NVE: Upgrade Fails "/nsr/authc_config.txt.preserved not found"

The following errors were observed in /usr/local/avamar/var/avi/server_log/avinstaller.log.0

2023-10-25 09:50:23 (-0400) 47170924092060 ERROR: File /nsr/authc_config.txt.preserved not found, impossible to continue - operation failed
2023-10-25 09:50:41 (-0400) 46933625019040 ERROR: File /nsr/authc_config.txt.preserved not found, impossible to continue - operation failed
2023-10-25 10:04:49 (-0400) 47415919573660 ERROR: File /nsr/authc_config.txt.preserved not found, impossible to continue - operation failed
2023-10-25 10:30:41 (-0400) 47351198866080 ERROR: Configuring AuthC service for NetWorker, exit status=1 (error)
2023-10-25 10:30:42 ( operation failed
2023-10-25 10:30:53 (-0400) 47072497048220 ERROR: Configuring AuthC service for NetWorker, exit status=1 (error)
2023-10-25 10:30:54 ( operation failed

It was noticed that the file /nsr/authc_config.txt.preserved referenced in the logs, is missing in the user's environment. Since this file can be manually created, the file was manually created with the following contents:

EMC_JAVADIR=/opt/nre/java/latest
EMC_TCUSER=nsrtomcat
EMC_TCPORT=9090
EMC_CREATETCKEYSTORE=n
EMC_TCKEYSTORE=/nsr/authc/conf/authc.keystore
EMC_DATADIR=/nsr/authc/data
EMC_KEEPBOOT=y

After creating the file, the upgrade process still fails and the following error messages are captured in the logs:

2023-11-08 15:29:00 (-0500) 46972685933220 ERROR: Configuring AuthC service for NetWorker, exit status=1 (error)
2023-11-08 15:29:00 ( operation failed
2023-11-08 16:05:45 (-0500) 47118958156460 ERROR: Configuring NetWorker Management Console, exit status=1 (error)
2023-11-08 16:05:46 ( operation failed

In further investigation, it was understood that during initial installation the NVE administrator had changed the EMC_TCPORT to a non-default port 8443. They had later deleted the file authc_config.txt.preserved due to an unexplained reason.

Although the file authc_config.txt.preserved is manually created with correct syntax before trying to perform NVE Upgrade, the upgrade operation fails with the errors in the logs.

Engineering investigated and reproduced the scenario in-house. During this reproduction, engineering observed that if the EMC_TCPORT port is changed to a non-default port during the initial installation, it causes failures of the future upgrades despite changing the port back to default 9090.
 

Engineering states that NVE is a preconfigured appliance, and modifying any configuration is not supported. Any changes made to the configuration cause a flow of issues with unpredictable consequences. To resolve issues caused by tampered configuration files in a NetWorker Virtual Edition, deploy a new appliance and recover the configuration using NetWorker Disaster Recovery (nsrdr).

In order to facilitate a nsrdr. The following operations must be performed.

1. Collect the bootstrap save set details from the NVE: mminfo -B
2. Deploy a new NVE using the same hostname and hardware configuration as the existing NVE.
3. Perform nsrdr on the new NVE, recovering the NetWorker data from the original NVE to the new NVE.

For more information, see the Dell NetWorker Server Disaster Recovery and Availability Guide.  All NetWorker documents are available through https://www.dell.com/support/product-details/product/networker/docs