View - Tape positioning error while adding index space.

Products

• View

Issue/Introduction

Customer database had index utilization reaching 100% and faced issues while adding index space.

Below are the sequence of events that happened with the customer:

-- Received the message indicating the index reached an out-of-space condition, whereas the View SARSTC started task usually terminates with a U0001 abend.

   However, the started task at this time did not terminate and instead went into a hang state.

-- The customer made a first attempt at adding a new index extent with SARDBASE ADDDS INDEX, but the job hung due to contention with View SARSTC started task.

-- They cancelled the SARDBASE ADDDS INDEX job

-- They then cancelled the SARSTC Task

-- The SARDBASE ADDDS INDEX job was tried again, and the job abended indicating an allocation failed.

-- SARSTC was restarted, and upon restart again it received a SARDBI07 message and a U0001 abend. 

 

Environment

Release : 14.0

Component : View

Cause

Prior to the SARSTC abend in Stage 2 of a View backup, the backup cycle was resumed and a backup tape was mounted.
The abend and unfortunate timing with the backup cycle interrupted the normal positioning of the backup tape, causing the data overlay problem.

Broadcom does not recommend cancelling a job that is performing SARDBASE ADDDS without consulting Support, as it may leave the database in an unrepairable state.

Had the SARSTC task been cancelled first, instead of the SARDBASE ADDDS INDEX being cancelled, the new index extent would have been added successfully.

Resolution

The above sequence of events were evaluated by the SE/Development team and the fix LU06427 was created based on the problem, so that the condition and situation of tape repositioning does not happen again in the future.