OpenVMS v8.2 integrity - Process fails to stop with STOP PROCESS command

[Andrew Rycroft1]

Hi,

I have a case on OpenVMS Integrity v8.2 where we have a process that when we try to stop it with the STOP PROCESS /ID= command goes into a SUSPENDED state. Why is this, and is there a way to stop such a process?

Thanks
Andrew

[Volker Halle]

Andrew,

try to get the call stack of the process with:

$ ANAL/SYS
SDA> SET PROC /IND=
SDA> SHOW CALL/SUMM

to find out, which code may have called $SUSPND

Volker.

[Stanley F Quayle]

Do a SHOW SYSTEM. What state is the process in?

I'd be willing to bet it's RWAST. Or RW-something-else. This is covered in section 5.19 of the VMS FAQ:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/faq/vmsfaq.txt

You're probably out of luck without rebooting the system.

Attempts to access the process from DCL return SUSPENDED because the process isn't responding to kernel mode AST's, because it's stuck in the RW-state. There really isn't a SUSPENDED process state.

[Volker Halle]

re: Stanley,

if the process has called the $SUSPND system service, it's state will be shown as SUSP in SHOW SYSTEM. And there's also the SET PROC/SUSPEND command.

But you're right, if a process is in RWAST, some SHOW commands will return with 'process is suspended'.

Volker.

[Uwe Zessin]

Minor nitpick:

> STOP PROCESS /ID=

that is not a valid command, but works 'by accident' (as I like to say). The correct format is either:

$ STOP

or:
$ STOP /IDENTIFICATION=

In you case, "PROCESS" is not a keyword, but a parameter, which is ignored when you use the /IDENTIFICATION qualifier.

[Volker Halle]

Andrew,

if you decide that you need to reboot the system to get rid of the 'suspended' process, consider to force a crash. This will also reboot the system, but offers the chance to do some additional analysis in the system dump afterwards.

You can force a crash with:

$ DEFINE OPC$reboot y
$ define opc$nodump n
$ MC OPCCRASH

or with CTRL-P and Crash (y/n): y on the console.

You could previously shut down all of your applications and dismount most disks (especially if shadowing is in use), to minimize the impact of the crash.

Volker.

[Stanley F Quayle]

> if the process has called the $SUSPND system
> service, it's state will be shown as SUSP in
> SHOW SYSTEM. And there's also the SET
> PROC/SUSPEND command.

If it's in SUSP, do a SET PROC/RESUME. But I don't think that's what happened here...

[Jan van den Ende]

Andrew,

before you decide to reboot:
_IS_ there any pertinent reason that you can not just leave the process as it is?
Of course, if it is holding any resource, thus blocking that for normal use, then it needs to be freed, but if all it holds is a process slot, you might as well just leave it alone.

Then again, for various reasons of blocking on Vax and on Alpha there _DO_ exist some DELTA manipulations to get the process just to the point where it can acknowledge the previous STOP/IDEN=...

... but I have NO idea about the existance, let alone the procedure, on I64 ...

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Volker Halle]

Jan,

OpenVMS is OpenVMS is OpenVMS ...

The way you work with DELTA is the same on OpenVMS I64 as it is on OpenVMS VAX or OpenVMS Alpha, especially when looking at OpenVMS internal data structures. It becomes more 'interesting', if you would try to follow call flow and call stacks...

Volker.