[SOLVED] backup target doesn't exist... but it does

[bwm71]

Ok, what am I doing wrong here?

$ id
uid=501(zimbra) gid=501(zimbra) groups=4(adm),5(tty),501(zimbra),502(postfix)
$ zmprov mcf zimbraBackupTarget /nas1/zimbra/zcs
$ zmbackup -i -a all
Ignoring -a option. Incremental backups always include all accounts on the server.
Error occurred: Invalid backup target: Backup target /nas1/zimbra/zcs does not exist
$ touch /nas1/zimbra/zcs/helpme
$ ls -l /nas1/zimbra/zcs/helpme
-rw-r----- 1 zimbra zimbra 0 Apr 17 15:19 /nas1/zimbra/zcs/helpme

Brandon

[LMStone]

What happens if you specify the backup target in the commandline?

Eg.:

zmbackup -f -a all -t /nas1/zimbra/zcs/

Also, how is the backup target connected/mounted on the Zimbra server? Samba? NFS? USB?

Can you show us the results of mount and df -h?

Hope that helps,
Mark

[bwm71]

Thanks for the reply. The backup target is mounted via NFS. Here is the output you requested.

$ zmbackup -f -a all -t /nas1/zimbra/zcs
Error occurred: Invalid backup target: Backup target /nas1/zimbra/zcs does not exist
$ mount
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda3 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol05 on /home_old type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol03 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol02 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-data00 on /data00 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-zimbra on /opt/zimbra type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol04 on /var type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
maisrv02:/data00/home on /data00/home type nfs (rw,addr=192.168.1.2)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
nas1:/raid0/data/backup on /nas1 type nfs (rw,addr=192.168.1.10)
$ df -h /nas1/zimbra/zcs/.
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
nas1:/raid0/data/backup
1.9T 187G 1.7T 10% /nas1

[LMStone]

This might be a permissions issue, with the Zimbra backup script not being able to write to the backup directory tree. So let's test and if necessary, fix...

Please try the following (apologies if I am telling you things you already know):

Log in locally to the Zimbra server.

1. Log in locally to the Zimbra server.
2. Become root (run su -), then become the zimbra user (run as root su - zimbra)
3. As the zimbra user, run touch /nas1/zimbra/zcs/test_file

If the touch fails (touch creates a new zero-length file), then try running something like:

1. chown -R zimbra.zimbra /nas1/zimbra
2. chmod -R 755 /nas1/zimbra

And then run the touch command again to test.

If you are familiar with the chmod command and have higher security requirements, you may want to change the permissions above from 755 to something like 740.

Please test and let us know.

Hope that helps,
Mark

[bwm71]

You'll notice in my original post that I was able to successfully touch a file in the backup directory, so that's not the issue.

I ended up submitting a ticket with Zimbra support and what did work to get backups working is to manually create the backup structure (the sessions and tmp) directories under the specified backup directory.

I'm not sure yet why Zimbra was not able to create the structure on its own, but it definitely wasn't a permissions issue as I had tried with the permissions wide open (0777) and owned by zimbra:zimbra.

[LMStone]

Apologies for missing in your original post that you were able to do touch.

Glad things got sorted out; did Zimbra support give you any clarity as to why Zimbra was unable to create the backup sub-directories in the non-standard location?

Marking this thread solved in the interim.

All the best,
Mark

[bwm71]

No word yet from support as to why I had to manually create the backup structure.