Data Protector - Support Tip - Windows Only -Using KeepAlive to resolve Timeouts

Many problems encountered with Data Protector can be helped by using the KeepAlive functionality.  These include Disk Agent and Media Agent timeouts, and backups seeming to ‘Complete’, but, never actually finishing.  You may even see Session Statistics printed, but don’t get the popup when the session is completed

The keepalive parameter just turns on the system mechanism for keeping a network connection alive for all the connections we make

The keepalive packets are part of the TCP protocol on machines, and are transparent to the program opening or using the connection.  They are handled by the system and are not seen by application.  They normally default to 7200 seconds, or 2 hours.

From a Windows Operating System perspective, check the link

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739819(v=ws.10).aspx    Windows 2003

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349797(v=ws.10).aspx    Windows 2008

Both of these reference Registry changes, but with Data Protector 6.2 or higher, you can make changes to the ‘omnirc’ file on any server which is showing a problem, either a Disk Agent or a Media Agent. Generally speaking, the changes do not have to be made on the Cell Manager, unless it is also a Media Agent having this issue

Look for the file:

            Program Files -> Omniback -> omnirc              (Windows 2003)

Or

          Program Data -> omniback -> omnirc               (Windows 2008)

This file does not exist by default.  If you have this file, you can edit it, and, if not, you can create it using Notepad.  Either way, add these lines to the file:

            OB2IPCKEEPALIVE=1                                  Activates the KeepAlive mechanism

            OB2IPCKEEPALIVETIME=900               expressed in ms, 900 is 15 minutes

            OB2IPCKEEPALIVEINTERVAL=60    Time between sending out the KeepAlive packets

After making the changes to the ‘omnirc’ file, save the file, making sure that it has no extension, like ‘txt’ or ‘tmpl’ and, on  that server, stop and restart the Data Protector INET service

15 minutes is a reasonable value.  The key is to set these Values low because most firewalls, etc. timeout after an hour or so.  Having the interval set to 15 or even 30 min. should not hurt anything.

It needs to be emphasized that OB2IPCKEEPALIVETIME and OB2IPCKEEPALIVEINTERVAL are used on Windows servers only, and have no effect on HPUX or Linux servers

If you want to add these lines to the ‘omnirc’ file proactively, that is, without seeing the problem, this is acceptable to cut off a possible future problem