#3372 Issue open: Invalid partition?

Labels: support / question

frustratedsignup opened issue at 2024-12-19 20:14:

  • ReaR version ("/usr/sbin/rear -V"):
    Relax-and-Recover 2.7 / Git

  • If your ReaR version is not the current version, explain why you can't upgrade:

  • OS version ("cat /etc/os-release" or "lsb_release -a" or "cat /etc/rear/os.conf"):
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.6 (Santiago)

  • ReaR configuration files ("cat /etc/rear/site.conf" and/or "cat /etc/rear/local.conf"):
    OUTPUT=USB
    BACKUP=NBU

write rescue image to the device labeled REAR-000

BACKUP_URL=usb:///dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000

  • Hardware vendor/product (PC or PowerNV BareMetal or ARM) or VM (KVM guest or PowerVM LPAR):
    VMware VM

  • System architecture (x86 compatible or PPC64/PPC64LE or what exact ARM device):
    x86_64

  • Firmware (BIOS or UEFI or Open Firmware) and bootloader (GRUB or ELILO or Petitboot):
    Should be a BIOS boot with grub

  • Storage (local disk or SSD) and/or SAN (FC or iSCSI or FCoE) and/or multipath (DM or NVMe):
    Virtual hard drive

  • Storage layout ("lsblk -ipo NAME,KNAME,PKNAME,TRAN,TYPE,FSTYPE,LABEL,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT"):
    My copy of lsblk does not support the '-p' option.

  • Description of the issue (ideally so that others can reproduce it):
    Unable to do a mkrescue operation. Output is as follows:

[root@sas02 rear-master]# more var/log/rear/rear-sas02.log
2024-12-19 13:07:25.107859736 Relax-and-Recover 2.7 / Git
2024-12-19 13:07:25.110085451 Running rear mkrescue (PID 2906 date 2024-12-19 13:07:24)
2024-12-19 13:07:25.112386877 Using log file: /home/CTCC/drsmith/src/rear-master/var/log/rear/rear-sas02.log
2024-12-19 13:07:25.124259441 Including conf/Linux-i386.conf
2024-12-19 13:07:25.126598355 Including conf/GNU/Linux.conf
2024-12-19 13:07:25.152753100 Including /home/CTCC/drsmith/src/rear-master/etc/rear/site.conf
2024-12-19 13:07:25.156282201 Including /home/CTCC/drsmith/src/rear-master/etc/rear/local.conf
2024-12-19 13:07:25.159899381 ======================
2024-12-19 13:07:25.162038281 Running 'init' stage
2024-12-19 13:07:25.164174317 ======================
2024-12-19 13:07:25.170762594 Including init/default/001_verify_config_arrays.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.569947922 Including init/default/002_check_rear_recover_mode.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.572606618 Running workflow mkrescue on the normal/original system
2024-12-19 13:07:25.576675230 Including init/default/010_EFISTUB_check.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.580698053 Including init/default/010_set_drlm_env.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.584710260 Including init/default/030_update_recovery_system.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.591197897 Including init/default/100_check_stale_nfs_mounts.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.602321822 Including init/default/950_check_missing_programs.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.609178003 Including init/default/998_dump_variables.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.614792161 Finished running 'init' stage in 0 seconds
2024-12-19 13:07:25.618884617 Running mkrescue workflow
2024-12-19 13:07:25.621292472 ======================
2024-12-19 13:07:25.623515102 Running 'prep' stage
2024-12-19 13:07:25.625722643 ======================
2024-12-19 13:07:25.632862979 Including prep/default/005_remove_workflow_conf.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.637974940 Including prep/default/020_translate_url.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.642085132 Including prep/default/030_translate_tape.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.647480445 Including prep/default/035_valid_backup_methods.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.651533160 Including prep/default/036_valid_output_methods.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.655884156 Including prep/default/040_check_backup_and_output_scheme.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.663350164 Including prep/USB/default/040_set_NETFS_requirements.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.667841339 Including prep/default/050_check_keep_old_output_copy_var.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.672120319 Including prep/USB/default/060_set_usb_device.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.681060256 Including prep/default/100_init_workflow_conf.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.686015820 Including prep/GNU/Linux/200_include_getty.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.709732240 Including prep/GNU/Linux/200_include_serial_console.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.715973644 Including prep/GNU/Linux/210_include_dhclient.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.744163978 No DHCP client could be auto-detected: DHCP will not be enabled on the rescue system
2024-12-19 13:07:25.748475812 Including prep/GNU/Linux/220_include_lvm_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.751735683 Device mapper found enabled. Including LVM tools.
2024-12-19 13:07:25.816136398 Including prep/GNU/Linux/230_include_md_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.821153849 Including prep/GNU/Linux/240_include_multipath_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.825496094 Including prep/GNU/Linux/280_include_systemd.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.837224592 Including prep/GNU/Linux/280_include_virtualbox.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.850743188 Including prep/GNU/Linux/280_include_vmware_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.855906379 Including prep/GNU/Linux/290_include_drbd.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.861042375 Including prep/GNU/Linux/300_check_backup_and_output_url.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.870428880 Including prep/GNU/Linux/300_include_grub_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.875287746 Including prep/GNU/Linux/310_include_cap_utils.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.879653209 Including prep/default/320_include_uefi_env.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.893707478 Including prep/default/321_EFISTUB_check_uefi_env.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.898016588 Including prep/default/330_include_uefi_tools.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.902348800 Including prep/Linux-i386/330_set_efi_arch.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.906836158 Including prep/USB/Linux-i386/340_find_mbr_bin.sh
2024-12-19 13:07:25.926904414 ERROR: Unsupported USB disk partition table type '' (neither 'msdos' nor 'gpt')
2024-12-19 13:07:25.931993697 Exiting rear mkrescue (PID 2906) and its descendant processes ...
2024-12-19 13:07:25.939570567 rear,2906 usr/sbin/rear -v mkrescue
-rear,4334 usr/sbin/rear -v mkrescue-pstree,4335 -Aplau 2906
2024-12-19 13:07:25.955205050 Running exit tasks
2024-12-19 13:07:25.958780302 Finished rear mkrescue in 1 seconds
2024-12-19 13:07:25.961162000 Removing build area /var/tmp/rear.YSE8FyyGdpcF2dd
2024-12-19 13:07:25.965783578 End of program 'rear' reached
[root@sas02 rear-master]#

When I examine the partitions, /dev/sdb is of the correct type:

[root@sas02 rear-master]# parted --list /dev/sdb
Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 107GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 525MB 524MB primary ext4 boot
2 525MB 107GB 107GB primary lvm

Model: VMware Virtual disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 17.2GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 24.6kB 8389kB 8364kB primary bios_grub
2 8389kB 1082MB 1074MB fat32 primary boot
3 1082MB 17.2GB 16.1GB ext3 primary legacy_boot

I'm uncertain if I've chosen the wrong output type or if I'm missing a dependency. Is there documentation on how to use each of the OUTPUT types? For instance, I could write this out as an ISO instead and then attach that file to the virtual CDROM device. I have no idea how RAWDISK is supposed to be used.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

  • Workaround, if any:

  • Attachments, as applicable ("rear -D mkrescue/mkbackup/recover" debug log files):

You can drag-drop log files into this editor to create an attachment
or paste verbatim text like command output or file content
by including it between a leading and a closing line of
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pcahyna commented at 2024-12-20 09:53:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.6

I am afraid that current ReaR will not support it - the last working version on RHEL 6 was ReaR 2.4, according to @didacog .

pcahyna commented at 2024-12-20 09:55:

By the way, have you formatted the disk using rear format before? Is there anything at /dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000 ?

frustratedsignup commented at 2024-12-20 15:01:

I did format the disk according to the getting started section of the README. It did throw an error the first time around, but I then compiled sgdisk for the system and added it to the path. After that, the format succeeded with a warning that it used sgdisk as a fallback.

I basically created a 16GB virtual disk on the VM and then proceeded with the quick start. Are there any directives that need to be changed? Anything I'm doing wrong here?

I can try the older version and see if that succeeds. I would really like to get this working because doing bare metal the old way is very time consuming. I appreciate the effort.

I asked in my prior submission about the various output formats. Is there any documentation on how to use RAWDISK or the other output formats?

[root@sas02 rear-master]#  ls /dev/disk/by-label/R
REAR-000                   REAR-EFI                   RHEL-6.6\x20Server.x86_64
[root@sas02 rear-master]#  ls -al /dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 19 13:00 /dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000 -> ../../sdb3
[root@sas02 rear-master]#

pcahyna commented at 2024-12-20 15:55:

Are there any directives that need to be changed? Anything I'm doing wrong here?

I don't think so, looks good at first glance (you are using BACKUP=NBU so you will of course need proper NBU backups, but that's not the issue here).

Your problem is caused by a too old lsblk that does not support PKNAME - you can try to set USB_DEVICE_PARTED_LABEL=gpt as a workaround, but I suspect you will hit other issues.

gdha commented at 2024-12-24 15:23:

@frustratedsignup You could try the old git code of https://github.com/rear/rear/tree/rear-2.4 and do a checkout of that branch and give it a shot directly from the git code as sudo usr/sbin/rear -v mkrecscue. Do not forget to edit the etc/rear/local.conf file before kicking off rear.

[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]