Error. Network error on data channel. Connection reset by peer

    • Summary:Description of and steps to resolve the issue resulting in error 'Network error on data channel. Connection reset by peer'.
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    Symptoms

    Message logs in the Management Console of the Backup & Disaster Recovery appliance show the following backup error:

    Network error on data channel. ERR=Connection reset by peer

    Troubleshooting and resolution

    1. The client may have been down or otherwise unreachable due to any number of networking problems:

      • NICs may be incorrectly configured on the appliance.

        Check that a disabled interface is not configured with the same IP address as the enabled interface.

      • Dual NIC may be incorrectly configured on the client.

        Possibly a long-running test from the appliance could diagnose this.

    2. The connection may drop due to unreliable network component in between the appliance and a client.

      • By-pass or replace the network component temporarily.

      • Diagnose Unreliable Networking: This is, of course, hard to pin down to any one thing.

        • Is there anything physically distinct about how the client is connected? If not, you may want to try the following to isolate the unreliable component.

          • Use an alternate switch port.

          • Use a temporary network card such as a USB Ethernet dongle.

          • Check the server events logs for general network problems near the same time the backup is run.

            The agent’s source name is RVXBRagent.

    3. Configure for unreliable networks.

      • Heartbeat Interval = 300.

      • Set the Heartbeat option in the client section for the laptops in the bacula-dir configuration file and in the SD configuration file.

        The Bacula default is set to time-out based on a LAN environment. When the FD <- > SD is talking over a WAN segment, it is too slow for the default setting and the jobs terminate. The issue that has been seen when first setting up Bacula is 99% of the backups are remote clients over a WAN. Adding the Heartbeat option cleared that issue up. The only times there is an issue now is when a client is off line.

      • One other thing to check is the DNS/IP configuration.

        If the environment is not using DNS, make sure the client machines have fixed IP addresses in the TCP/IP settings for Airport. Those need to match each client configuration settings in the bacula-dir configuration file.

    4. If none of the above seems to help, check to see if VSS is enabled on the client:

      1. Go to Clients › Edit › Fileset.

      2. Select the pencil button, and look for the VSS checkbox.

      3. If it is enabled, disable it and try to run the backup again.

    If the backup completes with VSS disabled but fails with VSS enabled, it is likely an issue with the VSS on the Microsoft server. Contact your VSS admin or Microsoft for assistance in resolving the VSS issues.

    While we are not VSS admins, we will also do what we can to assist you in troubleshooting this issue, so you can also contact Support.