Consul Snapshot Not Supported by Windows – HashiCorp Help Center

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Introduction

Problem

A manual snapshot is recommended in the General Upgrade Process for Consul. In earlier versions of Consul, users will run into the following error when running the command consul snapshot save on a Windows Operating System (OS).

Windows Server 2016, Consul 1.8.5+ent

PS C:\Hashicorp\Consul> .\consul.exe snapshot save testbkup.test
Error writing unverified snapshot file: chmod snap.test.unverified.tmp161459347: not supported by windows

Windows Server 2019 Standard, Consul 1.10.12.

PS C:\Hashicorp\Consul> consul snapshot save testbkup.snapError writing unverified snapshot file: sync .: The handle is invalid.Error writing unverified snapshot file: chmod snap.test.unverified.tmp161459347: not supported by windows

Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, Consul 1.15.2.

PS C:\Hashicorp\Consul> consul snapshot save testbkup.snap
Error writing unverified snapshot file: sync .: Access is denied.

This may result in an “unverified” snapshot file being created.

testbkup.snap.unverified

Cause

An fsync function gets called when using the snapshot save command and Windows OS does not handle POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) commands.

The snapshot issue for Windows OS is fixed in later versions of Consul (1.14.9, 1.16.1, and 1.15.5 and above).

snapshot: fix access denied and handle is invalid when we call snapshot save on windows - skip sync() for folders in windows in rboyer/safeio#3 [GH-18302]

Prerequisites

Download a fixed version of Consul and unzip the file to a new directory.

⚠WARNING⚠ DO NOT replace the existing binary that is running

Solution:

You will use a fixed version's binary to run the Consul Snapshot command in parallel on the existing Consul installation.

Change to the directory where the fixed binary was downloaded to invoke consul info to check functionality.

This example demonstrates how the consul info command, when run with the 1.14.9+ent binary successfully interfaces with and retrieves information from a running binary of version 1.8.5+ent.

PS C:\Users\Consul\consul_1.14.9_windows_amd64> .\consul.exe info
...
build:
        prerelease =
        revision = e7100971
        version = 1.8.5+ent
consul:
        acl = disabled
        bootstrap = true
        known_datacenters = 1
        leader = true
        leader_addr = 10.128.0.2:8300
        server = true
...

Now that you verified the new binary can interface with the running Cluster, you can run the consul snapshot save testbkup.test command.

PS C:\Users\Consul\consul_1.14.9+ent_windows_amd64> .\consul.exe snapshot save testbkup.test
Saved and verified snapshot to index 598

PS C:\Users\Consul\consul_1.14.9+ent_windows_amd64> ls
Directory: C:\\Users\\Consul\\consul_1.14.9+ent_windows_amd64

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 1/31/2024 4:54 PM 162026160 consul.exe
-a---- 1/31/2024 4:54 PM 31486 EULA.txt
-a---- 1/31/2024 4:57 PM 1753 testbkup.test
-a---- 1/31/2024 4:54 PM 9518 TermsOfEvaluation.txt

Outcome

Using an updated Consul binary enables Consul system administrators to capture manual snapshots, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted upgrades for their Consul cluster.

Additional Information