Why does my Linux Backup Agent appear offline?

The Linux® backup agent might appear offline in the portal for multiple reasons. Follow the steps to rule out issues with firewall port settings, registration, and the buagent process on the server.

Linux® agent shows as offline in Portal.

Possible firewall issue

Currently, at minimum, your servers must allow access to the 10.200.86.0/24 and 10.2.118.0/24 subnets for TCP ports 8086, 8087. If the port settings are incorrect, traffic is blocked, and the agent cannot communicate with the Cloud Backup Portal.

Check firewall ports - 8086 & 8087. For more information, see Configuring Ports to allow communication between the backup agent and Cloud Backup Portal.

BUAgent service isn't running

When the BUAgent process is no longer active on the server, the Linux® Agent appears offline in the Cloud Backup Portal.

Ensure that the BUAgent is running by issuing the following command on the Linux® system.

/etc/init.d/vvagent status

The output shows whether the BUAgent is running.

VVAgent is running (PID: )
BUAgent is running (PID: )

If the BUAgent is not running, start it with the following command.
```
/etc/init.d/vvagent start
```
If the BUAgent appears to be running, restart the service with the following command.
```
/etc/init.d/vvagent restart
```

The agent needs to be reregistered to the Cloud Backup portal

If it still shows that the Agent is offline after a refresh of the Portal page, then the Agent needs to be registered again.

Registering an Agent to the Portal retains all existing jobs, schedules, and configurations as-is. Go to the Agent installation directory, then run the register command.

cd opt/BUAgent
./register

Answer the following prompts.

What is the web-based Agent Console address? cloudbackupregister.service.softlayer.com
What is the web-based Agent Console connection port [8086]? Press enter, 8086 is the correct port.
What is the web-based Agent Console username? This entry is the same username that is used to log in to Portal.
What is the web-based Agent Console password? This entry is the same password that is used to log in to Portal.

For more information about viewing or changing the backup password, see Managing the username and password for the Cloud Backup service.

If the previous steps don't work, pull up and review the most recent BUAgent-X.XLOG.

Go to opt/BUAgent.
```
cd /opt/BUAgent
```
List the contents and sort them by date.
```
ls -lrth
```
Find the name of the most recent BUAgent-x.XLOG and open it with /opt/BUAgent/xlogcat. It can't be opened with cat or vim.
```
./xlogcat BUAgent-1.XLOG
```
Review the log and determine the issue.

If your service plan covers it, you can get help by creating a support case.