Subject: PgbackRest : backup command end: aborted with exception [101]

From: KK CHN <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:24:08 +0530

List,

I am running pgbackrest 2.52.1  on RHEL 9.4  Postgres 16 for  backup to a
remote repository for the last 4 months. All works fine in the initial
months.

Recently the full backup always fails without completing the backup to Repo
Server.

Only differential backup is completing the process  as scheduled .
 Whenever a  full backup is scheduled,  after running for  hours it fails
with error as in the subject line.  Earlier it was working and the last
full backup was completed in April 2026 .  Rest of the period  differential
backup only  completes all full backup  processes failed till today.

Yesterday 18 June 2026 at 09:30 AM I ran the  full backup from a cron
scheduler explicitly to test, it runs almost 24 hours and today 19 June
10.49 AM it stopped the full backup,   Aborted the process.

*What may be the issue ? Any hints are much appreciated.  ** Any more
inputs required ? *

Thank you,
Krishane

*log trace below for reference. *

2026-06-19 10:49:12.499 P00  DEBUG:
command/backup/backup::backupJobResult: => void
2026-06-19 10:49:12.590 P00  DEBUG:
command/backup/backup::backupDbPing: (backupData: {BackupData}, force:
false)
2026-06-19 10:49:12.590 P00  DEBUG:     db/db::dbPing: (this: {client:
null, remoteClient: {name: remote-0 ssh protocol on '10.140.0.20', state:
idle}}, force: false)
2026-06-19 10:49:12.590 P00  DEBUG:     db/db::dbIsInRecovery: (this:
{client: null, remoteClient: {name: remote-0 ssh protocol on
'10.140.0.202', state: idle}})
2026-06-19 10:49:12.590 P00  DEBUG:     db/db::dbQueryColumn: (this:
{client: null, remoteClient: {name: remote-0 ssh protocol on
'10.140.0.202', state: idle}}, query: {"select
pg_catalog.pg_is_in_recovery()"})
2026-06-19 10:49:12.590 P00  DEBUG:     db/db::dbQuery: (this: {client:
null, remoteClient: {name: remote-0 ssh protocol on '10.140.0.202', state:
idle}}, resultType: column, query: {"select
pg_catalog.pg_is_in_recovery()"})
2026-06-19 10:49:12.739 P00  DEBUG:     command/exit::exitSafe: (result: 0,
error: true, signalType: 0)
2026-06-19 10:49:12.739 P00  ERROR: [101]: raised from remote-0 ssh
protocol on '10.140.0.202': NULL result required to complete request

--------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    If SUBMITTING AN ISSUE please provide
the following information:

                                    version: 2.52.1
                                    command: backup
                                    options: --delta
--exec-id=485653-6407012b --log-level-console=info --log-level-file=debug
--pg1-host=10.140.0.202 --pg1-host-user=postgres
--pg1-path=/var/postgres16/data --pg-version-force=16 --process-max=5
--repo1-block --repo1-bundle --repo1-cipher-pass=<redacted>
--repo1-cipher-type=aes-256-cbc --repo1-path=/data/DB_BACKUPS
--repo1-retention-diff=2 --repo1-retention-full=2 --stanza=Traffic_Repo
--start-fast --type=full

                                    stack trace:

postgres/client.c:pgClientQuery:348:(debug log level required for
parameters)
                                    db/protocol.c:dbQueryProtocol:(debug
log level required for parameters)

protocol/server.c:protocolServerProcess:(debug log level required for
parameters)

command/remote/remote.c:cmdRemote:(debug log level required for parameters)
                                    main.c:main:(debug log level required
for parameters)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
2026-06-19 10:49:12.740 P00   INFO: backup command end: aborted with
exception [101]
2026-06-19 10:49:12.740 P00  DEBUG:     command/exit::exitSafe: => 101

---

From: Greg Sabino Mullane <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2026 10:52:03 -0400

Smells like a timeout of some sort to me. Could be a firewall dropping an
"idle" connection. How long does the diff backup take to complete? How long
from when you kick off the full backup to the time it errors out? Is that
timeout consistent? See if you have ServerAliveInterval set in your ssh
config, and if not, consider adding it (and related vars).

Cheers,
Greg

---

From: KK CHN <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:23:40 +0530

it stopped full backup multiple times.  This time it succeeded, One
difference,  I have ran  the full backup script again immediately after the
full backup  failure happened after running for almost 20 Hours (2026-06-19
10:49:12.739 P00  ERROR: [101]: raised from remote-0 ssh protocol on
'10.140.0.202': NULL result required to complete request) .  After this
time stamp I scheduled the full backup again on   2026-06-19  11:19 Hrs and
it completed the next day 2026-06-20  05:20 Hrs.   (~= 18 Hrs).

I assume the full backup continues from the last point from where it
stopped , not afresh when you reschedule the full backup again ?

Here the time duration is observed.

full backup: 20260614-011004F
            timestamp start/stop: 2026-06-19 11:19:05+05:30 / 2026-06-20
05:20:17+05:30
            wal start/stop: 000000010000158A000000CA /
000000010000159A000000FE
            database size: 3876.8GB, database backup size: 3876.8GB
            repo1: backup size: 967.1GB

Almost 18 Hrs.

 diff backup: 20260614-011004F_20260621-030404D
            timestamp start/stop: 2026-06-21 03:04:04+05:30 / 2026-06-21
04:55:20+05:30
            wal start/stop: 00000001000015AD000000E7 /
00000001000015AF00000057
            database size: 3895.9GB, database backup size: 70.2GB
            repo1: backup size: 12.8GB
            backup reference list: 20260614-011004F

approx : 2 Hours

As suggested, add the       ServerAliveInterval 60
 ServerAliveCountMax 3   vars in sshd_config next time and observe the
difference.

Thank you,
Krshane.