after upgrade of networker server from 7.6.x to 8.0, and trying to upgr NW client to 8.0 too, NMSQL 5.2 backup that previously worked properly now fails with "Invalid SQL virtual server name", "Invalid option"

An old install of Networker, maintained on early versions (7.6.x) on purpose, now needs upgrade. (NW 7.6 is - to my knowledge - not supported any more.) The target was 8.0.x for the NW server and clients.

There is an MS SQL Server 2005 (running on Windows Server 2003) that previously had NW client 7.6.x, and was backed up by a 7.6.x NW server using NMSQL 5.x (5.2.x as I know). The SQL backup of this server was fine and stable at these versions (NW 7.6.x). We prefer to do as little change as possible... (leave components at the current version, if possible and supported, as the current version worked properly for a long time and is stable) Before upgrading this client, we also did some initial compatibility checks and we believe that this combination (NW server 8.0.x, NW client 8.0.x, NMSQL 5.2.x) should work. 

After the upgrade of the NW server and this particular NW client to 8.0.x, with resources and Networker settings basically unchanged, the NMSQL backup now always fails with this error message:

29100:(pid 3176): Invalid SQL virtual server name DIRECT_ACCESS=No

38563:(pid 3176): Invalid option -a

37758:(pid 3176): Usage: nsrsqlsv [ ] {path}

options: [-CGjqRTvkuHXZ] [-s server] [-N name] [-b pool] [-g group]

         [-S count] [-l level] [-m masquerade] [-U user [-P passwd]]

         [[-a virtual-server] | [-c client]] [-f aes] [-w browse] [-y retention]

path:    d-path | i-path

d-path:  MSSQL: | [MSSQL:]s-path [[MSSQL:]s-path [...]]

i-path:  MSSQL$inst-name: | MSSQL$inst-name:s-path [...]

s-path:  database | database. | database.filegroup |

         database.filegroup. | database.filegroup.file

43709:(pid 3176):Stop time: Tue Jul 08 09:38:34 2014

test-sap:MSSQL:teszt data: retried 1 times.

After experiencing this error, we already tried to combine the SW components to see whether a different combo of other versions works. We left NW server at 8.0.x, but installed different versions of the others and did tests:

- NW client 8.0.x, NMSQL 5.2.x

- NW client 7.6.x, NMSQL 5.2.x

Both failed. We also tried to put the client name and virtual server name in the Backup Command field of the Client resource, but the result is the same.

For me, it seems to be that for whatever reason, after such a version change (maybe the newer version on the Networker server side), NW goes "mad" and can not construct the save command properly, from the NW Client resource fields, at run-time. (It tries to use the string "DIRECT_ACCESS=No", which comes from the Direct Access field of the NW Client resource, with the -a option (virtual server) => that results in "Invalid SQL virtual server name DIRECT_ACCESS=No".

I have seen somewhat similar occurrences of NW seemingly improperly constructing the actual backup command, that happens with "agent-based" backups (like NMM, NMSQL, NMEXCH). Our guess is that - although some documentation - this combination is NOT compatible.

Can someone out there, with experience in this, confirm or give some hints?

Thanks.

Geza