Can we reboot the Operating System without shutting down the SPECTRUM processes?

Products

• Spectrum

Issue/Introduction

Can we reboot the Operating System without shutting down the SPECTRUM processes?

Environment

Release: Any
Component:

Resolution

The SpectroSERVER process should be shut down gracefully before rebooting the OS to prevent the risk of database corruption. 

The SpectroSERVER process can be shutdown gracefully by doing one of the following:

1. Launch the Spectrum Control Panel (SCP) as the user that owns the Spectrum installation and click on the "Stop SpectroSERVER" button

2. Log into the Spectrum system as the user that owns the Spectrum installation and run the $SPECROOT/bin/stopSS.pl script

Additional Information

As per the design concurrent access to the SpectroSERVER database by multiple users of CA-developed programs is not permitted. SPECTRUM applies a soft lock file (.VNMDB.LOCK) to prevent access from more than one CA-developed application at the same time. Under certain circumstances (for example, when recovering from an abnormal shutdown), the soft lock file can be removed.  An abnormal shutdown will corrupt the SpectroSERVER database.  An example of an abnormal shutdown is if the SpectroSERVER machine were to be powered off abruptly.  Another example of an abnormal shutdown is if the operating system is instructed to shut down without first stopping the SpectroSERVER process.  The SpectroSERVER process MUST be stopped prior to shutting down the operating system.  Failure to do so results in database corruption.  If there is database corruption, you must take care to reload the SpectroSERVER database from a previously saved database (be sure to select Yes when asked to initialize the database).  Failure to do the initialization and reload will result in running with a corrupt database which will lead to further complications.

 

When CA-developed applications encounter a database lock file, an error message is generated to alert you to the situation. However, non-CA tools and applications may not check for this lock and therefore, do not generate any message. Furthermore, if these non-CA entities are able to bypass the lock, database corruption may result. As a result, before allowing any non-CA tool or application to access a SPECTRUM database, you should make sure that all SPECTRUM processes are shut down.