Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

We have been testing [b]XSIBACKUP-PRO 11.2.6[/b] all day with special focus on ESXi 6.5.0 and we have not been able to reproduce any cipher issue, OpenSSH versions seem to be perfectly able to negotiate a cipher with default options.

Of course we are referring to VMWare official builds. Should somebody encounter a similar issue, please contact support and we'll try to help you find a common cipher denominator and set it via the [b]--ssh-ciphers[/b] argument.

To jybleau:

Same as above, you said that you are using DELL builds. This manufacturer builds are not among the worse, DELL is a serious enterprise and they do a good job, but still, they incorporate arbitrary changes, so you might need to deal with them.

Your problem is with the cipher, which is in turn causing the other error.
Please, contact support with all details:

- ESXi version.
- Full backup job.
- Full output log.

[quote=Rasmus]Ok, so I installed 11.2.6, and no joy. Actually even worse. Now I also receive the UTF 8 error mesage that a different user also complained about. I am not very experienced with VM Ware, and I am really afraid of messing up the original VM machines. They seem to be littered with snapshots an logfiles from countelss of failed backups.
Here is a parts of my latest logfile. And just to make it clear, I have not manualy modified any .vmx file. I dont even know how to.

2019-07-10T13:03:51|  Removing snapshots, please wait...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:03:53|  Syncronizing config files
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:03:56|  [Frontend] error: cannot copy VMX file, details: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:03:56|  [Frontend] error: cannot copy VMSD file, details: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:03:56|  [Frontend] info: no .vmxf file found
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:03:56|  [Frontend] info: no .nvram file found
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Backing up virtual disks...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  DISK=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-000001-sesparse.vmdk
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  DISK=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-000001.vmdk
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  DISK=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot31.vmsn
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  DISK=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot88.vmsn
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  DISK=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend.vmdk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Disk [/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-000001-sesparse.vmdk] excluded
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Disk [/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-000001.vmdk] excluded
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Rsync file transfer (1st)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  From: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot31.vmsn
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  To: /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot31.vmsn
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  [Frontend] error CLRSYNC4: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(226) [sender=3.1.0]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Rsync file transfer (1st)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  From: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot88.vmsn
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  To: /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Frontend/Frontend-Snapshot88.vmsn
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  [Frontend] error CLRSYNC4: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(226) [sender=3.1.0]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Rsync file transfer (1st)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  From: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend.vmdk
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  To: /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Frontend/Frontend.vmdk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  [Frontend] error CLRSYNC4: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at io.c(226) [sender=3.1.0]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:07|  Info: transfering file | /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Frontend/Frontend-flat.vmdk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:08|  [Frontend] CLXSIDF1 error: file transfer error: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:08|  Excluded disks removed from backup .vmx file
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-07-10T13:04:10|  [Frontend] error OVMXCHK2: VMX file check 2 fail, details: first line in .vmx file is not [.encoding = "UTF-8"], has this file been manually modified/edited?
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] error CPVMXCNT: could not update VMX file in [Frontend_XSIBAK], details: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] error DIFDVMSD: could not delete VMSD file in [Frontend_XSIBAK], details: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] info: Updating CID at [192.168.148.3:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Frontend/Frontend.vmdk]
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] error DIFUPCID: cannot update CID at VM [Frontend_XSIBAK], details: Unknown cipher type 'arcfour,blowfish-cbc,aes128-ctr'
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] info: backup complete
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] info: finished doing a first copy in a diff scope, subsequent backups will be differential
2019-07-10T13:04:11|  [Frontend] info: should you need to use the mirror VM, register it manually at the backup ESXi host
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/quote]

We have published a fix as [b][url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-vmware-esxi-backup.html]XSIBackup-Pro 11.2.6[/url][/b]
We will be actively improving this branch, so any eventual new issue will be fixed rapidly.

Our fault, the [b]chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com[/b] cipher was removed from the list of OpenSSH vSphere drivers, most probably cause its not FIPS compliant. We'll fix this issue tomorrow, or should I say today :-)

Extra content is filtered.
That extra line

#!/usr/bin/vmware

is out of place .vmx files do not start by a sheebang.
Start asking yourself what has added that line to the header of the .vmx file

Just an error naming things, it's indeed Free version

Set --smtp-auth to "none" in the conf/smtpsrvs file.

[url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-smtp-server-configuration-file.html](c)XSIBackup SMTP configuration file[/url]

We just released XSIBACKUP-FREE 11.2.4, it's available for download.
It is compatible with ESXi 6.7.0 Update 2

We have been taking a look at this issue again.

It's clear that the double quote inside the curly brace expansion was causing the bash parser to behave oddly. It's also obvious that all previous bash interpreters didn't care much about this fact. Double quotes are treated differently inside subprocess expansion in between parentheses too, and it has been doing the same with curly brace expansion so far.

We have solved this by just using the sed call above this line to escape double quotes inside variable values. This is not very likely to be found, but still we'll keep it just in case.

We will now check functioning thoroughly before considering this a definitive solution, but you may use it to workaround this issue.

The above mentioned line

VARVAL="${VARVAL//"/\"}"

Is at line 300 in version 11.2.3
Right above that line you can find this

VARVAL="$( echo $block | awk -F "=" '{print $2}' | sed -e 's/^ *//g' -e 's/ *$//g' )"

We just extended that line adding an additional sed code block to perform the same task that the old curly brace expansion. So just add the new block and delete or comment out the faulty line.

VARVAL="$( echo $block | awk -F "=" '{print $2}' | sed -e 's/^ *//g' -e 's/ *$//g' -e 's/"/\"/g' )"

That's just an error after

Trial version allows backups and replicas during 6 h. after each reboot

Reboot your test server and try again.

XSIBackup will always try to keep running instead of raising the error and exiting, which is normal behaviour. Thus, only the first error in the stack is indicating the real error condition that, in turn, is causing the rest in a cascade effect.

In this case, the program stops execution due to the Trial version limitation and then keeps on raising errors. We'll probably consider this an exception in next version and just exit after the notice.

Have you set proper execution permissions for the program to be able to run?

chmod -R 0700 xsibackup bin

Running it in a regular Bash should not make much sense, in this case might have helped you to detect this, though. Busybox shell is not Bash, but Ash, which is a much more primitive shell language closer to the original Bourne Shell.

It would be rare that we had not detected any gross syntax error for years. It would make sense that the syntax parser thinks the second double quote is the end of the string though, but changing it to this:

VARVAL="${VARVAL//\"/\"}"

leaves the line without effect, so in any case that should be:

VARVAL="${VARVAL//\"/\\"}"

As the function of that type of code is to escape double quotes. Sed would have probably done it better here, we'll revise it soon, thank you for the feedback.

We'll take a look at this and eventually fix it. Nevertheless the new XSIBackup version has been released as a Beta and will be our main branch of development for the next years, XSIBackup as a script will probably be kept as the free version of our software.