A SharePoint Database-Level Backup Operation Completes With an Error Message

A SharePoint database-level backup operation completes with multiple failed items. Most of the failed items are shared services and service applications.

Symptoms

A SharePoint database-level backup operation completes with the following error message:

Error Code 28:298 The backup job failed. For more information, see the error log that is located in the backup directory.

Causes

SharePoint database-level backup operations use Microsoft APIs to invoke backup commands.

The backup commands run from temporary UNC paths out of the Job Results folder. The UNC paths are created by the software with the NTFS permissions that already exist in the file structure.

When the APIs are called, they impersonate the user accounts that the SharePoint service is running under. However, these user accounts do not have permissions for the file structure of that SharePoint server.

Resolution

On the SharePoint server where the SharePoint agent is installed, give the local user group read/write NTFS permissions for the JobResults folder.