can't create export through CLI

[Felix Rabinovich]

I have Citrix Hypervisor 8.2.0, and I am trying to create a backup of VMs through CLI:

xe vm-export uuid=41708186-... filename=/mnt/backup/dc2019.xva

However, I am getting the following error: 

Quote

There were no servers available to complete the specified operation.

 

I *am* on the server itself! so the message doesn't make any sense to me.

 

I tried -s localhost or -h localhost or with actual hostname. With -u and -pw and probably dozen other permutations. Also tried vm= instead of uuid. Same error.

I *am* able to take a backup from XenCenter; but I want to keep the backup on the server itself and not to move it over the network. I *was* able to do it in XenServer 7... 

[Tobias Kreidl]

Error messages are often pretty unclear, alas, if they show up at all!

[Tobias Kreidl]

Is there a backup subdirectory (/mnt/backup) already existing? Also, there well may not be enough space for a backup on the Citrix Hypervisor area itself! The /mnt partition wil be under the / partition and it's not huge. You'd be better off with an external NFS mount.

 

-=Tobias

[Felix Rabinovich]

While the message is very confusing - the reason was totally on my side. The backup drive wasn't really mounted properly, and I didn't realize it.

[Tobias Kreidl]

That sure would do it! Glad it became evident what the issues was. I was actually wondering if the drive was actually showing up on the mount point.

 

-=Tobias

[Felix Rabinovich]

Yeah - in the hindsight it is stupid... I was staring at /dev/sdb instead of /dev/sdg and didn't realize that it was the internal Local Storage drive; rather than mounted backup drive. 

The gripe, I suppose, is that the error message was very misleading. How come there are no servers available, when I am running this command from the server itself! Even if it just told me that backup failed, I wouldn't chase the irrelevant problem :)