Unable to browse directories and files to do a Backup or Restore of certain Avamar clients?

If you are unable to browse directories and files to do a Backup or Restore of certain Avamar client it may be a client Paging issue.

Client paging
Avamar clients can be either pageable or non-pageable. If a client is pageable you can specify settings to control how the MCS determines the paging settings for the client. You may need to use workarounds for limitations that exist in environments with non-pageable clients.

Pageable clients

Pageable clients have provided the Avamar server with a page address and port number, which enable performance of on-demand backups and restores. Avamar Administrator can also browse the client file system during backups and restores in Avamar Administrator.
You can specify one of the following client paging settings to control how the MCS determines the paging settings for a client:
● Automatic — With the default setting of automatic paging, the MCS tries to automatically determine the paging settings
for the client. If the MCS receives updated paging information from the client, it automatically updates the settings.
● Manual — With manual paging, specify the IP address and data port number for client/MCS communications. You may want to use manual paging when using Network Address Translation (NAT). With NAT, the MCS probably cannot automatically determine the correct client paging settings. In manual mode, the MCS never overwrites the IP address and port number settings for the client.
You can also disable automatic paging without specifying an IP address or data port number for client/MCS communications.
Disabling automatic paging might be useful to support clients that are off the network for extended periods of time, as can be the case with laptop computers. These clients must launch their own on-demand backups. For this reason, you should enable client paging whenever possible.

Non-pageable clients

A client is non-pageable when the Avamar Administrator server is not running on the Avamar server utility node or on a single-node server cannot establish a TCP/IP connection to port 28002 on the Avamar client.

When a client might be non-pageable

A client might be non-pageable in the following situations:
● The environment (including the client) has firewall rules that prevent incoming connections on port 28002 to the client.
● The client is behind a router that does not support port-forwarding for connections that were initiated from the Avamar server. (This step is the common situation that managed service providers to enable encounter when they deploy Avamar without using VPN.)
● The Avamar Administrator server cannot connect to the Avamar client on the paging address that is used by the Avamar Administrator server. An example is when the client is multi-homed and the paging address that the Avamar Administrator server uses for connecting the client does not have a route to the paging address.
● The environment requires authentication to establish a host-to-host connection to port 28002 on the client, and the Avamar Administrator server process is not able to support the required authentication protocol.
● An IPSec environment. In a Windows environment, Microsoft best practices recommend enabling IPSec. Clients are not pageable in an IPSec environment.
MCS should automatically detect non-pageable clients and adjust settings. Usually no manual changes are needed in MCS. You can determine whether a client is pageable or non-pageable by viewing the Client Summary in the AUI. If No appears in the Paging Enabled field for the client, then MCS cannot connect to the avagent process on the client, which makes the client non-pageable.

Limitations in environments with non-pageable clients

You can use Avamar Administrator to perform backups or restores, or define policies in environments with non-pageable clients.
In some cases, you must type explicit path names.
The following limitations apply when the client is non-pageable:
● If the MCS cannot page the client on port 28002, then Avamar cannot invite the client to activate by using Avamar
Administrator.
● You cannot browse the client file system when defining datasets or when browsing to select a target for restore. To work around this limitation, explicitly define the backup dataset without browsing a client. During a restore, explicitly type the restore target path.
● You cannot view client logs. To work around this limitation, get the logs from the client computer.
● You cannot page the client when there is a work order waiting for the client. In this case, the client connects to the MCS and polls for the existence of a work order approximately once every minute.
If you are backing up several hundred or more non-pageable clients, you may need to increase the polling interval. The default polling interval is 60 s. If MCS performance is slowing down, increase the polling interval until you achieve acceptable performance.

Adding or modifying client paging settings

The MCS can automatically determine client paging settings, or you can manually specify paging settings for a client. You may need to manually specify paging settings when you use NAT.
Steps
1. In the AUI navigation pane on the left, click , and then click Asset Management.
2. In the domain tree, select the domain for the client.
3. In the list of clients, select the client that you want to edit.
You can only view clients in the domain for the login account. To view all clients, log in to the root domain.
4. Click MORE ACTIONS > Edit Client.
The Edit Client window is displayed.
5. Click the Paging tab.
6. Select either the Automatic or Manual paging mode.
7. If you selected Manual, specify the client information for client/MCS communications:
● If the MCS is unable to automatically determine a hostname for this client in automatic mode, type a valid (un-NAT’d) IP address for the client in the Address (IP or hostname) field.
● In the Port Number (secure) field, specify the data port number. The default data port is 30002.
● In the Port Number (insecure) field, specify the data port number. The default data port is 28002.
8. Click UPDATE.

(Reference: Dell EMC Avamar 19.4 Administration Guide, pg 63f)

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