NetWorker: File System incremental Backup Failure | Err: 5029

Incremental backup jobs fail with return code -1, while full backups succeed. Logs show errors similar to:

• MODIFIED_ASOF_TIME:timeval=1735918213;RENAMED_DIRECTORIES:index_lookup=on;BACKUPTIME:lookup_range=1735918230:1735918230;REQUESTED_LEVEL:level=incr; -l incr -q -W 78 -N /data_ecm1 /data_ecm1' for client exited with return code -1
  
  01/05/2025 01:05:39 AM Job 594500 host: savepoint: /data_ecm1 had ERROR indication(s) at completion
  01/05/2025 01:05:39 AM PECMAPP1:/data_ecm1 failed.
  01/05/2025 01:05:44 AM Action backup traditional 'backup' with job id 594425 is exiting with status 'failed', exit code 1

Policy logs include:

• ddp_fsync() failed, Err: 5029 - A previous operation on this file has failed with error code: 5029 and no further APIs can be processed until the file is closed
  fsys_fsync(): Sync'ing a file failed [5029]
  _ddp_fsync() Aborting API processing because ddp_fd[...] has previous error[5029] set
  

• The error 5029 indicates a failure in ddp_fsync() and related DDBoost API calls.
• This is a known issue with DDBoost binary version 7.13.0, which ships with NetWorker 19.10.
• The problem occurs when previous operations on a file fail, preventing further API calls until the file is closed.

Reference:

ddboost_api ERROR: ddp_fstat() failed, Err: 5029 - A previous operation on this file has failed with error code: 5029 and no further APIs can be processed until the file is closed

• The issue is tracked under Jira ID: DDOSCFD-20020
• The fix is available in DDBoost versions 7.13.1, 8.0, and 8.1+
• NetWorker cannot upgrade DDBoost independently; upgrade NetWorker to:
  • 19.11 (includes DDBoost 8.0)
  • 19.12 (includes DDBoost 8.1)

• Full backups are unaffected; only incremental backups fail intermittently.
• No workaround exists other than upgrading to a version with the fixed DDBoost library.
• Monitor Dell release notes for additional patches or hotfixes.