Autogen on Alpha 8400

[LM_2]

I am trying to run Autogen on one of my clusters and it will not run - I get the error message:
%AUTOGEN-I-BADFILE, Bad versions of SYS$SYSTEM:PARAMS.DAT may exist.
We recommend that you delete all versions and start again.
%AUTOGEN-I-ERROR, GETDATA phase was aborted due to an unexpected error.
%SYSTEM-F-ABORT, abort

I did what the message stated - removed all the params.dat files and it still fails with the same error. What other files does it look at and what can I do to get autogen to run?? I can run it on the other nodes fine - just not this one. I have tried every way to run autogen and they all fail with the above error. Any help would be appreciated!!

[Jan van den Ende]

Lisa,

the first thing I would do to try and locate the trouble is running with verify.

Depending on the moment of failure, that could generate quite some output, so you probably do best with SET HO 0/log=

Now you define AGEN$VERIFY to TRUE.

(and since AUTOGEN still uses F$LOGICAL, which became obsolete with V4 in 1984, be sure to define it in your process table)

It is reasonable to expect that the error will occur near the end of your trace-file.

If it is not self-evident, then post the piece with the error, and we will try to take it from there.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

Jan

[LM_2]

Here is the error message I received after doing the above - which really confuses me now because it doesn't make any sense and I do not have another volume mounted on $1$dka0:
^@LISA_4> @sys$update:autogen GETDATA TESTFILES feedback
%AUTOGEN-I-BEGIN, GETDATA phase is beginning.
%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, 1099RAID6 mounted on _$1$DKD203: (VAXL4)
%DCL-I-SUPERSEDE, previous value of ALTSYS has been superseded
%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, 0697V4AXSYS mounted on _$1$DKA0: (VAXL4)
%MOUNT-F-VOLALRMNT, another volume of same label already mounted
%AUTOGEN-I-BADFILE, Bad versions of SYS$SYSTEM:PARAMS.DAT may exist.
We recommend that you delete all versions and start again.
%AUTOGEN-I-ERROR, GETDATA phase was aborted due to an unexpected error.
%SYSTEM-F-ABORT, abort

[Jan van den Ende]

Lisa,

that surprises (at least me).

I never knew AUTOGEN to MOUNT disks?

Is there no intermediate verified DCL in your logfile?

Is this pretty soon after starting AUTOGEN, or did it already build a big trace?

But, _IF_ I understand your wording correct, _THEN_ you read the message wrong:
It does NOT say that you tried to mount another volume on $1$DKA0, but that you tried to mount (anywhere) a volume with a label that IS already mounted.

Anyway, I will try to look into the MOUNT within AUTOGEN, because I am surprised (a lot!!) by it. But at the moment I have no VMS at hand, so (from me) it will have to wait some.

Anyone deep enough in AUTOGEN invited!!


Sorry, for now no better help.

Proost.

Have one on me.

Jan

[M C_1 · Accepted solution]

Found this in the Natural Language Search -

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/asktima/operating_systems/0093F030-4337E720-1C03C5.html

AUTOGEN runs SYCONFIG.COM to determine its hardware configuration and uses information about the types and number of devices on the system to calculate parameters.

AUTOGEN can issue these messages if it finds MOUNT statements in SYCONFIG.COM.

You did not say what version of VMS?

MC

[LM_2]

Thanks so much on the previous e-mail message about autogen running the syconfig.com. I checked the syconfig.com file and everything looked fine - I just commented out the mount drives - and then ran autogen and it worked!! I guess I will have to look further into why it doesn't like the syconfig.com file.

[Dale A. Marcy]

I do not know what version of VMS you are running, but I looked on a VMS V7.3-2 system in the autogen and could not find anywhere it would mount a disk. I found 2 external files that it could potentially execute and they are:

Sys$Manager:Syconfig.Com (passing FULL for the first parameter and then STARTUP_P2 through STARTUP_P8 as the rest of the parameters)

and

Sys$Update:Agen$Mail.Com (with no parameters)

You might want to look at these files on your system and see if they are attempting any mounts and if that can be the source of your problems. If not, I will leave to those that know more than I do.

[Uwe Zessin]

AUTOGEN calling SYCONFIG.COM has been there for a long time (at least in VAX/VMS V4). I recall that I, too, had put MOUNT commands in SYCONFIG for a cluster with multiple system disks - I think it was for cluster common files like SYSUAF.

If my memory is correct, the problem was that SYLOGICALS was called after SYCONFIG and then it was too late for some logicals, but I am not 100% sure - it's been quite some years since then...


Lisa,
it looks like you have a 'redundant' MOUNT command:
%MOUNT-F-VOLALRMNT, another volume of same label already mounted

Two ways to fix come in my mind:

- put a '$ set NOON' at the top of SYCONFIG.COM and leave the procedure with '$ exit 1'

- check whether the disk is already mounted:
$ if .not. F$GETDVI("DKA0:","MNT")
$ then
$ write sys$output "trying to mount DKA0:"
$ mount /system /... DKA0: label
$ endif

[Keith Parris]

One more thing that might be worth checking: Could there have been versions of PARAMS.DAT in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE] in addition to SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSEXE]? If so, rename or remove those also. Since the definition for SYS$SYSTEM includes the search list logical SYS$SYSROOT, AUTOGEN might be looking in both areas.

[LM_2]

The problem on this issue was resolved. It was with the syconfig.com file. There was an entry within this file that autogen did not like. Once I commented out this line (it was not needed) from syconfig.com - autogen is running perfectly.

[Dale A. Marcy]

You need to make sure it was not needed. You might be in for a surprise the next time you reboot your system. The SYCONFIG also gets executed during system startup and that might be where you need the mount commands. Read Uwe's reply about checking if the disk is previously mounted before mounting it.

[LM_2]

I did check and the part it was erroring out on was no longer needed. The system has been rebooted since and everything is good. Thanks for everyones help!!

[LM_2]

See previous replies from me.