Are SMO (SQL Server Management Objects) installed?  Is the SQL service running?  Can you connect via SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio)?  Can you open the SQL configuration application?

Yes SQL Management objects are installed.

The SQL services are running, there are multiple instances also running.

We can connect with Management Studio and I have verified the security rights for the local system account.

Do SQL backups of this server also fail but non-SQL (e.g. filesystem) backups run fine?

Is this SQL server part of a cluster?

Try creating an avsql.cmd file in the client's VAR folder.  Add these lines to the file:

--debug

--verbose

--logfile=AVA_GUI_browse.txt

Then, try browsing the client via the GUI.

This should generate a log file in the client's VAR folder (AVA_GUI_browse.txt) which should contain more details about why the SQL browse attempt is failing.

Be sure to rename the avsql.cmd file or remove its contents before running SQL backups of this client (you can leave --debug and --verbose in the file if you want larger more detailed backup log files).

Thanks fdxpilot, I'll try that tomorrow.

Filesystem backups work without an issue. I've uninstalled and reinstalled both the Avamar file agent and the SQL agent as well as rebooted the server. Hopefully the debug will show something meaningful.

I'm also running into the no-browse issue on a SQL 2012 clustered server.  The cluster configuration took a while to figure out as we have a separate backup LAN and file system backups are running OK over it.  However, browsing the SQL server with the GUI does not show any databases.

I've taken the recommended steps above, installed the SMO, etc. and tried the avsqlcmd file but this did not result in any log file being produced.

Anything else I should try?

Are there any non-2012 SQL components installed on this server?  I believe there is a known issue if you have, for example, SQL 2008 and 2012 installed on the same server.  Is it just one clustered instance having this issue or multiple instances within the same cluster?

There is a possibility as this server was re-purposed from a SQL 2008 project to 2012.  However, all SQL 2008 compnents were de-installed beforehand.  What is the known issue and workaround?

This is a single instance on a two-node cluster.  However, I am now nticing I see the same effect on other servers in our environment that were already being backed up so I'm wondering if it isn't a client-side issue.

Did you ever get a resolve to this issue? I am encountering the same symptom.  We have the Avamar SQL Client installed but when I manage datasets and then select the SQL Agent, traverse the file explore option there are no databases to be found under (Local)

Where is Avamar looking for the (Local) databases.

yes this SQL server was a SQL Express (SSEE) and SQL 2005 server before.

Any help out there?

I had the same problem on one of our SQL 2008 servers.

The details below are what the EMC support guy ran on the SQL server to trouble shoot the problem:

C:\Program Files\avs\bin>avsql --operation=browse --verbose

appname:'avsql'

bindir:'C:\Program Files\avs\bin'

vardir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var'

sysdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\etc'

tmpdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var\AvamarSQL'

hostname:'audc1pcmsql01'

storageapp: 'C:\Program Files\avs\bin\avtar.exe'

cid:d33efc7240aae585041e5e4c8c46779251670d73

Dynamically allocated CTL listen port (50523)

avsql Info <6673>: CTL listening on port 50523

avsql Info <11928>: avsql_ctl_sup::do_browse path:

SQL Server 2011 installed.

SMO 2011 managed DLL loaded.

avsql Error <15125>: Specified path '' does not exist or is not accessible

Terminating CTL listen thread

avsql Info <6451>: avsql returning with exitcode 536870919

After running the command above it was obvious that the wrong SMO (2011) was being loaded.  The EMC support guy said it was probably picking up an incorrect version in the registry (Which could well be your issue if you have upgraded?) We never 'fixed' the root cause but the solution was to rename the SMO 2011 .dll so that it would not load.

Then when the command was run again the 2011 SMO was skipped and the 2008 SMO dll was loaded.

After this we could browse using the agent and the DB's were visible.  If this doesn't work I'd say open an SR - EMC fixed the problem for me in under a half hour after I spent ages trying to work it out.

C:\Program Files\avs\bin>avsql --operation=browse --verbose

appname:'avsql'

bindir:'C:\Program Files\avs\bin'

vardir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var'

sysdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\etc'

tmpdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var\AvamarSQL'

hostname:'audc1pcmsql01'

storageapp: 'C:\Program Files\avs\bin\avtar.exe'

cid:d33efc7240aae585041e5e4c8c46779251670d73

Dynamically allocated CTL listen port (50592)

avsql Info <6673>: CTL listening on port 50592

avsql Info <11928>: avsql_ctl_sup::do_browse path:

avsql Info <10684>: Setting ctl message version to 3 (from 1)

avsql Info <16136>: Setting ctl max message size to 268435456

SQL Server 2011 installed.

Unable to load SMO 2011 managed DLL: 126.

SQL Server 2008 installed.

SMO 2008 managed DLL loaded.

avsql Info <12552>: Browse response:

     Name Date    Size Type    User

---------  ------  ------  ---------- ------

(local) instance

Terminating CTL listen thread

avsql Info <6451>: avsql returning with exitcode 0

Hey thanks for the reply Bill,

I run that same command and this is what we get..

C:\Program Files\avs\bin>avsql --operation=browse --verbose

appname:'avsql'

bindir:'C:\Program Files\avs\bin'

vardir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var'

sysdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\etc'

tmpdir:'C:\Program Files\avs\var\AvamarSQL'

hostname:'lp2'

storageapp: 'C:\Program Files\avs\bin\avtar.exe'

cid:5ce371d2f1aebeea499a4769e8b2589d35b1a87e

Dynamically allocated CTL listen port (56086)

avsql Info <6673>: CTL listening on port 56086

avsql Info <11928>: avsql_ctl_sup::do_browse path:

avsql Info <10684>: Setting ctl message version to 3 (from 1)

avsql Info <16136>: Setting ctl max message size to 268435456

SQL Server 2011 not installed. Error 2, 2

SQL Server 2008 installed.

SMO 2008 managed DLL loaded.

avsql Info <12552>: Browse response:

     Name    Date    Size        Type    User

---------  ------  ------  ----------  ------

  (local)                    instance

Terminating CTL listen thread

avsql Info <6451>: avsql returning with exitcode 0

What I found so far is that there were three instances of SQL,  SQL Express, SQL 2005 and SQL 2008.   The guys who set this up, who are long gone, tried to secure things by moving things around.  The SQL instance now is actually trying to use the Master DB from the 2005 instance in the MSSQL.1 folder instead of the Master DB in the correct DB folder.  I am probably just going to wait until this coming January and build a new SQL Server and move the databases to it.

While I have your ear, let me ask this?  Why even use the Avamar SQL Agent?  If it cannot truncate the DB Log files then why even use it?  I read on this forum and in the Avamar SQL Client instructions that it cannot truncate the Log files for SQL 2008.  If that's the case, wouldn't it be just as effective to back the DB's up using the standard Avamar Windows Backup agent?  Any thoughts on that?

Thanks again,
Mike