# xtrabackup: error: failed to read metadata from xtrabackup\_checkpoints

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [December 17, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743 "2018-12-17T05:49:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tphanix](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/tphanix/32/1243_2.png) [@tphanix](https://forums.percona.com/u/tphanix)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743/1 "2018-12-17T05:49:27Z")

</div>

Hello,

I am using percona-xtrabackup-24 and percona-server-server-5.7. Then I run the below command to have an incremental backup, but it could not succeed. Although, I already have a full backup before. [INDENT]r[I]oot@db2:# innobackupex --user=root --password=#### --slave-info --compress --no-timestamp --databases =“db1 db2 information\_schema performance\_schema sys” --incremental /root/s3/db2/incremental/20181217 --incremental-basedir =/root/s3/db2/full/20181215  
xtrabackup: recognized server arguments:  
xtrabackup: recognized client arguments:  
encryption: using gcrypt 1.6.5  
181217 11:10:45 innobackupex: Starting the backup operation

IMPORTANT: Please check that the backup run completes successfully.  
At the end of a successful backup run innobackupex  
prints “completed OK!”.

xtrabackup: Error: cannot open /root/s3/db2/incremental/20181217/=/root/s3/db2/full/20181215//xtrabackup\_checkpoints  
xtrabackup: error: failed to read metadata from /root/s3mysqlbackup/db2.aws.innogr.am/incremental/20181217/=/root/s3/db2/full/20181215//xtrabackup\_checkpoints[/I][/INDENT]

Here is xtrabackup\_checkpoints file [INDENT]root@db2:~/s3/db2/full/20181215# cat xtrabackup\_checkpoints  
backup\_type = full-backuped  
from\_lsn = 0  
to\_lsn = 4083583846616  
last\_lsn = 4083600201179  
compact = 0  
recover\_binlog\_info = 0[/INDENT]

Could you please help me understand this and how to solve?  
Thank you so much.

Regards,  
Tien

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![IMP](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/imp/32/20213_2.png) [@IMP](https://forums.percona.com/u/IMP)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 6:13am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743/2 "2018-12-17T06:13:56Z")

</div>

Hello,

You have typos in your command (extra spaces).

Please try with the following command:

```auto

[I]innobackupex --user=root --password=#### --slave-info --compress --no-timestamp --databases="db1 db2 information_schema performance_schema sys" --incremental /root/s3/db2/incremental/20181217 --incremental-basedir=/root/s3/db2/full/20181215

```

[/I]

As a side note, innobackupex is deprecated and it is advisable to use xtrabackup directly.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tphanix](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/tphanix/32/1243_2.png) [@tphanix](https://forums.percona.com/u/tphanix)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743/3 "2018-12-17T21:39:00Z")

</div>

Thank a lot [IMP](https://percona.vanillacommunities.com/profile/x/x/41844) you saved my life. Now the incremental backup is running well 🙂  
Have a nice day!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tphanix](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/tphanix/32/1243_2.png) [@tphanix](https://forums.percona.com/u/tphanix)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743/4 "2018-12-18T01:34:13Z")

</div>

> [@IMP;53166](#):
>
> As a side note, innobackupex is deprecated and it is advisable to use xtrabackup directly.

I am confusing about that. I remembered that innobackupex already includes xtrabackup when I googled. Could you help me understand clearly?  
Thank you [IMP](https://percona.vanillacommunities.com/profile/x/x/41844)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![IMP](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/imp/32/20213_2.png) [@IMP](https://forums.percona.com/u/IMP)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/xtrabackup-error-failed-to-read-metadata-from-xtrabackup-checkpoints/6743/5 "2019-01-02T02:27:48Z")

</div>

[tphanix](https://percona.vanillacommunities.com/profile/x/x/42484)

In recent versions, the innobackupex program is a symlink to the xtrabackup C program. It is also deprecated, which means it might be removed in next major release (it is still present in PXB 8.0 though).

This doc page might be interesting for you: [URL=“[The innobackupex Program - Percona XtraBackup](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/2.4/innobackupex/innobackupex_script.html)”][https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-...ex\_script.html[/URL]](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-...ex_script.html%5B/URL%5D)

Best,  
IMP.