Knowledge Base

Problems with "Auto-Close" option set when backing up

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 01 Jul 2011
Product: SQL Backup
You may see the following error message in the SQL Backup log when auto-close has been configured


7/14/2008 10:18:00 PM: VDI error 1010: Failed to get the configuration from the server because the timeout interval has elapsed. Check that the SQL Server instance is running and that you have the SQL Server System Administrator server role; or try increasing the value of the VDITimeout registry setting in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Red Gate\SQL Backup\BackupSettingsGlobal\[InstanceName]
7/14/2008 10:18:00 PM: SQL error 3013: BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
7/14/2008 10:18:00 PM: SQL error 945: Database 'mydb' cannot be opened due to inaccessible files or insufficient memory or disk space. See the SQL Server errorlog for details.

If any of your databases have been configured with the autoclose property set to true then, whenever there is no user activity on the database, it will automatically close. It will then try to reopen if a user tries to connect to the database.
This property should only be set to true if there is no user activity on the database whatsoever. It will also have a big impact on database performance, as described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms135094.aspx

The effect is that SQL Server could not open the database quickly enough for the backup task to complete, or it was in the middle of shutting it down from the previous connection and therefore couldn't be contacted.

Please check if you have the auto close property set to true