topic Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails in Operating System - OpenVMS

Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Ted Ripp — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:31:00 GMT

When I try to copy a large file, 800 MB, to the Advanced Server the copy runs for a minute or so and then fails with the diagnostic: "The specified network name is no longer available." I am doing this from cmd.exe in Windows 2000.

On the VMS side the file is created and continues to grow (dir/size=all) even after the error message on the PC, up to around 600 MB. This takes a few minutes. After a while the file gets closed on the VMS side. It looks to me like AS is allocating space for the file which takes too long causing the PC to time out on the connection. Can I fix this somehow?

Advanced Server 7.3A ECO-3
VMS 7.3-1
TCP/IP 5.3
ODS-5 disk holds the directory share
cluster size 64 extend 256.
The disk is software RAID-0 but I have the same problem on a single ODS-2 disk.

Also, do any of you have an idea of when the 4 GB limit will be lifted on the Advanced Server?

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Volker Halle — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 03:17:45 GMT

Ted,

is the disk set up for 'file high-water marking' (check with SHOW DEV/FULL and look in Volume Status:) ? If so, try $ SET VOL/NOHIGH disk to disable high-water marking. This should speed up filespace allocation

Volker.

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Antoniov. — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 07:28:54 GMT

Hi Ted,
I remember another thread like yours; if you have server based licence might be during long time copy licence expires.

Antonio Vigliotti

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Brad McCusker — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 08:02:27 GMT

>Also, do any of you have an idea of when
>the 4 GB limit will be lifted on the
>Advanced Server?

This is not an easy task - Advanced Server uses 32 bit file pointers and changing them to 64 bit is not a trivial task. I don't see it on the roadmaps anywhere. I also have not heard of many requests for this, either.

Brad McCusker

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Brad McCusker — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 08:08:14 GMT

Oh, regarding the primary point of the thread - High Water Marking is a good idea to check.

If that doesn't help, then, the fact that you are using the CMD prompt might be significant. Do you get a failure with drag and drop?

I've seen discussions around the TCP parameter, TCPNODELAY (UCX SET PROTOCOL TCP/NODELAY), but haven't heard those rumblings lately - so I don't recall the specifics of when this comes into play. If its easy for you to test, you might want to try it.

Regards,

Brad

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Paul Nunez — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 10:23:30 GMT

Hi,

As Halle noted, it's likely high-water marking on the volume which is slowing the file allocation effort, but disk fragmentation could also be contributing...

Also, I think you have to remount the volume after disabling high-water marking.?.

Can anyone confirm?

Paul

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Sat, 28 Aug 2004 11:05:53 GMT

No remount needed.

Wim

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 00:55:22 GMT

Another possibility is that the volume is setup with "erase_on_delete" AND that the file has previous versions AND there is a version limit that causes a purge of a previous version.

set volume/noerase !

Wim

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Ted Ripp — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:59:43 GMT

Volker,

Vielen Dank. Setting /nohigh solved my problem. Thank you for your quick and accurate response.

I had considered setting /nohigh but when I used help init/high on my 7.3-1 system the help message began with:

"Affects Files-11 On-Disk Structure Level 2 disks only."

It seems this is not the case.

TR

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Jan van den Ende — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:54:12 GMT

Ted,

"Affects Files-11 On-Disk Structure Level 2 disks only."

Well, on OpenVMS 7.3-2 the Help text is:

"Applies to Files-11 On-Disk Structure Level 2 (ODS-2) and Level 5 (ODS-5) disks only."

... but on 7.3-1 I indeed get your text.

So, documentation was a bit slow to catch up with new feature, but it IS updated in 7.3-2

Jan

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

labadie_1 — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 04:28:57 GMT

If a file transfer in Advanced server takes looong, you should try a basic ftp. If it is several orders of magnitude faster, stick to Ftp. Some tuning on caches in Advanced server may help too. Others will comment wisely and better than me on this :-) (Hello Brad !)

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Ted Ripp — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 13:02:58 GMT

My problem is resolved but I am posting some final notes.

1) We are not using FTP because it is unfamiliar to our users. We are using Advanced Server because of security considerations. We have a less secure network and a more secure network connected by a firewall. We have the need to allow access to data on the more secure side from PCs on the less secure side and have been using a Windows 2000 based file server. We set up the firewall to allow incoming connections to that server. For various reasons it was not desirable to place the server on the less secure side and push data to it. Because of the almost continuous very serious security problems with Windows we decided to use the VMS Advanced Server to serve files to the less secure side. Our thinking is that it will not present as much of a security weakness as did Windows.

2) I noticed that with Advanced Server 7.3A ECO-3 (and perhaps other versions but I did not try them) if the Advanced Server is started before a disk is mounted you can not add a directory service on that disk. If the disk is mounted before Advanced Server is started services can be created.

3) These forums are a valuable resource.

TR

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Uwe Zessin — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 13:49:19 GMT

2) that can be fixed after the mount:

$ admin
D\\N> set computer /autoshare_synchronize

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Bill Hall — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 13:52:35 GMT

Ted,

To resolve problem #2 issue the following command in your system startup procedure after your disks have been mounted that you have created shares on:

$ADMINISTER SET COMPUTER /AUTOSHARE_SYNCHRONIZE /NOCONFIRM

We do this because we start Advanced Server to enble external authentication immediately after starting TCPIP Services. We mount all user data disks after starting all of the network transports.

This command is documented in the AS Commands Reference Manual.

Re: Advanced Server - Large File Transfer Fails

Ian Miller. — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 03:19:02 GMT

can you post a note on what solved the problem for you (for future reference).
(People who use VMS as a secure file server for VMS should be encouraged :-).