topic following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble in Operating System - OpenVMS

following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Guinaudeau — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:55:13 GMT

hi,

i did not find this trouble reported under the forum at least for Alpha and that update level.
but the update is very very recent.

i am going in vacations for one week, so i will not reply to you. but i assume this information may worth if you (plan to) install that update too ?

see also attachment for more details.

every command attempt INIT has been executed under SYSTEM account. no priv restrictions.

my colleague updated a system V8.3 yesterday from ~ UPDATE V4.0 to ~ UPDATE V8.0 (see further for product installation history details, some additional patches)

following that update, i got trouble to initialize a disk :

HYPNOS/A/8.3> init $1$DGA207: siwi_imag
%CLI-F-SYNTAX, error parsing 'SPECIAL_FILES'
-CLI-E-ENTNF, specified entity not found in command tables

in the same cluster, a system V7.3-2 UPDATE V4.0 could initialize that drive (MSCP-served) without error. anyway, the error message indicates something wrong at syntax and DCL command table level.

i googled and found :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&objectID=c01411274

trouble under Integrity VMS 8.3 related with /VOLUME=SPECIAL_FILES qual + option.

i tried with it to bypass my troubles with different things and found soon the way to have it working.

also as a compare, a system UPDATE V7.0 + RMS V7.0 got no trouble with the INIT command without qualifier /VOLUME_CHARACTERISTICS.

i am going in vacations for one week and i will not reply to you. dont claim if no reaction. may it help someone too ?

yours

louis

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Volker Halle — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:35:27 GMT

Louis,

please log a call with HP against VMS83A_UPDATE-V0800.

Joyeux NoÃ«l,

Volker.

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Hein van den Heuvel — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:08:21 GMT

Louis,

May we assume you rebooted the system after the patch, or at the very least logged out and back in?
You may need to pick up a new DCLtables.exe.

Did you allow the install to create the _old images?
As a workaround rename init.exe to .exe_V800 and _old back to new, or copy an init.exe from an unpatched system? (eisner?)

Poke around with the 'verb' tool? possibly creating a temp defintion for init, again as workaround?

but yeah... do report to support if it fails after reboot/re-loggin.

fwiw,

Hein.

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Marc A. Williams — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:00:39 GMT

This happened on our systems, too today. A correct INIT.CLD is getting put into Sys$Update, but it is NOT apparently getting applied to DCLTABLES.EXE.

$ set command/table=sys$share:dcltables sys$update:init
$ install/replace sys$share:dcltables

fixed the "%CLI-F-SYNTAX, error parsing 'SPECIAL_FILES'
-CLI-E-ENTNF, specified entity not found in command tables" error for us, which we were getting when trying to initialize TAPES for backups after applying VMS83A_UPDATE 8.0 (and VMS83A_SYS 10.0 and the other patches not rolled up into this December 2008 master update).

We hadn't done a VMS 8.3 Alpha patching pass for about a year (VMS83A_UPDATE 5.0 was last one, plus the patches to it prior to VMS83A_UPDATE 6.0). From the link Louis pointed out, looks like if you went through the VMS83A_RMS 6.0 patch you'd be OK. But we didn't when going from VMS83A_UPDATE 5.0 to 8.0...

Cheers,
Marc

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Marc A. Williams — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:04:14 GMT

..oops.

$ set command /table=sys$share:dcltables /output=sys$common:[syslib]dcltables sys$update:init
$ install replace sys$share:dcltables

...without the "/output" qualifier on the "Set Command", you aren't saving the updated dcltables yourself, either ;-)

Nope, I haven't started New Year's celebrations early, either...
-Marc

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Guinaudeau — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:34:26 GMT

back to the office, and replying your wise answers :

volker,

yes, i submitted a call :

log # 1603469863

notice nevertheless that for ourselves [and for marc too], this is no more a critical issue when one handles "wisely" the situation, that is : an "advanced" VMS customer can by-pass the trouble to help him/her-self.

just : not every one is supposed to be advanced and/or installation kit is supposed to install straightforward ... and one may not be able to initialize tape without solving it => interesting situation :-)

hein,

yes we rebooted after installing the series of patches (UPDATE + several ones in one sequence)

hein+marc,

INIT.EXE image location : i assume = SYS$SYSTEM ? since new image has been found under SYS$UPDATE, something wrong in the installation procedure, or ??? we did move into SYS$SYSTEM too in our "customized solution" to solve our trouble.

marc,

i used first a temporary solution (see attached text on 19.dec.) with a process-wide SET COMMAND, but that install/replace you suggest has been done finally on the system and solves the issue.

this trouble, so this work-around has been ~ suggested to me by the RMS ECO trouble under integrity V8.3 platform i red at the time i encounter the INIT trouble. link in attached text.

i am closing now this thread, since it should be enough info for anyone needing them.

"have one on me", would say someone.

have one on me on the 31th. a l'annee prochaine.

louis

Re: following a VMS V83A_UPDATE V8.0, INIT trouble

Guinaudeau — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:36:29 GMT

work-around found, waiting for HP ECO solution to this issue.