Backup Issues

[Volker Halle]

DRA devices are SCSI devices behind a Mylex Raid controller, which is a PCI board installed in the machine. There might be some cables going out of the back of the machine and going to a storage box with those 6 disks in it.

If I asked you for red or blinking lights, where did you look ???

Volker.

[odwillia]

While I was doing some RAID analyze commands I came accross these errors:$ RAID ANALYZE/ARRAY RAIDB0
Processing $3$DRA0:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA0:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA0:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA0:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
Processing $3$DRA1:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA1:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA1:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA1:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
Processing $3$DRA2:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA2:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA2:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA2:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
Processing $3$DRA3:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA3:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA3:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA3:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
Processing $3$DRA4:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA4:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA4:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA4:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
Processing $3$DRA5:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA5:[000000]RAID$CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error

Processing $3$DRA5:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
%RAID-I-OPENERR, error opening $3$DRA5:[000000]RAID$BC1.SYS
-RMS-E-DNF, directory not found
-SYSTEM-F-CTRLERR, fatal controller error
%RAID-F-ANERR, check analyze report
$

[odwillia]

I do all of this remotely so I had to have someone else check it and they asked me that question.

[Volker Halle]

This does NOT look good !!! All disk-IOs to the physical DRA disk devices behind the Mylex Controller have failed. These are the physical devices which contain your RAID set.

Start with $ DISM/CLUSTER/ABORT of the DPA devices. Then try MOUNT/FOR DRAx: and I suspect, you'll get the same controller error.

If so, consider to call your local hardware service provider. You could try to shutdown and power-off the machine first. During boot, the DRA device status will be shown on the console (OPA0).

Volker.

[odwillia]

I have never booted this machine. Anything I should look for first. Any advice at all is appreciated.

[Volker Halle]

Now, this situation seems to get a little bit bizarre. You are remote from the system, you seem to have no experience with OpenVMS and there is at least one ocean between us...

Please don't expect me to give you advice what to check before you boot that machine.

This most likely is a hardware problem (bad Mylex controller) and needs to be furhter analyzed and solved by somehow with his hands on the machine. And it be better someone with Alpha and OpenVMS knowledge.

Volker.

[odwillia]

A very long story, but thanks for all the help you have given me anyway.

[Volker Halle]

You may also want to check, whether SWCC (StorageWorks Command Console) is installed on that OpenVMS system. This software would allow direct management and access to the Mylex RAID controller from OpenVMS.

Here is a pointer to more information (new HoffmanLabs WEB site):

http://64.223.189.234/node/564

Volker.

[odwillia]

Thannks, I will check that. I can't dismount the disks due to open files. I tried to close them but then it says no such process.

[Volker Halle]

SHOW DEV/FILES will probably not work aginst those 3 disks in MntVerfiyTimeout, so don't even try it.

But you can use SDA to find out, if any process has any open channels to those disks:

$ ANAL/SYS
SDA> SET OUT x.x
SDA> SHOW PROC/CHAN ALL
SDA> EXIT

$ SEARCH x.x "DPA3"

If any references are found, edit the file x.x, search for DPA3 and search a couple of lines backwards, until you find the process information.

Note that there could also be installed images and global sections with backing files on those 3 disks. If you need to repair those disks to make them useable again, you might need to shutdown/boot the system anyway.

What did you try to 'close those files' ?

Volker.

[Andy Bustamante]

Odwillia,

The Mylex raid controllers were at one time an affordable entry level raid solution. They had some quirks.

It's possible that your storage shelves lost power. This would cause the controller to mark all disks as bad. One option, before resorting to tape restore, is to power down the Alpha server, power down the disk, restore power to the disk, wait for all disk to spin up, and restore power to the Alpha.

You can also boot the Alphabios and run the Mylex configuration utility. This will allow you to mark a device as good. This is a console operation, preferably from a graphic console.

If these options don't work, your controller may have failed. If you've saved the disk configuration to a floppy disk, a replacement controller can be configured easily.

Good luck,

Andy

[odwillia]

Thanks All!! A reboot of the system seemed to fix everything. So far so good. Thanks again.

[Andy Bustamante]

Glad to hear your operational again.

I'd like to stress having the controller configuration saved to a floppy disk for your system. This will take some downtime, but can prevent future unscheduled downtime and potential data loss. It also gives you a chance to verify you have the controller management utilities available.

Andy

[Jan van den Ende]

odwillia,

from your Forum Profile:


I have assigned points to 8 of 43 responses to my questions.

One of those dates over a year back!

Maybe you can find some time to do some assigning?

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

Mind, I do NOT say you necessarily need to give lots of points. It is fully up to _YOU_ to decide how many. If you consider an answer is not deserving any points, you can also assign 0 ( = zero ) points, and then that answer will no longer be counted as unassigned.
Consider, that every poster took at least the trouble of posting for you!

To easily find your streams with unassigned points, click your own name somewhere.
This will bring up your profile.
Near the bottom of that page, under the caption "My Question(s)" you will find "questions or topics with unassigned points " Clicking that will give all, and only, your questions that still have unassigned postings.
If you have closed some of those streams, you must "Reopen" them to "Submit points". (After which you can "Close" again)

Do not forget to explicitly activate "Submit points", or your effort gets lost again!!

Thanks on behalf of your Forum colleagues.

PS. - nothing personal in this. I try to post it to everyone with this kind of assignment ratio in this forum. If you have received a posting like this before - please do not take offence - none is intended!

PPS. - Zero points for this.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Guenther Froehlin]

FWIW:

"$ raid analyze/units dpa300"

Units are the RAID member devices, e.g. DRA0, and not a virtual unit.

Also "RAID ANALYZE/ERRORLOG" no longer works since OpenVMS V7.3(?). Or, the time the changed the format of ERRLOG.SYS. Use any other analyze tool to look directly at the errolog file or convert it to the old format.

/Guenther

[odwillia]

Thanks for all the help you have provided. I have assigned points. Finally!