Took a while but I found the solution to my problem.
Background:
I'm running a DU 4.0B system with CA-Unicenter v1.5 and
Oracle Application Server v3.0. We use CA-Unicenter for
job scheduling and tape management. We use Oracle Application
Server for Web application with Oracle DBMS.
The Oracle software needs a device called '/dev/timedev'
but CA-Unicenter 'thinks' its a tape device. CA-Unicenter
prevents access to the device and Oracle software dumps core.
Solution:
The Oracle software install requires to 'mknod' the /dev/timedev
device with a major node number of 15. According to Digital Unix
file /usr/sys/io/common/conf.c the major node number 15 is
reserved for tape devices (as well as major node number 9 or 51).
That is why CA-Unicenter gets in the way. To fix the problem
I removed the /dev/timedev device and re-created it with major node
number 17 (un-used according to conf.c) and now everything works fine
and everybody is happy.
Special thanks to Vipin Gokhale for the explanation on what
is /dev/timedev and why Oracle needs it. See his email below!
To add to his email: the Oracle Application Server absolutely
needs the /dev/timedev device since I tried to start the Oracle
software after I removed it and It would not work. And CA-Unicenter
cares about /dev tape devices because he wants to trap all tape
mounts to all tape devices to enforce tape management policies.
Yvon Lauriault
National Library of Canada
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From: Vipin Gokhale, DEC SBU, Oracle Corporation [VGOKHALE_at_us.oracle.com]
/dev/timedev interface maps a page of memory (read-only) which holds system
time of the day clock in user space. This effectively allows for reading
system time in a couple of instructions rather than making gettimeofday()
syscall.
Using /dev/timedev is only a minor performance optimization and is not a
correctness issue. Oracle software will work fine without it (and it's quite
possible that you may not see any noticeable performance degradation
either).
Not sure why Unicenter cares about /dev/timedev (or for that matter anything
in /dev directory...).
- Vipin
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Received on Wed Mar 25 1998 - 00:12:42 NZST