OpenVMS 7.2 Backup Anomaly on VAX
Subject: OpenVMS 7.2 Backup Problem on VAXProblem: Can't backup system disks using OpenVMS on VAX
Details: Alias Directories will be trashed; you should install freeware program DFU-2.7 to assist
Folks,
I have a little more info to pass on for whatever it's worth. Caveat: At this point it is still possible that I have some corruption on my system disk but you should be checking your backups to make sure that your not seeing what I'm seeing after a BACKUP/IMAGE. Note that checking your logs and journals is not good enough because mine indicated no problem.
First off,
1. I've cleaned up the ALIAS situation on the troublesome VAX disk so that DFU reports the same alias structure as my good Alpha disk
2. executing "ANA/DISK DSA0:" from DCL produces no errors
3. "VER DSA0:" from DFU shows no problems
4. executing "DUMP/HEADER DSA0:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR" from DCL produces the same back link info on both VAX and ALPHA
Next,
1. I do a hot "BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=(INTER,NOBACK)/INIT" from DSA0: to $1$DIA50:
1a. this is from an RF35 to an RZ26; (we're trying to migrate to a larger disk)
1b. it doesn't matter if I use /ALIAS or /NOALIAS with /IMAGE because I always get the same result. A couple of minutes into the backup, I receive a warning indicating that ALIAS file "$DSA0:[SYS0]SYSCOMMON.DIR" was not backed up (this message is from memory and may not be exact; but you get the picture)
2. After the backup, I mount $1$DIA0: and many directories and files are missing including WRITEBOOT.EXE
2a. Directory "[000000.VMS$COMMON]" is empty
3. next I execute "ANA/DISK/REPAIR $1$DIA50:" from DCL and it produces a list of many errors. One of them says that "[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR" is invalid and is now deleted.
3a. many files have be recovered and were placed in "[000000.SYSLOST]"
4. Since VMS$COMMON.DIR was deleted, I just rename SYSLOST.DIR to VMS$COMMON.DIR
5. Next I create the missing ALIAS from DCL like so (this is a very dangerous operation):
$SET FILE $1$DIA50:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR - /ENTER=$1$DIA50:[sys0]SYSCOMMON.DIR
6. Now all the files appear to be present including WRITEBOOT.EXE
Tomorrow I'll attempt a backup of this reconstructed disk to a different one to see if VAX BACKUP 7.2 is broken.
Neil Rieck
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
http://neilrieck.net/
Neil Rieck <n.rieck@bell.net> wrote in message
news:4G6Z4.1446$dK2.75167@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
<snip>
>
> For anyone following this thread, here are the results of running DIR/ALIAS
> from DFU ("Disk File Utility" from the Freeware CD-ROM) on the troublesome
> VAX and the working Alpha. It would seem that the VAX system disk is a
> little messed up but this doesn't explain why so many files are seemingly
> dropped by BACKUP/IMAGE. (unless there is a bug in BACKUP 7.2 that only
> allows a perfect copy when there is no alias confusion)
>
> Whatever the reason for my problems, it would be nice if future versions of
> BACKUP issued some sort of "ALIAS cross linked directory" warning when
> copying from any suspect disk. This little feature may could be a life
saver
> for someone.
>
<snip>
> ---------------------------------------
> KAWC15 (VAX VMS 7.2 upgraded from 5.4)
>
> %DFU-I-INDSCAN, Making directory table for DSA0:[000000...] (DSA0:)
> %DFU-I-DIRSCAN, Scanning 190 directories...
> DSA0:[000000]SYSMAINT.DIR;1 is alias for DSA0:[VMS$COMMON]SYSMAINT.DIR;1
> DSA0:[SYSEXE]SYSBOOT.EXE;1 is alias for
> DSA0:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]SYSBOOT.EXE;1
> DSA0:[SYS0]SYSCOMMON.DIR;1 is alias for DSA0:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR;1
>
> %DFU-S-DONE, Directories scanned : 190
> ---------------------------------------
> KAWC05 (Alpha VMS 7.2-1 initial install)
>
> %DFU-I-INDSCAN, Making directory table for DKB0:[000000...] (KAWC05$DKB0:)
> %DFU-I-DIRSCAN, Scanning 244 directories...
> KAWC05$DKB0:[SYS0]SYSCOMMON.DIR;1 is alias for
> KAWC05$DKB0:[000000]VMS$COMMON.
> DIR;1
>
> %DFU-S-DONE, Directories scanned : 244
> ---------------------------------------
Back to HomeNeil Rieck
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.