Backups files not deleted with maintenance plan

Hello All,
I have a SQL server maintenance plan setup with my SQLServer 2000 MMC.
The backup works perfectly fine, but it does not delete the backup files
scheduled to cleanup files older then a week. Any suggestions where to look
to sort this out?
The backups take up the disk space and I have to go in and manually deleted
backups for around 40 databases.
Thanks a lot.
Imran.Below KB might help:
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...2&Product=sql2k
Also, check out below great troubleshooting suggestions from Bill H at MS:
-- Log files don't delete --
This is likely to be either a permissions problem or a sharing violation
problem. The maintenance plan is run as a job, and jobs are run by the
SQLServerAgent service.
Permissions:
1. Determine the startup account for the SQLServerAgent service
(Start|Programs|Administrative tools|Services|SQLServerAgent|Startup). This
account is the security context for jobs, and thus the maintenance plan.
2. If SQLServerAgent is started using LocalSystem (as opposed to a domain
account) then skip step 3.
3. On that box, log onto NT as that account. Using Explorer, attempt to
delete an expired backup. If that succeeds then go to Sharing Violation
section.
4. Log onto NT with an account that is an administrator and use Explorer to
look at the Properties|Security of the folder (where the backups reside)
and ensure the SQLServerAgent startup account has Full Control. If the
SQLServerAgent startup account is LocalSystem, then the account to consider
is SYSTEM.
5. In NT, if an account is a member of an NT group, and if that group has
Access is Denied, then that account will have Access is Denied, even if
that account is also a member of the Administrators group. Thus you may
need to check group permissions (if the Startup Account is a member of a
group).
6. Keep in mind that permissions (by default) are inherited from a parent
folder. Thus, if the backups are stored in C:\bak, and if someone had
denied permission to the SQLServerAgent startup account for C:\, then
C:\bak will inherit access is denied.
Sharing violation:
This is likely to be rooted in a timing issue, with the most likely cause
being another scheduled process (such as NT Backup or Anti-Virus software)
having the backup file open at the time when the SQLServerAgent (i.e., the
maintenance plan job) tried to delete it.
1. Download filemon and handle from www.sysinternals.com.
2. I am not sure whether filemon can be scheduled, or you might be able to
use NT scheduling services to start filemon just before the maintenance
plan job is started, but the filemon log can become very large, so it would
be best to start it some short time before the maintenance plan starts.
3. Inspect the filemon log for another process that has that backup file
open (if your lucky enough to have started filemon before this other
process grabs the backup folder), and inspect the log for the results when
the SQLServerAgent agent attempts to open that same file.
4. Schedule the job or that other process to do their work at different
times.
5. You can use the handle utility if you are around at the time when the
job is scheduled to run.
If the backup files are going to a \\share or a mapped drive (as opposed to
local drive), then you will need to modify the above (with respect to where
the tests and utilities are run).
Finally, inspection of the maintenance plan's history report might be
useful.
Thanks,
Bill Hollinshead
Microsoft, SQL Server
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
"Imran Aziz" <imran@.tb2.net> wrote in message news:OS$PCEq6FHA.3880@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...[
vbcol=seagreen]
> Hello All,
> I have a SQL server maintenance plan setup with my SQLServer 2000 MMC.
The backup works
> perfectly fine, but it does not delete the backup files scheduled to clean
up files older then a
> week. Any suggestions where to look to sort this out?
> The backups take up the disk space and I have to go in and manually delete
d backups for around 40
> databases.
> Thanks a lot.
> Imran.
>[/vbcol]|||Thanks for the link and the details. It cannot be a permissions issue or a
sharing violation since I have the same issue on two servers, the
development server and the live server both don't delete backup files.
I ran the maintenance plan right now and there wasn't any other process
holding the backup files. but still the files were not deleted. The backup
log did not indicate any errors relating to deletion of files, rather it
does not even show the attempt to delete the older files.
Any clues ?
Imran.
"Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote in
message news:Osha9Qq6FHA.2384@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Below KB might help:
> http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...sinternals.com.
> 2. I am not sure whether filemon can be scheduled, or you might be able to
> use NT scheduling services to start filemon just before the maintenance
> plan job is started, but the filemon log can become very large, so it
> would
> be best to start it some short time before the maintenance plan starts.
> 3. Inspect the filemon log for another process that has that backup file
> open (if your lucky enough to have started filemon before this other
> process grabs the backup folder), and inspect the log for the results when
> the SQLServerAgent agent attempts to open that same file.
> 4. Schedule the job or that other process to do their work at different
> times.
> 5. You can use the handle utility if you are around at the time when the
> job is scheduled to run.
> If the backup files are going to a \\share or a mapped drive (as opposed
> to
> local drive), then you will need to modify the above (with respect to
> where
> the tests and utilities are run).
> Finally, inspection of the maintenance plan's history report might be
> useful.
> Thanks,
> Bill Hollinshead
> Microsoft, SQL Server
>
>
> --
> Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
> http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
> http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
>
> "Imran Aziz" <imran@.tb2.net> wrote in message
> news:OS$PCEq6FHA.3880@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>|||Do you have any databases in simple recovery mode included in the plan? I've
seen this for
logbackups. Log backup cannot be performed in simple recovery mode, so the m
aint plan never gets to
the part where to delete old log backup files.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
"Imran Aziz" <imran@.tb2.net> wrote in message news:uYQg4fr6FHA.1416@.TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...[
vbcol=seagreen]
> Thanks for the link and the details. It cannot be a permissions issue or a
sharing violation since
> I have the same issue on two servers, the development server and the live
server both don't
> delete backup files.
> I ran the maintenance plan right now and there wasn't any other process ho
lding the backup files.
> but still the files were not deleted. The backup log did not indicate any
errors relating to
> deletion of files, rather it does not even show the attempt to delete the
older files.
> Any clues ?
> Imran.
>
> "Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote i
n message
> news:Osha9Qq6FHA.2384@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>[/vbcol]|||Thanks for the tip, No of databases were on simple recovery mode. After
changing the recovery mode to Bulk it has sorted out the problem on both
development and production machine. Thanks a lot.
Imran.
"Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote in
message news:OvSsIwr6FHA.1944@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Do you have any databases in simple recovery mode included in the plan?
> I've seen this for logbackups. Log backup cannot be performed in simple
> recovery mode, so the maint plan never gets to the part where to delete
> old log backup files.
> --
> Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
> http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
> http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
>
> "Imran Aziz" <imran@.tb2.net> wrote in message
> news:uYQg4fr6FHA.1416@.TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>