HP OpenVMS Systems

HP Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS
Release Notes

This section describes problems with the Browser service corrected in Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS.

12.5.1 Advanced Server Cluster Alias and Computer Names Not Displayed in Browse List

Problem:

If Advanced Server is acting as a master browser in a subnet other the domain master browser, it does not exchange its browse list with the domain master browser. Hence, the computer names maintained by Advanced Server master browser will not be displayed in other subnets.

Solution:

This problem is resolved in Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS.

12.5.2 Browser Will Be in the PENDING STATE on One of the Nodes in the Cluster

Problem:

In an OpenVMS cluster, when the Advanced Server is started on second node after starting it on the first node, the status of the Browser will be in the PENDING state. An error message similar to the following would be seen in the Event log:

"W 03/22/05 12:26:41 PM BROWSER   None            8021   N/A    MUTTER
The browser was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master
\\MURMUR on the network nspnb/session. The data is the error code.
Data:0000: 2e 05 00 00 00 00 00 00    ........"

Solution:

This problem is resolved in Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS.

12.5.3 Advanced Server Crashes in Module Backup, Routine getsrvlist

Problem:

The Advanced server might crash during startup in the Module BACKUP, Routine getsrvlist. A traceback similar to the following would be seen in the PWRK$LMBROWSER Log file:

%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=00, virtual address=
0000000000000000, PC=FFFFFFFF80DA88E8, PS=0000001B
%TRACE-F-TRACEBACK, symbolic stack dump follows
image          module  routine       line    rel PC            abs PC

DECC$SHR_EV56                                  ?   ?
PWRK$LMBROWSER BACKUP  getsrvlist     2707   0000000000000508  00000000000344E8
PWRK$LMBROWSER BACKUP  getsrvdom      82998  0000000000000D48  0000000000034D28
PWRK$LMBROWSER BACKUP  start_backup   83191  0000000000001240  0000000000035220
PWRK$LMBROWSER MASTER  find_master    80361  0000000000001A3C  0000000000033D1C
PWRK$LMAPISHR  CALLOUT callout_task   64995  00000000000003E8  00000000002E5658

Solution:

This problem is resolved in Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS.

12.5.4 Advanced Server Crashes in Module Backup, Routine getdomlist

The Advanced server might crash during startup in the Module BACKUP, Routine getdomlist. A traceback similar to the following would be seen in the PWRK$LMBROWSER Log file:

%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=00, virtual address=
0000000000000000, PC=FFFFFFFF80DA88E8, PS=0000001B
%TRACE-F-TRACEBACK, symbolic stack dump follows
image           module  routine      line      rel PC            abs PC
DECC$SHR_EV56                                     ?                ?
PWRK$LMBROWSER  BACKUP  getdomlist   82841 0000000000000858 0000000000034838
PWRK$LMBROWSER  BACKUP  getsrvdom    83018 0000000000000DD8 0000000000034DB8
PWRK$LMBROWSER  BACKUP  start_backup 83194 0000000000001240 0000000000035220
PWRK$LMBROWSER  MASTER  find_master  80361 0000000000001A3C 0000000000033D1C
PWRK$LMAPISHR   CALLOUT callout_task 64995 00000000000003E8 00000000002E5658

Solution:

This problem is resolved in Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS.

This chapter describes restrictions and problems found in the Advanced Server for OpenVMS software. The restrictions and problems are described in the sections indicated in the following table:

This section describes restrictions in the installation and configuration of the Advanced Server for OpenVMS software.

13.1.1 Advanced Server Cannot Coexist with PATHWORKS V5.0C for OpenVMS (LAN Manager) Server

Problem:

The Advanced Server for OpenVMS cannot participate in a domain with a server running PATHWORKS (LAN Manager) V5.0C. The V5.0C server incorrectly generates a name conflict when the Advanced Server for OpenVMS claims a group name that is used by both servers.

Solution:

To correct this problem, upgrade the PATHWORKS V5.0C server to PATHWORKS V5.0C ECO1, or a later version of PATHWORKS (LAN Manager).

13.1.2 Advanced Server May Fail at Startup If SYLOGIN.COM Executes with Errors

The Advanced Server process startup depends on successful execution of OpenVMS logins and logouts.

If your sites make use of SYLOGIN.COM to achieve cluster-member specific logon setup, and SYLOGIN.COM encounters errors, the Advanced Server startup hangs.

When this problem occurs, process startup either fails to generate log file messages or fails to complete.

13.1.3 Advanced Server Fails to Start If Any Processes Are Running the ADMININSTER Command-Line Interface

Problem:

If you attempt to start the Advanced Server while a process is running the ADMINISTER command-line interface, the startup may fail and a message similar to the following is displayed:

%PWRK-F-INSGBLSECTS, system has only 53 free global sections
-PWRK-I-REQGBLSECTS, PATHWORKS requires a minimum of 75

 The system does not have enough free global sections to use
 PATHWORKS.
 Please see the Installation Guide on how to increase the number of
 global sections by modifying the SYSGEN parameter GBLSECTIONS.

Solution:

Have any process that is running the ADMINISTER command-line interface exit from the program. To determine which processes are running the ADMINISTER command-line interface, use the following commands:

$ SHOW DEVICE/FILES SYS$SYSTEM: /OUT=TMP.TMP
$ SEARCH TMP.TMP PWRK$MANAGER.EXE

Problem:

During the deinstallation procedure (PRODUCT REMOVE), errors might be encountered, followed by a message recommending that the procedure be terminated.

Solution:

Disregard this message and continue the procedure.

13.1.5 Authentication Fails After Attempt to Synchronize with a PDC Using a Windows NT Server with Service Pack SP5

Windows NT Servers with Service Pack SP5 or greater have changed the way they perform the Synchronize with Primary Domain Controller function initiated from the Windows NT Server Manager. In a WAN environment, the synchronization attempt can result in problems such as described in the following sequence of events:

1. To initiate the synchronization, the user selects a specific BDC member instead of the cluster alias from the list in the Server Manager window.
2. After the user selects Synchronize With Primary Domain Controller from the Computer menu, Windows NT with Service Pack SP5 sends a "set secret" RPC to reset the $MACHINE.ACC secret. Windows NT with Service Pack SP3, for example, does not do this; it will query, but not set, the secret.
3. As a result, Windows NT with SP 5 resets the machine account in its own database; the account in this case is NOT the alias account.
4. Thus, the Advanced Server local machine account secret password no longer matches the alias machine account password on the PDC, which results in failures when attempting to authenticate with the PDC. These attempts fail with the following event:

   NET3210: Failed to authenticate with <PDC>

Solution:

To avoid this problem, when selecting the server from the list in the Server Manager Window, select the cluster alias of a specific BDC member name. Then choose Synchronize With Primary Controller from the Computer menu. If you already selected a specific BDC (instead of the cluster alias for that BDC) from the Server Manager Window, and the local and PDC machine accounts no longer match, this solution will resynchronize the accounts.

13.1.6 Configuration Might Fail If Disk Quotas Do Not Allow Enough Space in SYS$SCRATCH

Problem:

If disk quotas are enabled on the device that SYS$SCRATCH points to (usually the same device as SYS$LOGIN), the configuration might fail with the following error message.

PWRK-F-CONFIGERR, severe error during configuration.

Error getting this server's role from the existing databases.
Make sure the file server or another utility is not running
from a Member Server You must execute @SYS$UPDATE:PWRK$CONFIG again.
The Advanced Server configuration is incomplete and cannot continue.

Solution:

Because of the disk quota, PWRK$CONFIG.COM was unable to create files in SYS$SCRATCH. Remove the disk quota or increase the disk quota size to allow for enough space on the device for these files to be created.

13.1.7 PWRK$CONFIG.COM Might Report the Server as Supporting 0 PC Clients and No Transports

Problem:

When you configure your server, the PWRK$CONFIG.COM procedure might indicate that your server supports 0 PC clients and no transports, as in the following example:

 PCSG17 is currently configured to
     + support 0 PC clients
     + use the following transport(s): NONE

This occurs when configuration is not currently possible for your server, usually because the CHANNELCNT system parameter is too small to support any clients. In this case, the procedure should instead state that no valid configuration is currently possible, and it should correctly list the currently selected transports.

Solution:

Changing the server configuration parameters, when prompted, will allow you to select a valid configuration, including the desired transports.

13.2 Upgrade and Downgrade Restrictions

This section describes restrictions and problems involving attempts to upgrade or downgrade the Advanced Server from an earlier version.

13.2.1 Server Type Version Number Might Not Be Updated During Downgrade

Problem:

The server type of the Advanced Server V7.3B for OpenVMS (as indicated by the ADMINISTER SHOW COMPUTERS command, for example), is Advanced Server Version 4.0 for OpenVMS (the previous version was 3.51). If you upgrade an Advanced Server from an earlier version to Version 7.3 or higher, and later downgrade to the previous version again, the server type version number might not be correct. If this happens, the version number will still be displayed as 4.0 when it should be 3.51.

Solution:

You have to manually set the version number to make it correct. For instructions, contact HP customer support.

13.2.2 Upgrading Large Share Databases

Problem:

If you plan to upgrade your server and the share database is extremely large, when you run PWRK$CONFIG.COM the database upgrade may fail with an error message, as shown below:

Setting character set information in databases as needed ...

... Setting share database character set information.
Cannot open your sharefile.
Make sure it exists and you have read/write access for it.

%PWRK-F-SHARECHECK, error upgrading ShareDB

Solution:

Define the logical using the following command:

$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC PWRK$TEMP_CONFIG_DATACACHE_SIZE n-kbytes

For the value of n-kbytes, first try 4096 (4MB). If that does not work, try 6144 (6MB), and continue incrementing accordingly until you find a workable value with a minimum consumption of physical memory and process quota.

The setting established by the PWRK$TEMP_CONFIG_DATACACHE_SIZE logical is used during the configuration process only; it does not override the default data cache size set for server operation.

13.3 OpenVMS Registry Restrictions

Problem:

Using the OpenVMS REG$CP utility or the Window NT RegEdt32 utility, it is possible to define a value in the registry with an incorrect data type. An invalid data type can prevent readers of the value's data from properly accessing the data in the registry.

Solution:

Use PWRK$REGUTL to create file server parameters in the OpenVMS Registry. PWRK$REGUTL can detect and report incorrect data types and prevent them from being saved in the registry. This assures they are created with the appropriate data type.

13.3.2 Changes Made to OpenVMS Registry Event Log Settings Do Not Take Effect

Problem:

Several values stored in the OpenVMS Registry are used for storing and displaying event log information. These values are stored in the following key and its subkeys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog

When you attempt to change these settings, the change will not take effect. For example, if you attempt to change the location of the file to which events are logged, the events are still logged to the original file location.

13.3.3 The "^" Character Does Not Get Encoded in Parameter Values

Problem:

When the "^" character is specified as part of a parameter value, the value is stored in the OpenVMS Registry with only those characters that precede the "^" character. For example, if you specify computer name M_.76~^._P when configuring a server, the name gets stored in the OpenVMS Registry as M_.76~. For related restrictions, see Section 13.10.4.3, Problems Using Certain Characters for a Member Server Computer Name or Cluster Alias Name, and Section 13.4.14, Server Language Restrictions.

Solution:

Do not use the "^" character in parameter values.

13.4 File Server Restrictions

This section describes restrictions in the file server.

13.4.1 Restriction When estimate_filesize is Set to 1 in PWRK.INI File

Problem:

An XML file generated on OpenVMS and residing in an Advanced Server share, cannot be viewed correctly from Windows clients. This problem occurs if ESTIMATE_FILESIZE = 1 is defined under ODS-2 section in PWRK$COMMONROOT:PWRK.INI file. This problem was also seen for other HTML file formats.

Solution:

Remove ESTIMATE_FILESIZE = 1 under ODS-2 section from PWRK$COMMONROOT:PWRK.INI file.

13.4.2 Limitation Copying Indexed Files

Problem:

An RMS indexed file cannot be copied to the Windows clients using Advanced Server. Typically, the file copy will fail due to a network timeout if the file size is greater than 1GB (actual file size will vary). This problem occurs when Advanced Server tries to determine the exact Windows file size by reading the entire file. The client's copy request times out before the file size can be determined.

Solution:

Use stream, stream_lf , or variable length file formats with a sequential file organization.

Alternatively, you can add ESTIMATE_FILESIZE = 1 to the [ODS2] section of the PWRK$COMMON:PWRK.INI file and restart Advanced Server. If Advanced server is enabled to estimate file sizes, the file copy will be successful. However, the copied file will include extra bytes appended at the end of the file after the exact file size.

Before using ESTIMATE_FILESIZE = 1 , make sure that the application which reads the indexed file can remove or ignore the extra bytes appended at the end of the file.

13.4.3 The User Cannot Access File Names With Dot and Without Extension

Problem:

Files that contains a dot "." in their names are not accessible from the PC when the extension is removed from DCL on OpenVMS.

A file created from a PC with a name like "a.b.txt" (2 dots) would result as "a^.b.txt;1" on Advanced Server share. When this file is renamed from DCL on OpenVMS, to remove the "TXT" extension, it results in "a^.b.;1". After the file was renamed, it may not be possible for a user to access that file from the PC.

When you try to open the file with notepad, the error seen on PC would appear like this.

    "(<)drive:>\<file <>",
 Do you want to create a new file ?"

If you click YES, Notepad may get you a second file called "a.b;1" on OpenVMS, which masks the original.

If you try to open the file with Wordpad, you may see the following error:

    "<drive:>\<file>" Cannot find this file.
    "Please verify that the correct path and file are given."

Solution:

1. Avoid renaming files, which were created from a PC on an Advanced Server share, from DCL on OpenVMS. You could rename such files from PC.
2. If you wish to rename files, remove extension from DCL on OpenVMS. Please make sure the renamed file does NOT contain more than one dot "." in the file name.

Problem:

Sometimes the Advanced Server will incorrectly report that the sum of the databases has exceeded the recommended maximum percentage of data cache size, indicating that the cache size should be increased, when the cache size may not need to be increased.

Solution:

Both the error and warning messages may be safely ignored even if the stated percentage approaches 100%. The data cache may behave inefficiently as the percentages grow larger, especially if the percentage indicated in the error messages is well over 50%, but the server will continue to perform properly. Any observed drop in data cache performance can indicate that its size should be increased if possible.

13.4.5 Advanced Server Supports a Maximum Path Length of 512 Characters

The Advanced Server for OpenVMS supports a maximum OpenVMS physical path length of 512 characters. Though unlikely, this limitation may limit the length of a file name that can be created by a file server client. ODS-5 disk volumes can support file names of up to 243 characters in length.

The OpenVMS physical path length includes all the characters necessary to represent the fully specified OpenVMS device, directory path, and file name. For example, if "MyShare" is an Advanced Server share defined with the OpenVMS directory specification "Users$:[Users.Mine]," and the Users$ device resolves to "$1$DKA100:," then the fully specified OpenVMS physical path used to access file "MyFile.Txt" in the top level directory of share "MyShare" is the following path (32 characters in length):

$1$DKA100:[Users.Mine]MyFile.Txt

13.4.6 Advanced Server Does Not Support File Access from Macintosh Clients

Files created on the Advanced Server system by Macintosh clients (using the PATHWORKS for Macintosh server) cannot be open and read by Advanced Server clients.

13.4.7 Premature Disk Full Conditions

Problem:

The file server may receive a disk full message when thousands of free blocks remain on the device, because the file server's open file cache holds newly created or extended files open for about five seconds after the client closes them. Because files are allocated in extent-size chunks, that space is unavailable for other operations until the files are actually closed.

Solution:

To avoid these messages, make sure that at least 1 MB of free space is available on the device or the container file at all times.

If this does not work, add the following to the PWRK$COMMON:PWRK.INI file to lower the default file extent quantity. Create this file if necessary. Note, however, that this will significantly affect the performance of file uploading.

[ODS2]
    create_quantity = 1
    extend_quantity = 1

Problem:

DECram performance is inadequate when the disk is mounted using the /NOCACHE qualifier.

Solution:

Do not use the /NOCACHE qualifier when mounting a RAM disk that the Advanced Server will access. If you omit the /NOCACHE qualifier from the MOUNT command, the XQP+ cache is enabled for the RAM disk, allowing the internal caches to operate effectively.