NetWorker: DR Backup Failing for -McAfee-DXL-DxlPrivateKey.pem Located on Hidden Volume

Summary: NetWorker Disaster Recovery Backup is failing to back up the \McAfee\DXL\DxlPrivateKey.pem file located in the McAfee directory on a hidden volume.

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Symptoms

The following error is observed in the backup policy log and for more details run backup in debug D3:

host 'CLIENT_HOSTNAME' for the save set 'C:\'. 174422:save: Step (6 of 6) for PID-15792: Reading the save sets and writing to the target device. 5191:save: File \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume2\McAfee\DXL\DxlPrivateKey.pem could not be opened and was not backed up. (Access is denied. (Win32 error 0x5))
5191:save: File \\?\VOLUME{3A005E7F-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\McAfee\DXL\DxlPrivateKey.pem could not be opened and was not backed up. (Access is denied. (Win32 error 0x5))

Cause

The Disaster Recovery backup failure occurs because the file DxlPrivateKey.pem resides in a hidden volume, and access to this file is restricted for users.

Resolution

Log in to the client host where the backup is failing and follow the actions below:

  1. Check all volumes using the command below:
mountvol
  1. Identify the hidden volume detected in the policy log and mount that volume with another name, for example, S:
  1. Below is the command to mount the volume:

mountvol S: \\?\VOLUME{3A005E7F-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}


NOTE: Use the same volume label and drive letter as shown in the backup failure.
 
  1. Open an Administrator command prompt and change directory (cd) to the path shown in the error.

Example:

cd S:\McAfee\DXL>dir

Volume in drive S has no label.
Volume Serial Number is FCA1-83D6

 Directory of S:\McAfee\DXL

02/02/2022  11:19 AM    <DIR>          .
02/02/2022  11:19 AM    <DIR>          ..
06/08/2025  10:02 AM             1,040 dxl_property.config
06/08/2025  10:02 AM               461 dxl_logger.config
02/02/2022  11:19 AM         1,048,588 dxl.log
02/02/2022  11:19 AM         1,048,588 dxl_old.log
06/08/2025  10:02 AM             3,792 DxlBrokerCertChain.pem
06/08/2025  10:02 AM             1,428 DxlClientCert.pem
06/08/2025  10:02 AM             1,858 DxlPrivateKey.pem
               7 File(s)      2,105,755 bytes
               2 Dir(s)      69,278,720 bytes free
  1. Create a local skip directive for the restricted file. For example:
echo skip: *.pem* > nsr.dir
  1. Rerun the backup job.

Additional Information

Run backups in debug D3 to get the hidden volume name. 

Affected Products

NetWorker Family, NetWorker
Article Properties
Article Number: 000358415
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 02 Oct 2025
Version:  3
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