File level indexing on Linux VMs Failing (4038542)

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Title

File level indexing on Linux VMs Failing
Description

Backups of some Linux VMs are are failing at the point of File-Level Indexing on a backup
(CentOS 5.11 x86_64 is one such VM with the issue)
Cause
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The VMware Plugin crashes when it tries to process the sparsed 'lastlog' file on the File System of the VM.
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This is found to be a known issue with sparse file-level indexing on Linux EXT File Systems.
NOTE: A quick investigation of the VM showed a user account (nobody) with a UID of 65535 which triggered the sparse file.
Resolution

As a workaround consider lowering the UID of the 'lastlog' user to a similar range to all the other user accounts. Pl refer to man page of lastlog on the Linux VM for further details how big this 'lastlog' can grow and the high UUID contribution to triggering this sparse file. Please verify the size of this file per the man pages details.
When we empty the lastlog file, it is possible to perform File Level Index.
So, another workaround is to create a pre-script to empty the lastlog file. This in turn has a security impact, as logins are stored in this file.
Changing the UID might be a management impact for the administrators as well.
Folder/File permissions have to be changed too, when changing the UID.
Additional Information

BUG-27629

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