SMSDOM PANIC: The database is being taken off-line and cannot be opened

Products

• Mail Security for Domino

Issue/Introduction

The Domino server crashes while fixup is running against one of SMSDOM's .nsf databases. The nntask process of Symantec Mail Security for Domino (SMSDOM) is the FATAL THREAD, and it shows a (Panic). You notice the following message: "The database is being taken off-line and cannot be opened." You seek to prevent this crash from occurring again in the future.

Symptoms
Domino server crashes while fixup is running.

• The following error message may appear in the console, the console logs, within the nsd log file, or within the file smspanic.txt:
  PANIC: LookupHandle: null handle
  
• The following error message may appear in the console, the console logs, within the nsd log file, or within the file smspanic.txt:
  The database is being taken off-line and cannot be opened.

Cause

Fixup moved one of SMSDOM's four databases (sav.nsf, savquar.nsf, savdefs.nsf, or savlog.nsf) to an OFFLINE status. While the database was offline, SMSDOM attempted to access it. When SMSDOM failed to receive access, it generated a PANIC.

Resolution

To manually start a fixup for a SMSDOM database

1. To stop nntask, at the Domino console, type:
   tell sav quit
   
2. At the Domino console, execute the fixup command with the parameters of your choice.
3. To start nntask again, at the Domino console, type:
   load nntask

References

Title: Lotus.com: Fixup options
URL: http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/domino_notes/7.0/help7_admin.nsf/f4b82fbb75e942a6852566ac0037f284/965b83ce64247ff08525706f0065e62d?OpenDocument



Technical Information

About fixup and offline SMSDOM databases
The Copy style compact process creates a compacted copy of a database, takes the original database offline and deletes it. Then it renames the copy to the original database name. The nntask process of SMSDOM will PANIC if you attempt to open the database after the original has been deleted and the copy has not yet been renamed. The Offline (-o) style of fixup moves the database to an OFFLINE status before beginning to repair any part of the .nsf.


About verifying which database went offline
If you need to identify which of SMSDOM's databases was moved to an OFFLINE state for documentation purposes, it is possible to search the nsd for this information. Search the nsd for the filename of each of the four SMSDOM .nsf databases (sav.nsf, savquar.nsf, savdefs.nsf, or savlog.nsf). One or more of the four will show a result similar to the following (bold-face added for emphasis):

D:\Lotus\Domino\data\sav\savlog.nsf
Version = 43.0
SizeLimit = 0, WarningThreshold = 0
ReplicaID = 0x05257668:0x0015caa8
bContQueue = NSFPool [ 0008c645]
Offline = Yes
DeleteInProgress = No
FDGHandle = 0xf02405b1, RefCnt = 66, Dirty = Y
SemContQueue ( RWSEM:#0:0x029d) rdcnt=-1, refcnt=0 Writer=[ : 0000], n=0, wcnt=-1, Users=-1, Owner=[ : 0000]
By: [ nntask: 0d68: 0002] DBH= 228, User=CN=HOST/OU=SRV/O=O
By: [ nntask: 0d68: 0005] DBH= 350, User=CN=HOST/OU=SRV/O=O