Avamar: GSAN Degraded and Server in Synchronizing State

Summary: Avamar may display a degraded GSAN status and a Synchronizing state in the mccli server show-prop command due to high metadata utilization, typically exceeding 90%. This issue can arise from incorrect backups, replication to the GSAN, or other factors. To resolve this, follow the steps outlined in Dell internal article 000047627, which detail how to reduce metadata capacity and eliminate the Synchronizing state. After completing these steps, the mccli server show-prop command should display Full Access in the State attribute. ...

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Symptoms

The command "mccli server show-prop" shows Synchronizing state and for this reason, the node is in read-only mode:

admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>: mccli server show-prop
0,23000,CLI command completed successfully.
Attribute                                    Value
-------------------------------------------- ----------------------------
State                                        Synchronizing
Active sessions                              1
Total capacity                               2.2 TB
Capacity used                                2.1 TB
Server utilization                           92.5%
Bytes protected (client pre-comp size)       139.6 TB
Bytes protected quota (client pre-comp size) Not configured
License expiration                           Never
Time since Server initialization             147 days 22h:34m
Last checkpoint                              2024-07-10 11:11:40 CDT
Last validated checkpoint                    2024-07-10 10:05:41 CDT
System Name                                  AVMR-SRV.LAB.COM
System ID                                    1234567890@00:50:55:BD:99:77
HFSAddr                                      AVMR-SRV
HFSPort                                      27000
IP address                                   192.168.1.113
Number of nodes                              1
Nodes Online                                 0
Nodes Offline                                0
Nodes Read-only                              1
Nodes Timed-out                              0
admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>:

status.dpn shows access status as admin:

admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>: status.dpn
Wed Jul 10 08:11:42 CDT 2024  [AVMR-SRV.LAB.COM] Wed Jul 10 13:11:42 2024 UTC (Initialized Tue Feb 13 19:33:08 2024 UTC)
Node   IP Address     Version   State   Runlevel  Srvr+Root+User Dis Suspend Load UsedMB Errlen  %Full   Percent Full and Stripe Status by Disk
0.0    192.168.1.113 19.10.0-135  ONLINE fullaccess mhpu+0000+0000   5 false   1.37 15385  7750230  64.0%  64%(onl:4285) 64%(onl:4287) 64%(onl:4283)
Srvr+Root+User Modes = migrate + hfswriteable + persistwriteable + useraccntwriteable

System ID: 1234567890@00:50:55:BD:99:77


All reported states=(ONLINE), runlevels=(fullaccess), modes=(mhpu+0000+0000)
System-Status: ok
Access-Status: admin

Last checkpoint: cp.20240709142706 finished Tue Jul  9 09:27:44 2024 after 00m 38s (OK)
Last GC: finished Tue Jul  9 08:27:29 2024 after 26m 35s >> recovered 129.99 MB (OK)
Last hfscheck: finished Tue Jul  9 09:22:04 2024 after 52m 11s >> checked 8472 of 8472 stripes (OK)

Maintenance windows scheduler capacity profile is active.
  The maintenance window is currently running.
    Next backup window start time: Wed Jul 10 18:00:00 2024 CDT
  Next maintenance window start time: Thu Jul 11 08:00:00 2024 CDT
admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>:

The GSAN status is degraded.

admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>: dpnctl status
Identity added: /home/admin/.ssh/admin_key (/home/admin/.ssh/admin_key)
dpnctl: INFO: gsan status: degraded
dpnctl: INFO: MCS status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: emt status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: Backup scheduler status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: Maintenance windows scheduler status: enabled.
dpnctl: INFO: Unattended startup status: enabled.
dpnctl: INFO: avinstaller status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: ddrmaint-service status: up.
dpnctl: INFO: ESE status: up.
admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>:

 

Cause

Synchronizing state occurs when there is a high metadata utilization. In this scenario, the metadata capacity is 99.91%:

admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>: mcserver.sh --status | grep metadata
  metadataUtilization (larger of (nstripes/totalStripesPermitted) or (stripeReserved/(nodeSizeAfterDiskReadOnly * stripeUtilizationCapacityFactor)) * 100): 99.91
admin@AVMR-SRV:~/>:

The above scenario occurred because an incorrect replication to this Avamar (GSAN) was performed. There are other factors that can increase the Metadata capacity. Use this article Avamar Metadata Capacity Resolution Path for more information.

 

Resolution

Dell Technical Support must perform this procedure. Open a service request and mention this article number. The resolution for Dell Technical Support is described in the Internal Notes section.

 

Affected Products

Avamar, Avamar Server
Article Properties
Article Number: 000228916
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 17 Dec 2025
Version:  3
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