Thanks to:
Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-884-0646 [tpb_at_doctor.zk3.dec.com]
Zack Ellis [zellis_at_hccanet.com]
My original post:
>We're having a problem with vdump crashing during a backup; Digital Unix
>4.0d no patch kits.
>
>The problem only seems to occur on one fileset which is 99% full -
>
>u01_domain#u01 17772544 17411056 354056 99% /u01
>
>I vaguely remember reading once long ago that there had to be a minimum
>amount of free space in order to perform a vdump - I'm thinking maybe the
>disk is too full to do the backup. All other filesystems backup fine (none
>are anywhere near as full as this fileset though).
>
>No clones are involved (cloning I know needs about 10% free to do a clone
>successfully).
>
>Can anyone confirm/deny my theory; or think of any other ideas?
There was a note on this on the vdump man page:
Under normal usage, the vdump command uses a small amount of additional
space on the storage device, typically less than 1 percent, when a fileset
is backed up. If the -x flag is used, the amount of additional space used
to back up the fileset increases.
Thanks to Tom for that (I feel like a goose; I looked at the man page and
missed it)
Tom also suggested:
>so I assume if you are using the -x flag, you've tried turning it off. If
you
>can move some things out of the fileset, or temporarily add more space to
the
>domain (with addvol), you might be able to work around the problem.
Unfortunately I don't (readily) have the extra disk to try this .. but it
was something
I had thought of as well.
Tom also noted that:
>And I forgot to note that vdump should NOT fail -- it should issue a very
>explicit error message telling you why it can not do what you requested,
>then exit with an error code. So please, if you have a service contract
>on your system, enter a service call for vdump and report this as a HIGH
>priority problem.
The call has been logged with Compaq Australia as of December 30 when the
problem was picked up. I'll forward any feedback I get on what might be
causing the problem.
Zak suggested the latest patch kits:
>The last 2 patch kits fix numerous AdvFS bugs ( 2 and 3 ) you might want
>to try patching up to current. Patch 3 is still not "available" you'll
>have to call to get it.
I was waiting for patch kit #3 after running into the adduser glitch.
It looks the database file on that fileset has grown to the point where
there isn't the 1%-ish
of disk free space that vdump needs to do its dump. I don't think it's a
patch kit issue, as it has
been working fine for several months, and only recently have we hit the
problem. Also, the other
10 filesystems on the box backup fine.
Thanks for your help!
gunther
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Received on Mon Jan 04 1999 - 22:32:16 NZDT