Sql Server Backup to UNC

Question

I\'ve create a maintenance plan on my SQL Server 2005 server. The backup should be written to another server. I\'m using a UNC path for this. The user running the SQL Agent jobs

Answer 1

After having this problem myself, with none of the above solutions being clear enough, I thought I'd post a clearer response. The error is in fact nothing to do with syntax - it is entirely to do with permissions. The important thing here is that it is the SQL Server service account, NOT the SQL Server Agent account, that attempts to log in to create the directory. You can check your Event Viewer on the target server and look at the security log to see the failed logins from the SQL Server account on the other machine (mine was running as a local administrator).

To solve this, set your SQL Server service account to be a domain user that's allowed to write to the remote share. I would have expected SQL Server Agent to be able to use its own credentials to perform these backup operations, but apparently not!