Avamar: NDMP Backup or Restore Fails After Accelerator Upgrade Due to Stale Client CID

Backup and Restore Issues After NDMP Accelerator Upgrade.

Observed Behaviors

• Browsing existing NDMP backups succeeds.
• Backup or restore operations may fail.
• Test that a restore to a different location returns a "connection timed out" message.
• Test that a restore to the same location fails with a timeout error (startCode:32001).

startCode:32001 Summary: MC REST API operation failed
Error Message: Browser: Unable to establish a connection with the client. Connection timed out using address ave-ndmp.xx.xx port XYZAB

Root cause of NDMP backup/restore failures after Accelerator upgrade

During an upgrade of the Avamar NDMP Accelerator, if the avagent process is running, it is not automatically reset. The next backup or restore operation then uses client information that was valid before the upgrade.

• Stale client identifier (CID) is retained, causing the client to present pre‑upgrade credentials to the Avamar server.
• The mismatched CID results in MC REST API failures (error code 32001) and connection‑timeout errors such as:

  Browser: Unable to establish a connection with the client. Connection timed out using address ave-ndmp.xx.xx port XYZAB

• If the client’s group or domain does not match the server’s configuration, the mismatch further prevents successful authentication.

Fix Avamar NDMP Accelerator backup/restore failures after upgrade.

Prerequisites

• Administrative access to the Avamar NDMP Accelerator host
• All active NDMP backup jobs must be stopped before proceeding.
• Ensure that the Accelerator is in a quiet state (no running backups or restores).

Step‑by‑step procedure

• Stop all avagent processes on the Accelerator host.
• Run the NDMP setup utility to reset client information.
• Verify the client details displayed by the utility.
• Correct any incorrect client identifiers (CID) or domain/group values.
• Exit the setup utility and restart the avagent processes.
• Update the Avamar server with the corrected client data using avregister .

Detailed commands

# 1. Stop avagent processes
$ sudo systemctl stop avagent

# 2. Launch the NDMP setup utility (run while the accelerator is quiet)
$ sudo avsetupndmp

# The utility will display each client’s CID, group, and domain.
# Press  to keep a value that is correct, or type the correct value when prompted.

# 3. After confirming all client entries, exit the utility (usually by pressing Ctrl‑D or selecting “Quit”).

# 4. Restart avagent processes
$ sudo systemctl start avagent

# 5. Register the corrected client information on the Avamar server
$ sudo avregister -c  -g  -d

Verification

• Run a test NDMP backup to confirm the job completes without timeout errors.
• Perform a test restore to a different location and verify successful data retrieval.
• Browse the newly created backup set from the Avamar Management Console to ensure visibility.