VNX: Getting "tar: This does not look like a tar archive" error while untaring PUHC script

Summary: The Pre-Upgrade Health Check (PUHC) script fails. The tar reports 'This does not look like a tar archive' and header errors, caused by the browser incorrectly decompressing the tar.gz file. ...

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
Check out other resources

Symptoms

While untaring the PUHC script, the following message appears:
 

[root@vnxnkdc01cs0 nasadmin]# tar -xzvf upgrd-ckv11-29.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

 

Cause

The browser may have decompressed the tar.gz file incorrectly.

Resolution

Decompress the file using: 
# gzip -d file.tar.gz

After that go to the procedure in KB article 304256 - VNX Unified: Pre-upgrade Health Check with step 9. 
[nasadmin@VNX ~]$ tar xzvf upgrd-ckv11-29.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

[nasadmin@VNX ~]$ gzip -d upgrd-ckv11-29.tar.gz
[nasadmin@VNX ~]$ ll
total 98468
drwxrwxr-x 2 nasadmin nasadmin     4096 Dec 10 11:22 celerra
-rw------- 1 nasadmin nasadmin     1378 Apr 21 14:52 dead.letter
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin        0 Oct 22  2015 group
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin       58 Nov  4  2015 homedir
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin      277 Oct 22  2015 ldap.conf
drwxrwxrwx 2 nasadmin nasadmin     4096 Dec 10 11:30 nas_tool
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin       71 Oct 22  2015 nsswitch.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin      202 Oct 22  2015 passwd
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin    20480 Dec 15 12:49 qtree.tar.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 nasadmin nasadmin     9236 May  9 14:45 runquotareport.ksh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        19377 May 17 15:38 screenlog.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root        22491 May 17 15:15 screenlog.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root     root         4982 May 17 13:31 screenlog.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin  5619914 May 24 15:47 upgrd-ckv11-29.tar
-rw-rw-r-- 1 nasadmin nasadmin     5712 Jan 11 13:03 viruschecker.conf
[nasadmin@VNX ~]$ tar xzvf upgrd-ckv11-29.tar
upgrd-ckv11-29.bin
upgrd-ckv_O
upgrd-ckv_N
check_nas_upgrade_5.4.31.2.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_5.5.42.1.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_5.6.52.2.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_6.0.70.4.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_7.0.54.5.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_7.1.79.8.tar.gz
check_nas_upgrade_8.1.6.101.tar.gz


Affected Products

Entry Level & Midrange
Article Properties
Article Number: 000052568
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 04 Dec 2025
Version:  5
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.