diff --git a/lib/pbench/cli/server/repair.py b/lib/pbench/cli/server/repair.py
index 4e35c94738..e5113f3920 100644
--- a/lib/pbench/cli/server/repair.py
+++ b/lib/pbench/cli/server/repair.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ def repair_audit(kwargs):
         didit = False
         for key, value in a.items():
             if type(value) is str and len(value) > LIMIT:
-                a[key] = value[:LIMIT]
+                a[key] = f"[TRUNC({len(value)})]" + value[:LIMIT]
                 detailer.message(f"{name} [{key}] truncated ({len(value)}) to {LIMIT}")
                 didit = True
         if didit:
@@ -112,34 +112,22 @@ def get_md5(file: Path) -> Optional[str]:
             isolator = controller / resource_id
             if isolator.is_dir():
                 tars = list(isolator.glob("*.tar.xz"))
-                if len(tars) == 1:
-                    tar = tars[0]
-                    if get_md5(tar) != resource_id:
-                        detailer.error(
-                            f"Isolated tarball {tar} MD5 doesn't match isolator {resource_id}"
-                        )
-                        return None
-                    verifier.status(f"Found {tars[0]} for ID {resource_id}", 2)
-                    return tars[0]
-                else:
+                if len(tars) > 1:
                     detailer.error(
                         f"Isolator directory {isolator} contains multiple tarballs: {[str(t) for t in tars]}"
                     )
-                    for tar in tars:
-                        if get_md5(tar) == resource_id:
-                            verifier.status(
-                                f"Found {[str(t) for t in tars]} for ID {resource_id}",
-                                2,
-                            )
-                            return tar
-                    detailer.error(
-                        f"Isolator directory {isolator} doesn't contain a tarball for {resource_id}"
-                    )
-                    return None
+                for tar in tars:
+                    if get_md5(tar) == resource_id:
+                        verifier.status(f"Found {tar} for ID {resource_id}", 2)
+                        return tar
+                detailer.error(
+                    f"Isolator directory {isolator} doesn't contain a tarball for {resource_id}"
+                )
+                return None
             else:
                 for tar in controller.glob("**/*.tar.xz"):
                     if get_md5(tar) == resource_id:
-                        verifier.status(f"Found {str(tar)} for ID {resource_id}", 2)
+                        verifier.status(f"Found {tar} for ID {resource_id}", 2)
                         return tar
     return None
 
diff --git a/lib/pbench/server/cache_manager.py b/lib/pbench/server/cache_manager.py
index e3e096374a..691d7b9546 100644
--- a/lib/pbench/server/cache_manager.py
+++ b/lib/pbench/server/cache_manager.py
@@ -1029,20 +1029,32 @@ def subprocess_run(
                 # tar failures can include a message for each file in the
                 # archive, and can be quite large. Break stderr into lines, and
                 # gather those lines only up to our configured size limit.
+                #
+                # The exception we raise and ultimately log will start by
+                # identifying the tarball, followed by the command and the
+                # return code. The appended stderr may provide additional
+                # useful context, but in general beyond the first line it'll
+                # be fairly meaningless.
                 size = 0
                 message = []
                 lines = process.stderr.split("\n")
+                prefix = ""
                 for line in lines:
                     # Skip empty lines
                     if not line:
                         continue
                     size += len(line)
                     if size > MAX_ERROR:
+                        prefix = "[TRUNC]"
                         break
                     message.append(line)
 
-                # If even the first line was too big, truncate it
-                msg = "\n".join(message) if message else lines[0][:MAX_ERROR]
+                # Prefix with [TRUNC] if we're not including the entire message
+                # and truncate the first line if it was too long by itself.
+                if message:
+                    msg = prefix + ("\n".join(message))
+                else:
+                    msg = "[TRUNC]" + lines[0][:MAX_ERROR]
                 raise exception(
                     ctx,
                     f"{cmd[0]} exited with status {process.returncode}: {msg!r}",
diff --git a/lib/pbench/server/indexing_tarballs.py b/lib/pbench/server/indexing_tarballs.py
index 85d3172b79..58b39e62d8 100644
--- a/lib/pbench/server/indexing_tarballs.py
+++ b/lib/pbench/server/indexing_tarballs.py
@@ -632,8 +632,10 @@ def sighup_handler(*args):
                 # Re-raise a SIGTERM to avoid it being lumped in with general
                 # exception handling below.
                 raise
-            except Exception:
-                idxctx.logger.exception(error_code["GENERIC_ERROR"].message)
+            except Exception as e:
+                idxctx.logger.exception(
+                    "{}: {!r}", error_code["GENERIC_ERROR"].message, str(e)
+                )
                 res = error_code["GENERIC_ERROR"]
             else:
                 # No exceptions while processing tar balls, success.
diff --git a/lib/pbench/test/unit/server/test_cache_manager.py b/lib/pbench/test/unit/server/test_cache_manager.py
index d48dce84ab..118c6b863d 100644
--- a/lib/pbench/test/unit/server/test_cache_manager.py
+++ b/lib/pbench/test/unit/server/test_cache_manager.py
@@ -406,8 +406,8 @@ def mock_run(args, **_kwargs):
         "errmsg,expected",
         (
             ("Error unpacking tarball\n", "Error unpacking tarball"),
-            ("This is a message we'll find too long", "This is a message we'll f"),
-            ("One line\nTwo line\nThree line\nFour line\n", "One line\nTwo line"),
+            ("This is a message we'll find too long", "[TRUNC]This is a message we'll f"),
+            ("One line\nTwo line\nThree line\nFour line\n", "[TRUNC]One line\nTwo line"),
         ),
     )
     def test_tarball_subprocess_failure(self, monkeypatch, errmsg, expected):