NetWorker: NetWorker Server Services Are Not Coming Up "NetWorker Is Unable To Continue Its Startup Sequence"

NetWorker server is deployed on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux pacemaker (PCS) cluster.

NetWorker server is upgraded from 19.6.1.x (or earlier) to one of the impacted versions:

• 19.7.0.0 to 19.7.0.3
• 19.8.0.0 to 19.8.0.3
• 19.9.0.0 to 19.9.0.1

After upgrade, NetWorker server services do not start.

• The active node's /nsr_share/nsr/logs/daemon.raw

84419 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR critical NetWorker is unable to continue its startup sequence due to a server hostname change to "CLUSTER_VIRTUAL_IP". Please verify that the server's hostname and its aliases are properly represented in the local host database (eg. /etc/hosts)and DNS.
78366 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Beginning check of client attributes
78367 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Finished check of client attributes
83273 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Startup in process (step 3 of 5); checking resource types in the RAP database...
198264 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating InactiveClientsCache.
198266 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating InactiveClientsCache completed in 16 microseconds
202656 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Populating DNS cache...
203404 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Checking resource types in the RAP database...
95297 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP critical Error encountered while re-signing lockbox '/nsr/lockbox/CLUSTER_HOSTNAME_FQDN/clb.lb': The Lockbox file was not found.
88783 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  2 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP warningAttempt to allocate server storage node 'CLUSTER_HOSTNAME_FQDN' again.
199164 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  1 5 0 3039790848 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd NSR notice Filling DNS cache with the active clients only.
95297 MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:SS AM  5 3 17 3128739648 1735039 0 CLUSTER_NODE_HOSTNAME nsrd RAP critical Error encountered while re-signing lockbox '/nsr/lockbox/CLUSTER_VIRTUAL_IP/clb.lb': The Lockbox file was not found.

Changes applied in the impacted versions prevent NetWorker services from correlating the VIRTUAL_CLUSTER_IP with the hostname used to configure NetWorker. During service startup, services see the IP address instead of the hostname, causing a mismatch with the 'name' value in the server resource. It also tries to open the /nsr/lockbox using the IP instead of the previously configured Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

root@NWrhelNode1:~# lcmap
type: NSR_CLU_TYPE;
clu_type: NSR_LC_TYPE;
interface version: 1.0;

type: NSR_CLU_VIRTHOST;
hostname: 192.1xx.xx.30;
local: TRUE;
owned paths: /nsr_share;

root@NWrhelNode1:~# nsradmin
NetWorker administration program.
Use the "help" command for help, "visual" for full-screen mode.
nsradmin> show name
nsradmin> p type: nsr
                        name: nwrhelclus.emclab.local;
nsradmin> q
root@NWrhelNode1:~# nslookup nwrhelclus.emclab.local
Server:         192.1xx.xx.2
Address:        192.1xx.xx.2#53

Name:   nwrhelclus.emclab.local
Address: 192.1xx.xx.30

The lockbox and NetWorker Server Resource (NSR) 'name' fields work off of static assignment and not address resolution.

This issue was addressed in NetWorker 19.8.0.4; however, 19.8 is End of Support Life (EOSL) as of November 11 2025. Upgrade to 19.9.0.2 or later for a code fix: https://www.dell.com/support/home/product-support/product/networker/drivers

See: NetWorker: Red Hat Pacemaker Cluster How to Upgrade NetWorker Server and Best Practices