The "No available ports for NDMP control channel connect sockets" backup error messages was only happening on the weekend when a lot of backups were running.
Here is an example of the error messages:
1] Error 2012/10/02 01:00:00 0 Data Plugin <Servername> No available ports for NDMP control channel connect sockets
2] Error 2012/10/02 01:00:00 496 Data Plugin <Servername> Failed to connect to NDMP server '<Servername>' for browse
With sub text:
Module/Thread Id Code Time Message
MESSAGE :03592 1017 0 0 Cannot push packets onto a MessageO based receive list
NDMP :03592 1640 0 0 ** NDMP UTF-8 conversion is supported **
NDMP :03592 1635 0 0 NdmpConfigUpdate()
LICENSE :03592 137 0 0 Loaded capabilities for plugin license serial #84323
NDMPBACK:03592 491 0 0 Job id 496 Instance 83
NDMPBACK:03592 235 0 0 Requesting job options
XDR :03592 140 0 0 No available ports for NDMP control channel connect sockets
NDMP :03592 1574 0 0 Failed to connect to server '<Servername>'
3] Error 2012/10/02 01:00:00 496 Jobs NT15-SICH Job Status: Backup Failed
During the week when some of the backups were running, the above errors didn’t occur.
The jobs are failing due to a port restriction.
If the NetVault Server is running on Windows, make sure that the Windows Firewall is disabled.
There was no physical Firewall between the NetVault Server, NetApp Filer or Clients; but the NetVault Server Configurator – Firewall tab had a port range entered in all the boxes.
If you have no Firewall between Clients and devices, then these fields should not be entered.
Since these fields were configured and a lot of Backup jobs were running, eventually there would come a point where the port range would be exceeded and cause the above errors.
We therefore removed all the fields and restarted the NetVault Services.
