NetBackup Media Server Deduplication option (MSDP) version 7.6.1/2.6.1 backups may fail with status 84 (Media write error) in a rare scenario when the number of socket connections to the NetBackup Dedupication Engine exceeds…

Problem

NetBackup Media Server Deduplication option (MSDP) version 7.6.1/2.6.1 backups  may fail with status 84 (media write error) in a rare scenario when the number of socket connections to the NetBackup Dedupication Engine exceeds 3000.

Error Message

NetBackup Media Server Deduplication option (MSDP) media server spoold.log file (Windows path is <dedup_path>\*\logs\spoold; UNIX/Linux path is <dedup_path>/*/logs/spoold; NetBackup appliance path /disk/logs/spoold):

Cause

The NetBackup Deduplication Engine process (spoold) has reached the maximum socket connections limit of 3000.

For example, if there are 100 restore connections and 50 control connections, the backup connections number should less than 2850.
For each NB backup stream, MSDP will create 7 backup connections. So there are 409 NB backup streams for the this example.
 

Solution

Within the MSDP server's contentrouter.cfg file, raise the MaxConnections value to 6000 (default 3000). The contentrouter.cfg file can be found inside the following directory:
- Windows: <dedup_path>\etc\puredisk\
- UNIX/Linux: <dedup_path>/etc/puredisk/
- NB appliance: /disk/etc/puredisk/

Edit the file so the line that reads MaxConnections=3000 instead reads:
MaxConnections=6000

Then from a command-prompt, force the NetBackup Deduplication Engine to reload the configuration with the command 'crcontrol --reloadconfig'. The crcontrol command binary resides inside the:
- Windows: <install_path>\Veritas\pdde\pdcr\bin\
- UNIX/Linux/NB appliance: /usr/openv/pdde/pdcr/bin

Applies To

NetBackup Media Server Deduplication option (MSDP) media server, version 7.6.1 (or NetBackup appliance version 2.6.1).