Problem

STATUS CODE174: Lotus Notes backups fail with a NetBackup Status Code 174 "Media manager - system error occurred".

Error
<16> bpbkar Exit: read server exit status = 174: media manager - system error occurred

Solution
Overview: When backing up Lotus Notes, an abnormal condition occurs, causing a tape manager (bptm) or disk manager (bpdm) failure. This should not occur under normal circumstances. Troubleshooting: Enable the bpbkar log file on the Lotus Notes server, and the bptm log file on the media server. Log Files: The /usr/openv/netbackup/logs/bptm/log.<date> file on the media server will show the error:
<32> fill_buffer: attempted to write [nn] bytes, it is not a multiple of 512

The /usr/openv/netbackup/logs/bpbkar/log.<date> file on the client will show the error:

<16> bpbkar Exit: read server exit status = 174: media manager - system error occurred

Resolution: This is a known issue resulting from an incompatibility between Domino and NetBackup. Specifically under some circumstances, the Domino server writes to stdout during a backup, corrupting the backup stream and failing the backup job with Status code 174. The workaround is to remove any debug parameters from the Domino server's notes.ini file and restart Domino before performing a Lotus Notes backup. However, Veritas Support has also observed that this problem can occur while backing up some versions of Lotus Domino 6 even without debug parameters. In those cases, it was reported that Status code 174 was eliminated by setting the following notes.ini parameter provided by IBM/Lotus Development:
DEBUG_NOSTDOUT=1

Any questions concerning the effects of setting this notes.ini parameter should be directed to IBM/Lotus Support. Though there will be no fixes for this issue in current versions of NetBackup 4.5 and NetBackup 5.x, the incompatibility leading to this error will be eliminated in NetBackup 6.0 and subsequent

versions of NetBackup. In subsequent cases, unsupported file ownership of some databases in the Domino Data Directory also caused the Notes backups to fail with a Status Code 174. If the above workaround does not resolve the issue, use the following command to help isolate the issue:
bpbkar -ct 25 -dt 0 -r 888 -nocont -noimg NOTES_INI_PATH=[absolute notes.ini path] [path to Domino Data] > /tmp/std.out

Any output saved to /tmp/std.out from the above command line test is coming from Domino and causing the Status Code 174. If the cause of the output cannot be determined by the output itself, contact IBM/Lotus Support for assistance with identifying and suppressing the extraneous output.

Problem
3rd PARTY: After upgrading Lotus Notes from 6.5.1 to 6.5.5 FP1, NetBackup for Lotus Notes backups begin failing with Status Code 174 (media manager - system error occurred).

Error
status 174: media manager - system error occurred

Solution
Vendor: IBM OS: Linux Hardware: N/A Issue: After upgrading Lotus Notes Domino from 6.5.1 to 6.5.5 FP1, Veritas NetBackup (tm) for Lotus Notes backups begin failing with Status Code 174 (media manager - system error occurred). Issue exists at version: Lotus Notes Domino 6.5.5 Issue resolved at version: N/A Additional Information:

Review the notes.ini file on the Lotus Notes Domino server, and look for the line: DEBUG_NOSTDOUT=1. In the bpbkar log file on the Lotus Notes server, the following error can be seen:
06:08:56.574 [26189] <4> bpbkar Exit: INF - EXIT STATUS 0: the requested operation was successfully completed 06:08:56.575 [26189] <2> bpbkar Exit: INF - Close of stdout complete 06:09:03.765 [26189] <16> bpbkar Exit: ERR - read server exit status = 174: media manager - system error occurred

Starting in Lotus Notes Domino 6.5.5, the default behavior on Linux is to pipe certain information to standard out, regardless of the DEBUG_NOSTDOUT setting in the notes.ini file. The DEBUG_NOSTDOUT is implemented to prevent Lotus Notes Domino from sending any output to standard out. Since NetBackup uses standard out for data transfer, if Lotus Notes Domino is sending data to standard out, this causes a conflict, and the backup fails with a NetBackup Status Code 174. IBM has confirmed this is an issue, and assigned it SPR ID# ATAI6QH5BH, Description DEBUG_NOSTDOUT=1 is not worked on Linux. Please contact IBM for the latest update on this incident, and for the necessary binaries to resolve the issue. After implementing the patch from IBM, confirm DEBUG_NOSTDOUT=1 is set in the notes.ini file and restart the Lotus Notes Domino server.