a48@mindlink.UUCP (Ullrich Fischer) (11/18/90)
(117 lines)
I've got a Netware 286 2.15c SFT server with two CDC WREN V 600 Mb hard disks
on a DCB SCSI controller. I've currently partitioned each of the two drives
into two 256 Mb and one 47Mb volume on each drive. The drive at controller
address 0 has the following volume names: SYS: VOL1: and VOL2:
(256Mb) (256Mb) (47Mb)
The drive at controller address 1 has VOL6: VOL7: and VOL8:
(256Mb) (256Mb) (47Mb)
(Vols 3,4,5 migrated to a new server in case anyone is wondering :). )
I've purchased two 40 Mb CONNER CP340 SCSI drives which I want to set up as a
mirrored SYS: volume so that a single drive failure will not crash the server.
I've set up my other two servers this way from scratch and it works fine, but
this server (our first) has a lot of data on it. I'd rather not spend
the two days required to fully backup this server, re-install netware from
scratch, and restore the data.
I've temporarily installed the two 40 Mb drives on our 'spare' server which we
use as a workstation but which contains parts which are swappable with our
active servers.
I used this 'spare' server to simulate what I want to do on the active server
by naming one of the 40 Mb drives SYS: and the other VOL0:.
I then tried to change the name of the SYS: volume to VOL0 and the other to
SYS:.
Netware's Installation procedure (Misc Maintenance) lets me change the name of
VOL0:, but not of SYS: . I copied the SYSTEM, MAIL, and PUBLIC directories
from SYS: to VOL0:, then used DISKED to change the volume names around.
Initially, I left the drive now named VOL0: at
controller address 0 while the newly renamed SYS: volume was at controller
address 1. The server came up but mounted VOL0 first, then SYS: . In both
cases I was able to log onto the server as SUPERVISOR with blank password.
When I looked at the SYS:SYSTEM directory, NDIR found there were no NET$B*.SYS
files and BINDREST wouldn't let me restore the bindery from the .OLD files
because it apparently tries to change the flags on the existing bindery files
first.
I tried switching the controller addresses around on the two drives and sure
enough, SYS: now mounted first, then VOL0: . I still had no bindery files but
was able to log on as SUPERVISOR with a blank password.
Next, I tried re-installing the network operating system using the NETGEN
installation procedure. This did not disturb the data on either of the 40MB
drives but did re-copy NET$OS.EXE among other things to the new SYS: volume.
Still no bindery. Still able to logon as supervisor. An additional curiosity
during all these logins, when I ran NET3 (I'm using MS-DOS 3.30), and went to
F: drive, the default directory was F:PUBLIC and although DIR, revealed the
LOGIN.EXE file, the LOGIN command came back with 'bad command or file name'. I
was able to login only by typing:
CD\LOGIN
LOGIN
I checked on our two active Netware 286 servers and on them, F: defaults to
\LOGIN allowing one to LOGIN directly using:
F:
LOGIN
We have about 60 workstations using the active server. I would rather not have
to change autoexec.bat on each of these to ensure that they can login.
Also, I'm somewhat worried about what other surprises may be lurking as a
result of the volume name change.
I ran BINDFIX on the active server, then copied the resulting NET$*.OLD files
to
SYS:SYSTEM on the 'spare' server, then renamed them to NET$*.SYS. I then ran
BINDREST and got a bindery.
Is there a 'legal' way of doing what I want to do, or is the only safe
procedure to back everything up and re-install the 600 Mb drive as VOL0, VOL1,
VOL2 and the mirrored 40's as SYS: ???
In the meantime, I'm using NETWARE 386 V3.1's NBACKUP program to back up the
three volumes on the 600 Mb drive to our third active server (which currently
has enough free disk space to permit this). Has anyone had or heard of any
disasters involving NBACKUP.EXE?
Our configuration is:
Server 1 - AST Premium 386 20Mhz 13 Mb RAM, PC500 SMC ARCNET (utp), Gateway
G-2000 Ethernet card (thinnet), Netware 286 2.15c SFT, two 600 Mb CDC WREN
V drives, Novell DCB SCSI controller (This is the one referred to as the
'active' server above).
Server 2 - EVEREX 386 STEP 20Mhz, 64K cache, 8 Mb RAM, PC500 SMC ARCNET (utp),
Gateway G-2000 Ethernet card (thinnet), Netware 286 2.15c, Novell DCB SCSI
controller, two 40 Mb CONNER CP340 SCSI drives, two 600 Mb CDC WREN V drives
Server 3 - EVEREX 386 STEP 25Mhz 64K cache, 8 Mb RAM, PC500 SMC ARCNET (utp),
Gateway G-2000 Ethernet card (thinnet), Netware 386 3.1A, Novell DCB SCSI
controller, two 40 Mb CONNER CP3040 SCSI drives, two 600 Mb CDC WREN VI drives.
This one is not in full production mode yet so it has a lot of free disk space.
I've configured the two 600 Mb drives on this server as a single volume with
1200 Mb total capacity.
Server 4 - This is the 'spare' server which is normally used as a workstation.
EVEREX 386 STEP 20Mhz, 64K cache, 8 Mb RAM, SMC PC120 SMC ARCNET (utp),
Netware 286 2.15c, Novell DCB SCSI controller, two 40 Mb CONNER CP340 SCSI
drives. (These drives are the ones I'm trying to install as mirrored SYS: on
Server 1.)
The Thin Ethernet acts as a backbone connecting the three active servers, a
bunch of UNIX workstations, a tape backup server PC, and a Plotter Server PC.
The user workstations are all connected to their servers via unshielded twisted
pair (utp) arcnet links using SMC intelligent hubs.
Thanks for wading through all this. Any suggestions/comments will be
gratefully received.
- Ullrich Fischer I'm not even going to mention
Vancouver, BC, CANADA which company's views these aren't ;-).