If you’re using a modern NetWorker environment, the chances are that you’ll periodically notice entries such as the following in the daemon.log / daemon.raw files on the backup server:
39078 02/02/2009 09:45:13 PM 0 0 2 1152952640 5095 0 nox nsrexecd SYSTEM error: There is already a machine using the name: “faero”. Either choose a different name for your machine, or delete the “NSR peer information” entry for “faero” on host: “nox”
While this may look confronting, it’s actually a trivially easy error to fix that requires just a minute or so of your time with nsradmin. First, note the client that the error is about, and the client that the error is being recorded from. In this case, the error is about the client faero, while the error is being registered against the host nox.
To fix, run up nsradmin against the client service on nox:
# nsradmin -p nsrexec -s nox
(alternatively, you can use: nsradmin -p 390113 -s nox)
At the nsradmin> prompt, enter the command:
delete type: NSR peer information; name: faero
And answer yes when prompted to confirm. For example, the session might resemble the following:
nsradmin> delete type: NSR peer information; name: faero type: NSR peer information; administrator: root, "user=root,host=nox"; name: faero; peer hostname: faero; Change certificate: ; certificate file to load: ; Delete? y deleted resource id 17.0.83.117.0.0.0.0.210.37.85.73.0.0.0.0.10.0.0.1(1)
There, you’ve done it. Note that you should be periodically scanning your daemon raw/log files for errors and trying to eliminate them. The goal should be that any error or warning reported in the file is something that you do need to worry about/investigate, rather than having a lot of “false positives” floating around in the system.
[Update, 2009-05-12]
I thought I’d mention that one of the most common times I see these warnings occur is after I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled NetWorker on a client, as opposed to having upgraded. Since on some clients it’s more or less necessary to uninstall/reinstall rather than upgrade, that helps to understand why the information is lost periodically. My surmise is that on a new install, the NetWorker client processes generate a new ‘certificate’ or ‘identity’. As this new information conflicts with existing information the backup server has on the client, that’s what triggers the error.
It could be that other factors can cause this, but it seems that this is at least a primary cause.
