NetWorker: NetWorker Server Services Are Not Coming Up "NetWorker Is Unable To Continue Its Startup Sequence"

NetWorker server is deployed on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux pacemaker (PCS) cluster.

NetWorker server is upgraded from 19.6.1.x (or earlier) to one of the impacted versions:

• 19.7.0.0 to 19.7.0.3
• 19.8.0.0 to 19.8.0.3
• 19.9.0.0 to 19.9.0.1

After upgrade, NetWorker server services do not start.

• The active node's /nsr_share/nsr/logs/daemon.raw

84419 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR critical NetWorker is unable to continue its startup sequence due to a server hostname change to "CLUSTER_VIRTUAL_IP". Please verify that the server's hostname and its aliases are properly represented in the local host database (eg. /etc/hosts)and DNS.
78366 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Beginning check of client attributes
78367 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Finished check of client attributes
83273 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Startup in process (step 3 of 5); checking resource types in the RAP database...
198264 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating InactiveClientsCache.
198266 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating InactiveClientsCache completed in 16 microseconds
202656 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating DNS cache...
203404 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Checking resource types in the RAP database...
95297 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP critical Error encountered while re-signing lockbox '/nsr/lockbox/CLUSTER_HOSTNAME_FQDN/clb.lb': The Lockbox file was not found.
88783 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  2 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP warningAttempt to allocate server storage node 'CLUSTER_HOSTNAME_FQDN' again.
199164 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3039790848 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Filling DNS cache with the active clients only.
95297 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP critical Error encountered while re-signing lockbox '/nsr/lockbox/CLUSTER_VIRTUAL_IP/clb.lb': The Lockbox file was not found.

Changes applied in the impacted versions prevent NetWorker services from correlating the VIRTUAL_CLUSTER_IP with the hostname used to configure NetWorker. During service startup, services see the IP address instead of the hostname, causing a mismatch with the 'name' value in the server resource. It also tries to open the /nsr/lockbox using the IP instead of the previously configured Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

root@NWrhelNode1:~# lcmap
type: NSR_CLU_TYPE;
clu_type: NSR_LC_TYPE;
interface version: 1.0;

type: NSR_CLU_VIRTHOST;
hostname: 192.1xx.xx.30;
local: TRUE;
owned paths: /nsr_share;

root@NWrhelNode1:~# nsradmin
NetWorker administration program.
Use the "help" command for help, "visual" for full-screen mode.
nsradmin> show name
nsradmin> p type: nsr
                        name: nwrhelclus.emclab.local;
nsradmin> q
root@NWrhelNode1:~# nslookup nwrhelclus.emclab.local
Server:         192.1xx.xx.2
Address:        192.1xx.xx.2#53

Name:   nwrhelclus.emclab.local
Address: 192.1xx.xx.30

The lockbox and NetWorker Server Resource (NSR) 'name' fields work off of static assignment and not address resolution.

This issue was addressed in NetWorker 19.9.0.2. NetWorker 19.9.x is End of Support Life (EOSL) as of 2026-05-31. Upgrade NetWorker to a supported release for a code fix: https://www.dell.com/support/home/product-support/product/networker/drivers 

See: NetWorker: Red Hat Pacemaker Cluster How to Upgrade NetWorker Server and Best Practices