The NTBackup tool may not run as expected when you scheduled an NTBackup task in Windows Server 2003

When you schedule an NTBackup task in Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the task may not run as expected. In this situation, you do not find any errors in either the Backup log file or the Scheduled Tasks log file. Additionally, the task may still show a status of Running in the Scheduled Tasks folder. However, you can verify that the task has not performed a backup and that the target backup files have not been generated.

Additionally, in Task Manager, you see that one or more Ntbackup.exe processes are running. However, if you try to open the Ntbackup.exe graphical user interface (GUI), you cannot open it as expected. If you stop all Ntbackup.exe processes in Task Manager, the GUI then works. However, the backup operation still may not run when it is scheduled to run.

Note The number of Ntbackup.exe instances that appear on the Processes tab in Task Manager depends on how many times the process has unsuccessfully tried to run.

To work around this problem, make sure that nobody is logged on to the server when the NTBackup task is scheduled to run. Remote Desktop logons cause the NTBackup task to randomly fail. This behavior may occur if either of the following conditions is true:

• A remote user logs on to the server and remains logged on.
• A remote user logs on to the server and then exits the Remote Desktop program without logging off.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.