NVP-vProxy: Backups Fail With 'Panic Occurred Runtime Error' When Data01 Is Full

VM backups fail intermittently on a specific vProxy appliance. The NetWorker workflow log shows a 500 error with a panic runtime message:

MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS [VM_NAME]: Unable to start backup on vProxy '[VPROXY_NAME]': Received an HTTP code: 500, libCURL message: "", vProxy message: "Error received from vProxy ="-500: Panic occurred: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference". ", url: "https://[VPROXY_NAME]:9090/api/v1/BackupVmSessions", body: "{"Config":{"SessionId":"","LogTag":"@(#) Build number: 288","IdleTimeout":300,"LogLevel":"TRACE","AcceptedLanguage":"en","TransportModeRequested":"hotadd","Parallelism":1,"UseCbt":true,"AutoEnableCbt":true,"AutoRepairCbt":true,"VimServerRef":{"HostName":"[VCENTER_NAME]","UserName":"S001891","UserPassword":"****","TcpPort":0},"VmSpec":{"Name":"[VM_NAME]","VmMoref":"vm-152712","VirtualDisks":[{"Label":"Hard disk 1","Key":2000}],"CustomFieldName":"Last EMC vProxy Backup","CustomFieldValue":"Backup Server=[NSR_NAME], Policy=[POLICY_NAME], Workflow=[WORKFLOW_NAME], Action=[ACTION_NAME], JobId=490597"},"SnapshotSpec":{"Name":"NetWorker Backup Snapshot","Description":"Snapshot is created as part of protecting this VM by EMC NetWorker VProxy.","Quiesce":false,"DumpMemory":false,"RemoveAll":false,"Consolidate":false},"TargetSpec":{"DeviceType":"DataDomain","HostName":"[DATADOMAIN_NAME]","UserName":"boostadmin","UserPassword":"****","BackupMode":"VSS","BackupPath":"[NSR_NAME]/[DEVICE_NAME]//[NSR_NAME]/[DEVICE_NAME]/05/47/e03a0faf-00000006-9122ca5e-5b22ca5e-5380e9f4-822ca7d4","PreviousBackupPath":"/[NSR_NAME]/[DEVICE_NAME]/75/82/7f12c16b-00000006-2720fcc2-5b20fcc2-40eae9f4-822ca7d4","CurrentBackupPath":"/[NSR_NAME]/[DEVICE_NAME]/active/e03a0faf-00000006-9122ca5e-5b22ca5e-5380e9f4-822ca7d4"}}}".

The /data01 filesystem on the vProxy appliance shows 100% utilization:

myvproxy:/data01/runtime/logs # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /
devtmpfs 3.9G 8.0K 3.9G 1% /dev
tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3.9G 8.8M 3.9G 1% /run
tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /.snapshots
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/crash
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/tmp
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /usr/local
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/spool
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/lib/pgsql
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/opt
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/lib/mailman
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/lib/named
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /srv
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /opt
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /home
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /tmp
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /var/log
/dev/sdb1 82G 82G 20K 100% /data01
/dev/sda2 95M 73M 18M 81% /boot
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /boot/grub2/x86_64-efi
/dev/sda4 17G 2.7G 14G 18% /boot/grub2/i386-pc
/dev/sdb2 16G 33M 16G 1% /data01/logs

The space is consumed by backup session logs in /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/. These logs reside on the /data01 partition. Other VMs on different vProxy appliances will continue to back up successfully.

The /data01 filesystem on the vProxy appliance stores backup session logs in /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/. The default log retention is one month. In environments with high backup activity, the session logs can consume all available space on /data01.

When the partition reaches 100%, the vProxy cannot create new session log files. The backup process encounters a nil pointer dereference when it fails to write the log. This triggers a panic runtime error with HTTP status code 500.

Option 1 — Redeploy the vProxy Appliance

Redeploy the vProxy appliance from the PPDM or NetWorker console. Redeployment clears all existing logs and restores the /data01 partition.

Option 2 — Manually Reclaim Space

If redeployment is not immediately possible:

1. Log in to the vProxy over SSH as admin. Switch to root:

   sudo su - root

2. Delete old recycled session logs to reclaim space:

   find /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/recycle/ -type f -mtime +14 -delete

3. Verify space has been reclaimed:

   df -h /data01

4. Retry the backup for the affected VMs.

Prevent Recurrence — Configure a Log Cleanup Cron Job

To prevent /data01 from reaching 100% again, create a scheduled cleanup job:

1. Log in to the vProxy over SSH as admin. Switch to root:

   sudo su - root

2. Create a crontab entry for the root user:

   crontab -e

3. Add the following line to delete session logs older than 14 days every day at 6 AM:

   0 6 * * * find /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/recycle/vbackupd -type f -mtime +14 -delete

4. Save and exit the editor. Verify the cron job:

   crontab -l

Contact Dell Support

If /data01 continues to fill rapidly after implementing the cleanup, contact Dell Support for further investigation. Reference this KB article.