Networker: NMC Alert "Cannot write to Database - errno Invalid Argument" Due to TCP Connection Timeout
Summary: NMC was generating the following alert: Cannot write to /Database/Database/97/08/50dea767-00000006-2b43c6c3-6a43c6c3-edd60c00-c89dd629 - errno Invalid argument.
Symptoms
The NetWorker Management Console (NMC) Monitoring Tab reports the following error frequently:
Cannot write to /Database/Database/97/08/50dea767-00000006-2b43c6c3-6a43c6c3-edd60c00-c89dd629 - errno Invalid argument
The NetWorker server daemon logs also report:
XXXXXXXX nsrd NSR info 9 %s %s: %s 3 0 5 media 0 9 emergency 0 120 Cannot write to /Database/Database/97/08/50dea767-00000006-2b43c6c3-6a43c6c3-edd60c00-c89dd629 - errno Invalid argument.
- Linux:
/nsr/logs/daemon.raw - Windows (Default):
C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs\daemon.raw - NetWorker: How to use nsr_render_log to render .raw log files
Cause
The issue was likely caused by intermittent network session disconnections or timeout conditions between NetWorker components. When long-running operations experience idle periods, the underlying TCP connections may be prematurely terminated by the operating system, firewall, or network devices. This results in communication interruptions while updating or writing information to the NetWorker database, leading to the "Cannot write to /Database/Database... errno Invalid argument" alert.
Resolution
Configre The NW_TCP_KEEPIDLE_SECS, NW_TCP_KEEPINTVL_SECS, NW_TCP_KEEPCNT, and NSR_SOCK_BUF_SIZE environment variables on the NetWorker server operating system.
The full list of per-operating system instructions for TCP parameters are documented in the article NetWorker: Best practices for networking configuration