Avamar: MCS does not start

Summary: MCS is down and cannot be started.

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Symptoms

The Management Console Server (MCS) is down and cannot be started.

dpnctl start mcs
dpnctl: INFO: Starting MCS...
dpnctl: INFO: To monitor progress, run in another window: tail -f /tmp/dpnctl-mcs-start-output-nnnnn
dpnctl: ERROR: error return from "[ -r /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile ; /usr/local/avamar/bin/mcserver.sh --start" - exit status 1
dpnctl: WARNING: 1 warning seen in output of "[ -r /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile ; /usr/local/avamar/bin/mcserver.sh --start"
dpnctl: INFO: [see log file "/usr/local/avamar/var/log/dpnctl.log"]
 

If the /tmp/dpnctl-mcs-start-output-nnnnn file no longer exists, the mcserver.out file also shows the error:

tail -20 /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_log/mcserver.out
...
Database server is running...
INFO: Starting messaging service.
INFO: Started messaging service.
=== BEGIN === check.mcs (prestart)
check.mcs passed
=== PASS === check.mcs PASSED OVERALL (prestart)
Starting Administrator Server at: Thu Jun 23 16:51:14 CEST 2016
Starting Administrator Server...
Warning: org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser: Property 'http://www.oracle.com/xml/jaxp/properties/entityExpansionLimit' is not recognized.
Compiler warnings:
WARNING: 'org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl: Property 'http://javax.xml.XMLConstants/property/accessExternalDTD' is not recognized.'
2024-06-23 16:51:53.699:INFO::Logging to STDERR via org.mortbay.log.StdErrLog
2024-06-23 16:51:53.864:INFO::jetty-6.1.23
2024-06-23 16:51:53.941:INFO::Extract lib/mcsdk-axis2.war to /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_tmp/Jetty_0_0_0_0_9443_mcsdk.axis2.war____.xz4n3v/webapp
2024-06-23 16:52:01.697:INFO::Started TlsSocketConnector@0.0.0.0:9443
com.avamar.asn.service.ServiceException: Unable to install services.
 

The status confirms it is not running:

mcserver.sh --status 
=== BEGIN === check.mcs (poststart)
ERROR: check.mcs: [hostname] Attempting to connect to hostname:7778 CHECK FAILED: Unable to open socket
ERROR: check.mcs: [hostname] Attempting to ping to hostname:28001 CHECK FAILED: Unable to open socket
check.mcs failed
*** FAIL *** check.mcs FAILED OVERALL (poststart)
The Administrator Server is not running.
ERROR: Unable to connect to the Administrator Server when it's not running.
Start the Administrator Server first.

Cause

The permissions on the /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/mcserver.xml are incorrect:

ls -thrl /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/
total 68K
-r-------- 1 admin admin 4.5K Jun 23 20:50 preferences.dtd
-rw------- 1 admin admin 7.2K Jun 23 20:50 avamar_keystore
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin 44K Jun 23 20:51 mcserver.xml
-rw------- 1 admin admin 20 Jun 23 20:57 mcecroot.flg
-rw------- 1 admin admin 20 Jun 23 20:57 mcrsaroot.flg
 

The file and group should be admin, and the permissions should be 664:

-rw-rw-r--  1 admin admin 44K Jun 23 20:51 mcserver.xml

Resolution

1. Correct the permissions and ownership as required:

chown admin:admin /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/mcserver.xml
  
chmod 664 /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/mcserver.xml
 

2. Verify:

ls -thrl /usr/local/avamar/var/mc/server_data/prefs/
total 68K
-r-------- 1 admin admin 4.5K Jun 23 20:50 preferences.dtd
-rw------- 1 admin admin 7.2K Jun 23 20:50 avamar_keystore
-rw-rw-r--  1 admin admin 44K Jun 23 20:51 mcserver.xml
-rw------- 1 admin admin 20 Jun 23 20:57 mcecroot.flg
-rw------- 1 admin admin 20 Jun 23 20:57 mcrsaroot.flg

Affected Products

Avamar Server

Products

Avamar Data Store, Avamar Server
Article Properties
Article Number: 000036954
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 12 Aug 2025
Version:  5
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