When will current CentOS 8.4 and Stream be supported by the Backup Agent?
The official documentation says that CentOS is supported to version 8.3 but not above and CentOS Stream.
As a Service Provider we naturally always try to keep our own and customers servers (most of them are VMs) up to date. For about half a year or so, there is no support for current CentOS-Versions with a current Kernel.
Problem seems to be the snapapi-module that somehow does not support current Kernel 4.18 and above. Mentioned e.g. here: https://kb.acronis.com/de/node/68870
Without the snapapi-module we are not able to backup and recover the full machine but only the most important files. Really annoying in case of a recovery since the whole OS setup and installation of services has to be done before you can recover the backed up files.
Other solutions like storapi on VMware/ESXi are no alternative because most customers are not willing to pay for it.
If this situation continues as is, from our perspective, Acronis can not be used for maintained CentOS VMs.
Thank you for the fast reply, Maria.
I just tried to compile the new version from the .rpm as instructions told in https://kb.acronis.com/content/41283
First, I updated a CentOS8 Stream to the newest Version. Which seems to be 8.5 already...
[root@srv01-dc ~]# cat /proc/version Linux version 4.18.0-315.el8.x86_64 (mockbuild@kbuilder.bsys.centos.org) (gcc version 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-2) (GCC)) #1 SMP Mon Jun 28 19:09:44 UTC 2021
The steps from the instructions complete successfully until you start the building process.
[root@srv01-dc ~]# dkms ldtarball /usr/lib/Acronis/kernel_modules/snapapi26-0.7.140-all.tar.gz
...
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-147.13.2.el8_1.x86_64/x86_64...
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64/x86_64...
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-193.6.3.el8_2.x86_64/x86_64...
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-305.3.1.el8.x86_64/x86_64...
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-80.el8.x86_64/x86_64...
DKMS: ldtarball completed.
Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/source ->
/usr/src/snapapi26-0.7.140
DKMS: add completed.
[root@srv01-dc ~]# dkms build -m snapapi26 -v 0.7.140
Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping...
Building module:
cleaning build area...
make -j8 KERNELRELEASE=4.18.0-315.el8.x86_64 -C /lib/modules/4.18.0-315.el8.x86_64/build M=/var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/build...(bad exit status: 2)
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.18.0-315.el8.x86_64 (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/build/make.log for more information.
Following line does probably show the most current version supportet by snapapi:
Loading /var/lib/dkms/snapapi26/0.7.140/4.18.0-305.3.1.el8.x86_64/x86_64...
I also tried the same steps on a VM with an older Kernel:
[root@srv01-dc ~]# cat /proc/version Linux version 4.18.0-277.el8.x86_64 (mockbuild@kbuilder.bsys.centos.org) (gcc version 8.4.1 20200928 (Red Hat 8.4.1-1) (GCC)) #1 SMP Wed Feb 3 20:35:19 UTC 2021
The last command completes with warnings:
[root@srv01-dc ~]# dkms install -m snapapi26 -v 0.7.140 ... depmod: WARNING: /lib/modules/4.18.0-269.el8.x86_64/weak-updates/snapapi26.ko.xz needs unknown symbol blk_mq_make_request depmod: WARNING: /lib/modules/4.18.0-277.el8.x86_64/extra/snapapi26.ko.xz needs unknown symbol blk_mq_make_request ...
Jobs with a full machine backup fail with the message that the snapapi-module is not installed for this kernel-version.
Hi, Manuel.
Please open a case with our support team so that we may investigate and provide you with a solution.