VRTSpddei rpm and libguestfs in NetBackup BYO

Problem: 

The VRTSpddei rpm which contains libguestfs is no longer installed in Build Your Own(BYO) on a fresh install.

OR

If an upgrade to 10.5+ was performed, the legacy libguestfs modules and legacy VRTSpddei package may still be installed. This means the instant access and malware scanning features should continue to be available. However, these legacy libguestfs modules could leave the system vulnerable to potential issues in older versions of libguestfs. It is strongly recommended to uninstall VRTSpddei and manually install libguestfs support with newer libguestfs modules.

Error Message: 

For a fresh install:

"Unable to import guestfs.
Some IA features may be unavailable(Instant Access or malware scans of VMware images).

OR

For an upgrade path:  

           WARNING: Starting in NetBackup 10.5, VRTSpddei.rpm is replaced with libguestfs.rpm
                    and python3-libguestfs.rpm. To continue to use the Instant Access or malware
                    scans of VMware images functionality, please follow the steps shown.

                    Remove the VRTSpddei.rpm and install the libguestfs RPMs.
                    For more details, see:
                    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100066233.

Cause

The VRTSpddei rpm was removed because of the potential of vulnerability issues in libguestfs. The result is that certain instant access and malware scanning features are not supported by default.

Solution

The end user may choose to install libguestfs and the needed dependencies manually to enable the features.   

Use the following commands to verify if libguestfs or VRTSpddei.rpm is installed on the system.

rpm -q libguestfs python3-libguestfs

or

rpm -q VRTSpddei

To uninstall VRTSpddei.rpm:

rpm -e VRTSpddei

To install the libguestfs:

yum install libguestfs python3-libguestfs

Check that the python versions match between the libguestfs and the python3 environment. If they don't match, the user may have to install a matching python version as detailed in the notes below.

/usr/bin/python3 --version
Python 3.9.16

ls -al /usr/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/libguestfs*

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 470336 Jul  9  2024 /usr/lib64/python3.9/site-packages/libguestfsmod.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so

Note on RHEL 8:
Yum installs libguestfs support for python3.6, but the OS may be using python3.9

python3 -V
Python 3.9.16

The user may install python3.6 on the RHEL8 system with the following command line.

yum install python36

The python guestfs module will now loads without issues.

python3
Python 3.6.8 (default, May 31 2023, 10:28:59)
[GCC 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-18)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import guestfs

The version of python3 the system defaults to can be switched using update-alternatives.

update-alternatives --config python3

There are 2 programs which provide 'python3'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           /usr/bin/python3.9
*+ 2           /usr/bin/python3.6

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

Note on RHEL 8.8 and later:

If VMware malware scans hang or fail, please remove the installed supermin appliance. Veritas provides scripts which will help customers build the supermin appliance on their own setup.

For 10.5, Please download the MSDP common EEB bundle then follow the TN for 10.5.0.1

For 10.5.0.1:

https://isearch.veritas.com/internal-search/en_US/article.100071923.html