My environment: Windows Server 2012 and Backup Exec 2014, but the problem and solution should apply to recent versions of BE.
Wed night, backup jobs ran as scheduled and I tested restores from disk and from tape that same day. Came in Thur morning and all backup jobs were queued and ready to run but none of them had started to wite. (BTW I am writing to a disk device defined as a local folder and then duplicating the data to tape in the same job. I have about 10 jobs backing up VMs, files and databases on several servers.)
Symtoms:
(1) There was an error: Unable to initialize and communicate with a device . . .
(2) Anyplace in the BE interface where a storage device was prompted, if the control was selected, it would almost immediately be de-selected. A drop-down list would expand and immediately collapse making it diffiicult to select/ change a device. Applied to editing a job, defining a storage device, etc.
(3) In the Storage tab - (The Device in question) - Job History, the screen would flash the information as if it were in a refresh loop. Other devices would display job history as expected.
I worked with level 1 support and was elevated to level 2. Level 2 did a DB repair and I completed a software repair via Add/Remove programs. The problem was not fixed by the end of the day.
When I arrived on Friday, I created a second disk device and added it to a new disk pool and that device showed normally on the screen, meaning no refresh loops. Before I could run a test backup job to that device, Symantec called back and, through Webex, we continued debugging the issue.
After a while, we talked about the specific device being corrupt. We tried to remove the disk device and received a message "Catastrophic Error."
The tech shutdown BE services and then he dropped into PowerShell (command line) and started a SQL session using "OSQL." He queried the device to get a four digit device ID and then he removed the device using the device ID.
He restarted the services and restarted the GUI and added a disk device with the same information as the old device. He then added the device to the original disk pool and we ran a test backup job.
All was well with the world and Backup Exec.
Hope this info helps!
** Important: The BE DB repair did NOT report or fix the problem and (I assume) Symantec supplied OSQL tool was used to modify the BE database. **
I do not remember the statements, I.E. tables and columns, entered, but they were standard SQL select and delete.
Jim