vCenter NFS/SMB Backups fail with applmgmt log showing the error "No such file or directory".

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This is a race condition impacting vCenter release 8.0U3i and newer when multiple vCenter servers backup to the same NFS/SMB share at the same time. 

The applmgmt log:

OS error code 2 (ENOENT - No such file or directory):

INFO:plugins.backupRestoreDispatch:data stream command status:
errcode: 2

 

The backupValidate log:

[ValidateBackupConnection::test:ValidateBackupConnection.py:97] ERROR: Failed in backup connection validation: Failed to dispatch sample file. Error:

Environment

vCenter 8.0U3i and later.

Cause

When multiple vCenters trigger a scheduled backup at the exact same minute (e.g., 04:00 AM), they concurrently execute the backup validator script. Because the timestamp lacks seconds or unique vCenter identifiers, all vCenters attempt to use the exact same test directory name at the root of the shared backup server (e.g., vCenter/backup_20260409-0400/). The first vCenter to complete it's validation script will delete the folder causing any other vCenters write operations to crash at the OS level with a FileNotFoundErorr.

 

Resolution

There are two workaround options for this issue.

1. Stagger the backup schedules by 5 minutes to prevent the validation scripts from running concurrently.

2. Use a separate folder structure for the backups so they do not share a root directory.