topic Re: Can not activate/install PAGEFILE.SYS in a 2 node cluster in Operating System - OpenVMS

Can not activate/install PAGEFILE.SYS in a 2 node cluster

Scot Newton — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:11:29 GMT

We have a 2 node cluster (Alpha DS25s) running OpenVMS 8,2.

We had HP re-configure the cluster on a new MSA, and now we have no PAGEFILE installed for either node.

For example:

$ show mem/pool/file - indicates "no paging files are installed"

Note there is a SWAPFILE installed, and both SWAPFILE.SYS and PAGEFILE.SYS are present in SYS$SYSTEM.

If I try to install a pagefile using SYSGEN, it indicates that SYS$SYSTEM:PAGEFILE.SYS is locked by another user.

Note I was able to set up a secondary pagefile by tweaking the SYPAGSWPFILES.COM procedure, but we prefer to keep the page file resident on the system disk. Thanks for assistance in advance.

Re: Can not activate/install PAGEFILE.SYS in a 2 node cluster

Bob Blunt — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:22:34 GMT

Scot, might you trying to use just one PAGEFILE.SYS for the whole cluster? You need to have one for each node and they need to be independant, usually living in the SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSEXE] directory for the primary. If, however, you are trying to install and use one large pagefile.sys for each node those can be located on other devices than the system disk. You'll need to mount that alternate disk early in your startup and, again, it would be easiest to keep a pagefile.sys separate for each node by putting them in a directory on the alternate disk like:

[SYS0.SYSEXE] for the node booting from the SYS0 root

and

[SYS1.SYSEXE] for the node booting from the SYS1 root. Your mileage may vary depending on your cluster's setup.

Through some chicanery you could use a single dumpfile.sys for both nodes if your system is tight on space, even if you're setting up DOSD.

bob

Re: Can not activate/install PAGEFILE.SYS in a 2 node cluster

Scot Newton — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:05:25 GMT

Problem turned out to be a missing patch, sorry do not have the reference number. In brief, there was a bug in an initialization file that would bypass installation of the pagefile if there was no errlog dump file present. This goes all the way back to OpenVMS 7.2. Using SYSGEN, I created SYS$SYSTEM:SYS$ERRLOG.DMP file, reboooted, and OpenVMS 8.2 picked up the existing PAGEFILE.SYS without issue.

Thanks to Oscar at HP for helping uncover the missing patch!

Also, thanks Bob for the information in your response.