Rear backup fails with "No space left on device" errors

This document (7022152) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 4 (SLES 11 SP4)

SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 11 Service Pack 4

Relax-and-Recover (Rear) 1.16

Situation

Relax-and-Recover (Rear) backup fails with "No space left on device" errors.

When trying to backup a server using the command "rear -v mkbackup", the backup debug log (in /var/log/rear/ directory) contains the following errors, complaining about "No space left on device" and the backup operation fails:
........
tar: dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-mpath-600601604f433600980dc0287ddce511: Wrote only 4608 of 10240 bytes
tar: dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600601604f433600940dc0287ddce511-part2: Cannot open: No space left on device
tar: dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-3600601604f433600940dc0287ddce511_part2: Cannot open: No space left on device
tar: dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-3600601604f4336009a0dc0287ddce511_part1: Cannot open: No space left on device
tar: dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-3600601604f4336009a0dc0287ddce511_part2: Cannot open: No space left on device
tar: dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-part2-mpath-3600601604f433600960dc0287ddce511: Cannot open: No space left on device
........
tar: etc/netconfig: Cannot write: No space left on device
tar: etc/mke2fs.conf: Cannot write: No space left on device
tar: etc/SuSE-release: Cannot write: No space left on device
tar: etc/lsb-release: Cannot write: No space left on device
tar: etc/localtime: Cannot write: No space left on device
tar: etc/magic: Cannot write: No space left on device
......

Resolution

Increasing the size of the "/tmp" partition with more free space allows the rear backup operation to complete successfully.

Depending on the server configuration and backup requirements, the amount of free space required in "/tmp" will varies.

Cause

In this case, the "/tmp" partition initially has 10GB and has 8 GB of free space, but the rear backup operation still failed.
After increasing the size of the "/tmp" partition to 40GB with more free space allows the rear backup operation to complete successfully.

Additional Information

The "rear" backup tool make use of the "/tmp" directory as a temporary work space by default, so it will need sufficient free disk space in "/tmp" to run successfully.
As the configuration for every server and backup requirements are different, it is difficult to determine the amount of free disk space needed beforehand.
So the user need to perform some trials and errors in order to determine the free disk space in "/tmp" to allow the backup operation to run successfully.

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

Document ID:7022152
Creation Date: 23-Oct-2017
Modified Date:03-Mar-2020
- SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

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