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Common Air Gap Issues

This article documents common problems encountered when working with air gap mode in Digital Rebar and provides clear troubleshooting steps. It assumes Digital Rebar is already installed and running, and focuses on license validation and common air gap build failures.

Prerequisites

  • Digital Rebar is installed and operational
  • Operator access to the Digital Rebar system
  • Shell access to the node performing air gap operations
  • drpcli installed and configured
  • Sufficient disk space available for air gap artifacts

Procedure

Verify license supports air gap mode

Air gap functionality is license-controlled. Before troubleshooting further, confirm that your license includes air gap support.

Run:

Bash
drpcli license features

Verify that the following feature is present in the output:

Text Only
enable-airgap

If enable-airgap is not listed, the license or endpoint does not support air gap mode. Contact support for assistance.

Validation

After applying any fixes:

  • Re-run the air gap command that previously failed
  • Confirm the command completes successfully
  • Verify expected air gap artifacts (catalogs or tar files) are created
  • Ensure no new errors are reported

Troubleshooting

Problem: Does my endpoint support air gap mode?

Symptom

  • Air gap commands fail or are unavailable
  • Uncertainty whether air gap is supported

Cause

  • The active license does not include air gap support

Resolution

Run:

Bash
drpcli license features

Confirm enable-airgap is present. If it is missing, obtain an updated license that includes air gap support.

Problem: Air gap build fails with file exists error

Error message

Text Only
there was an error downloading catalog
Failed to create file rebar-catalog/xxx/xxx
mkdir /xxx/xxx: file exists

Cause

A previous air gap download or build was interrupted, leaving partial files or directories behind.

Resolution

  1. Identify the directory referenced in the error message (example: /xxx/xxx)
  2. Remove all existing contents from that directory:
Bash
rm -rf /xxx/xxx
  1. Re-run the air gap command.

Problem: Air gap fails to build tar file — no space left on device

Error message

Text Only
there was an error building the tar file
write /root/air_gap/airgap-install.sh: no space left on device

Cause

The system performing the air gap build does not have sufficient free disk space.

Resolution

  1. Check disk usage:
Bash
df -h
  1. Free disk space by removing unused files, logs, or old artifacts
  2. Ensure adequate free space is available
  3. Re-run the air gap build command

Keywords

airgap, air gap

Text Only
KB Article : kb-00086
initial release: Tue Feb 3 13:00:00 CST 2026
updated release: Tue Feb 3 13:00:00 CST 2026