This article provides information on how to recover when the EX Switch generates an error message "Rotation of old files failed." during a commit.

The EX Switch generates the following error message during a commit :

configuration check succeeds

error: error copying files(/config/juniper.conf.3.gz->/var/db/config/juniper.conf.4.gz): No such file or directory 

error: rotation of old files failed

Note: This problem can occur on MX routers as well. Please refer to KB28622 if you are seeing this issue on an MX router.

Upgrading the switch to a higher Junos Software Release starting with 10.0S10.1, 10.4R1, and all later releases resolves the issue. 

If an upgrade is not feasible then the following workaround can be used:

Workaround:

The following commands are issued in the shell mode of the switch :

user@switch> start shell user root
user@switch%
user@switch% ls -ld db/config

ls: db/config: No such file or directory

user@switch% cd db
user@switch% ls -l

total 8

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2857 Jul 24 16:48 feature.db

user@switch% cd /var/db/
user@switch% ln -s /config/db/config . <------note the <dot> here :: ln -s /config/db/config <dot>

user@switch% ls -ld config

user@switch%/config/db/config

user@switch% ln -s /config/db/commits . <-------note the <dot> here ln -s /config/db/commits <dot>
user@switch%ls -ld

drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 Jul 24 16:49 .

user@switch% ls -ld commits

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 18 Jul 24 16:49 commits -> /config/db/commits


user@switch% pwd
/var/db/

user@switch% ls -l

total 8

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 18 Jul 24 16:49 commits -> /config/db/commits

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 17 Jul 24 16:49 config -> /config/db/config

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2857 Jul 24 16:48 feature.db

user@switch% exit
user@switch>

If none of the above works, you can try adding the following directories from the top of the directory. Meaning that you will not cd into /var/db/. 

lab@re0> start shell user root
Password:
root@re0%
root@re0% mkdir /config/db
root@re0% mkdir /config/db/config
root@re0% exit

Note : If the workaround doesn't help resolve the issue, please try to format install the switch using USB. If the issue persists after the format-install, please raise JTAC case to investigate the issue further.

2025-02-17 : added format-install as one of the recovery step.