PowerProtect Data Manager: Deployment or Upgrade of Reporting Engine to 19.17 Failed
Summary: Deploying a new Reporting Engine or upgrading to PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM) 19.17.0-10 fails with the error "Failed to start the report service" because the certificate generation process cannot resolve the Reporting Node's IP address via nslookup. The nslookup failure is caused by a malformed /etc/resolv.conf file on the Reporting Node where multiple DNS nameserver entries are merged onto a single line instead of listed on separate lines. This is a software defect — PPDM generates the /etc/resolv.conf file on the Reporting Node during deployment, and the 19.17.0-10 build incorrectly merges multiple DNS entries onto a single line. ...
Symptoms
Deploying a new Reporting Engine or upgrading to PPDM 19.17.0-10 fails with the following error:
Node configuration failed.
Failed to start the report service.The deployment stops responding around 70% or the upgrade stops responding at 80% before failing. The Reporting Node log at /var/log/dellemc/reporting/reporting-service/reporting-service.log shows that required certificates are not configured and the service cannot initialize:
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS INFO [PID_IS_UNDEFINED] [main] [c.e.a.common.util.Util.isCertsConfigured(44)] - Is certificates configured false
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ERROR [PID_IS_UNDEFINED] [main] [c.e.c.s.CoreStartupApplication.init(44)] - Not able to initialize services, missing required certificates. The Reporting Node is configured with three Domain Name Server (DNS) entries. Running nslookup on the Reporting Node's IP address fails with a resolv.conf parsing error:
ppdmreportengine:# nslookup 192.168.9.152
nslookup: parse of /etc/resolv.conf failedCause
The certificate generation process during Reporting Engine deployment or upgrade requires the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the Reporting Node. The process retrieves the FQDN by performing an nslookup of the Reporting Node's IP address.
The nslookup fails because the /etc/resolv.conf file on the Reporting Node contains a malformed nameserver entry. PPDM generates the /etc/resolv.conf file on the Reporting Node during deployment. The 19.17.0-10 build incorrectly merges the secondary and tertiary DNS entries onto a single comma-separated line instead of listing each nameserver on a separate line:
Incorrect format (generated by 19.17.0-10):
nameserver 192.168.9.100
nameserver 192.168.9.1,192.168.9.2Correct format (generated by 19.17.0-18 and later):
nameserver 192.168.9.100
nameserver 192.168.9.1
nameserver 192.168.9.2The resolv.conf parser cannot interpret the comma-separated format, which causes the nslookup command to fail with parse of /etc/resolv.conf failed. Without a successful reverse DNS lookup, the certificate generation process cannot determine the FQDN and reports missing required certificates, which prevents the reporting service from starting.
/etc/resolv.conf file reverts to the malformed configuration because PPDM regenerates it on startup. This behavior persists until the environment is upgraded to 19.17.0-18 or later.
Resolution
Option 1 — Upgrade to 19.17.0-18 or Later (Recommended)
The issue has been resolved in the PowerProtect Data Manager release 19.17.0-18. Install the latest PowerProtect Data Manager release to resolve the symptom. The newest available releases are available on the PowerProtect Data Manager Drivers & Downloads page. After upgrading, redeploy or re-upgrade the Reporting Engine and confirm it completes successfully without the "Failed to start the report service" error.
Option 2 — Workaround for 19.17.0-10
If the environment must remain on 19.17.0-10 and cannot upgrade to 19.17.0-18, contact Dell Support for assistance with the workaround and reference this KB article.