Connectrix SANnav: Backup failure with the error "Unable to copy the backup file to the given path"
Summary: The Windows NFS server does not allow root access which prevents the SANnav to change the owner and group of the backup files.
Symptoms
The backup path is an NFS share by a Windows server.
Both the scheduled and manual backup fail with the error "Unable to copy the backup file to the given path." But the backup file is successfully generated.
This is observed on SANnav 2.3.x. SANnav 2.2 does not report this error with the same NFS share.
Cause
The mw-consolidated-2.log shows that "Permission denied" for the chown command.
mw-consolidated-2 - [INFO ] 2024-09-24 09:21:26.022 [pool-90-thread-1] com.brocade.dcm.backuprestore.core.BackupGenerator - Response received from backup script : Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
chown: /<NFS mount point>/<backup filename>.tar.gz: Permission denied
When the Linux user does not have a mapping relationship on the Windows server, the new files in the NFS path belong to the "anonymous" user and group.
[root@<sannav hostname>]# ll total 128535364 -rw-r--r--+ 1 4294967294 4294967294 3947527003 Aug 1 02:11 dcm-New_backup_<name>-08-01-2024-02-00-00.tar.gz -rw-r--r--+ 1 4294967294 4294967294 3956913210 Aug 2 02:11 dcm-New_backup_<name>-08-02-2024-02-00-02.tar.gz -rw-r--r--+ 1 4294967294 4294967294 3965818644 Aug 3 02:11 dcm-New_backup_<name>-08-03-2024-02-00-01.tar.gz <truncated> (By default, the Windows OS uses UID/GID "-2" for anonymous, "-2" --> 32bit Binary --> Decimal = 4294967294)
SANnav 2.3.0 introduces the user/group "sannavmgr" and the 2.3.x backup script requests to change the owner and group to "sannavmgr" for the backup files.
The Windows server rejects the chown request by the anonymous user, hence the backup script logs the "Permission denied" error in the log file, and shows the "Unable to copy the backup file to the given path" message in the SANnav UI.
SANnav 2.2.x does not run chown during backup thus it does not face this issue.
Resolution
Enable "Allow root access" on the Windows NFS server, and then remount the NFS share on the Linux host for SANnav.