Windows Vmware file level restore (FLR) fails when a restored file path exceeds Maximum Path Length Limitation (MAX_PATH)

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Symptoms



File level restore job failling on certain directory path with deep recursion.      The FLR logs shows generic error logs 

  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----  START avvmwfile log <timestamp> UTC  [18.2.100-134 Linux-x86_64]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <5008>: Logging to /usr/local/avamarclient/var/MOD-1565970042058-<cid>-3019-vmwfilew.log
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <5174>: - Reading /usr/local/avamarclient/var/avvmwfile.cmd
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <5174>: - Reading /usr/local/avamarclient/var/avvmwfileAll.cmd
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <6673>: CTL listening on port 34258
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <10684>: Setting ctl message version to 3 (from 1)
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <16136>: Setting ctl max message size to 268435456
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <5174>: - Reading /usr/local/avamarclient/var/avvmwfile.cmd
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <5174>: - Reading /usr/local/avamarclient/var/avvmwfileAll.cmd
<timestamp> avvmwfile Info <19660>: targetlist contains <dir backup="true" date="1969-01-01 00:00:00" internal="0" group="unknown" protection="drwx------" name="C:/DFS_Shares/Users/Bob" size="65536" saveas="C:/DFS_Shares/users/restore" user="unknown" />

<timestamp> avvmwfile Error <0000>: Failed to restore files via network, check proxy log for details
<timestamp>  avvmwfile Error <0000>: assist_restore error. ret: 157

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----- END avvmwfile log <timestamp> UTC  (0 warnings, 2 errors, 0 fatal errors)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Cause

Inside the  virtual machine, Microsoft windows is configured with DFS (Distributed File System)   with very deep file tree structures. 

When restoring to original location restore option we see on the proxy the FLR script log  (/usr/local/avamarclient/bin/logs/flr*.err) the following:
  
>file name: file1.txt
>file name: files2 
>file name: <long-file>-example.txt
>fail to create file  C:\DFS_Shares\users\restore\folder1\folder2\folder3\....< file length bigger than 260 characters>-example.txt  error code:2
Issue: Maximum Path Length Limitation (MAX_PATH) was exceeded.  By default this limit is 260 which cause restore file creation issue if combination of save location and filename path is greater than 260 characters  


More information is available on this Microsoft page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

"In the Windows API (with some exceptions discussed in the following paragraphs), the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters.
A local path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, name components separated by backslashes, and a terminating null character"

Resolution


1. In newer Windows operating systems (Windows 10, Version 1607, and Later) enable Enable Long Paths.     
The Following microsoft kb has instructions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

OR

2. Instead of restoring to original location, perform a redirected restore into shorten directory path. 
Example: c:\restore\  which will reduce overall file path.  

Affected Products

Avamar

Products

Avamar, Avamar Client for VMware
Article Properties
Article Number: 000053607
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 09 Oct 2024
Version:  3
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