQL 2012+ these accounts also may require dbcreator and backupoperator permissions additionally, not just sysadmin)
- At domain level each account should be member of Domain Admins(primary), Administrators, Backup operators and should not be a Domain User.
Finally, the account Unitrends uses to access sharepoint, if different from the service-level accounts used for the above 3 services, shoudl also meet all of these requirements.
Unitrends recommends the Sharepoint Credential used be explicitly "SPFarmBackup". Creating this account, and assigning this account the above rights, along with ensuring the 3 listed services also have matching AD and security options should ensure success with Sharepoint backups.
Please also note, EVERY server in the farm must be able to access the path created on the unitrends appliance. If a WFE or other server is separated from the Unitrends appliance by a samba share, additional manual network customizations may be required in your environment to ensure this connectivity can be made. This is a requirement of the powershell process created by Microsoft, not unitrends, to perform these backups. Customer who continue to have issues with sharepoint backups after confirming these permissions are correct shoudl review the spbackup.log file created in our samba share (this file is created by Microsoft's own processes) and provide that log information to Microsoft support for further analysis. unitrends support can troubleshoot basic environment configuration and permission issues, but, as we did not create the powershell scripts that allow sharepoint backup, our support teams are incapable of troubleshooting that process directly.
CAUSE
If open SharePoint Unitrends client log file (copy of spbackup.log) the following error show:[Search Service Application] FatalError: Object Search Service Application failed in event OnBackup. For more information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup directory.
Object Search Service Application failed in event OnPrepareBackup. For more information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup directory.ArgumentException: databaseConnectionStringResolution
Configuration of Search Service Application was not completed and service was not provisioned.
Finish configuration of Search Service Application.
Third-Party Sources
How to find Unitrends agent logs related to SharePoint backup or restore (spbackup.log and sprestore.log)
Search 2010 Architecture and Scale - Part 1 Crawl
Search 2010 Architecture and Scale - Part 2 Query
NOTES
For more detailed information on backup failures and performance issues see Unitrends KB 5062 - Backup Failures and Performance Issues.
Operations guide for servers and server farms for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010