How to resolve “Permission Denied” Errors for /tmp/ybc-*.tar.gz in YugabyteDB Anywhere

 Environment

• YugabyteDB Anywhere: v2.20.6.0 and earlier
• YBDB version: 2.20.6.0

Issue

YBA logs have following error:

grpc_message:"open /tmp/ybc-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz: permission denied"

Cause

• Incorrect /tmp permissions or sticky bit issues
• YBA or node-agent lacks write access to /tmp
• Outdated DB version missing temp directory override flags

Fix Steps

Applies to new universes only

• Set a Custom Temp Directory

In YBA UI → Admin → Advanced → Customer Configuration, set:

yb.filepaths.remoteTmpDirectory = /home/yugabyte

Update Existing Universes

Go to Universes → Edit Flags, add:

tmp_dir = /home/yugabyte

Then perform a Rolling restart.

Confirm files are created in the new path:

ls -l /home/yugabyte/ybc-*.tar.gz

No “permission denied” messages should appear in:

• application.log
• Node agent logs

Recommendation

Upgrade to v2.20.x or later for automatic fallback (PLAT-10007) and improved directory handling.

PLAT-10007 refers to a change in YugabyteDB Anywhere (YBA) that updates the temporary directory used by the YB Controller (YBC) service. YugabyteDB Controller (YBC) now uses /mnt/d0/ybc-data as its temporary directory instead of /tmp, ensuring temp files are stored alongside other Yugabyte data for better security, cleanup, and storage management.

Reference : SUPPORT-654