550 Failed to create error detected while reading prolog for output

[O'Malley]

Intermittent FTP error.

Client SW ver: UCX V4.2-21C, OpenVMS V7.1 VAX
Server SW ver: V5.4-15E, OpenVMS V7.3-2 Alpha

Attempting to FTP push a file. The file is created on the server however the record format is incorrect and the following error is received on the client:

150 Opening data connection for DISK$10:[IDX]DESC.DAT;2 (10.12.2.202,2306)
550-Failed to create DISK$10:[IDX]DESC.DAT;2
for output.
550 Failed to create error detected while reading prolog for output.
550 Failed to create error detected while reading prolog for output.

The source file is and indexed file:
File organization: Indexed, Prolog: 3, Using 2 keys
In 3 areas

The file created was:
File organization: Indexed

Any comments on what is happening here?

[Hoff]

What's the COPY/FTP command that you are using?
What FTP command is triggering the transfer?

Are there periodic transfers of this file, or multiple nodes transferring the file to the target host?

This looks like it could be anything from a TCP/IP Services bug or mayhap a protection error or possibly a file access collision.

Do you have DECnet around? That tends to work better (by default) for this sort of file transfer operation.

I don't recall the mapping of the displayed "packed" version strings off-hand, and I'd look to see what ECOs are available and which are loaded. (The UCX SHOW VERSION command display tends to be better here.)

[O'Malley]

$ ftp oc.com /user=""/pass="xxx"
220 OC.COM FTP Server (Version 5.4) Ready.
Connected to OC.COM.
331 Username requires a Password
230 User logged in.
SET DEF DISK$10:[IDX]
250-CWD command successful.
250 New default directory is DISK$10:[IDX]
bin
200 TYPE set to IMAGE.
PUT DESC.DAT;2
200 PORT command successful.

One shot file transfer between the client and server; no other transfers to this directory.

No access to client VAX system for additional version information. Alpha version information:

OC-DB>> tcpip show version

HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.4 - ECO 4
on a AlphaServer ES40 running OpenVMS V7.3-2

[Willem Grooters]

It might well be a problem between FTP@UCX 4.2 and FTP$TCPIP5.4. IIRC, I've seen similar problems before sending indexed files over the wire using FTP.

Assuming you have access to the receiving machine (the alpha, if I'm not mistaken), you could try another approach: Don't send the indexed file as it is, but packed in a saveset (using BACKUP) or ZIP file (ZIP "-V") and push that over the line, and restore the file at that end (BACKUP, or UNZIP, whatever is used). This will leave the file fully intact.

Or create a FDL of the file, convert the data to sequential format, send both over the wire (eventually in a BACKUP saveset or ZIP archive), and convert the sequential file back to indexed using this FDL.

If you _require_ the internal structure of the file (for analysis, for instance), use the first.If you need just vthe data, the second delivers a 'clean' index.

HTH

WG

[O'Malley]

I was hoping for "oh yeah, that's an issue with... resolved with ECO xxx"

Yes, those are all good workarounds. We would like to avoid additional processing (large files take time to backup and/or zip) I have had problems with ZIP "-V" (or /VMS) and UNZIP preserving/restoring these indexed files so the backup saveset would be my choice.

Thanks for your time,
...Mike