Error Dump interrupted by error 210

Hypnos

New Member
We have a script that dump the whole database in ASCII every night. Most of the time it works fine, but somtimes it's interrupted by an error.
Here is the error message from the procore file:

13/02/14 05:23:28 [413898]
Progress Recent Message(s):
(210) (1552) (1531)
SYSTEM ERROR: Attempt to read block 0 which does not exist. (210)
WARNING: Before-image file of database /mfg/mfg90/mfgdb/prd_mfg is not truncated. (1552)
Warning: another user is using this database in update mode.
Accessing the database with -RO may give unexpected results. (1531)

*** 4GL Call Stack ***
Last action: BLOCK HEADER (2)
65535: prodict/misc/_rundump.i (/mfg/progress/dlc91d/tty/prodict/misc/_rundump.i)
711: prodict/dump/_dmpdata.p (prodict/dump/_dmpdata.r)
793: /mfg/progress/dlc91d/tty/prodict.pl<<prodict/dump_d.r>> (prodict/dump_d.r)
28: /mfg/misc/backup/database/dump_db.p (/mfg/misc/backup/database/dump_db.p)

What's the cause of this?
Thanks for the help.

The system is an IBM AIX.
 

Rob Fitzpatrick

ProgressTalk.com Sponsor
I have never heard of anyone dumping their database *nightly*. Do you not trust probkup?

I suggest you re-read the documentation of the -RO client startup parameter. Excerpt:
Code:
If you use the -RO parameter when other users are updating the database, you might see invalid
data, such as stale data or index entries pointing to records that have been deleted.

Dumping with the DB in multi-user mode is not a good idea, unless it is a controlled maintenance activity where you have exclusive access to the DB. It's likely also going to hurt your application performance as you may be flushing out your cache on a nightly basis.

Do you know why you are doing this?
 

Hypnos

New Member
Actually I didn't build the system, I just administrate it. It always worked like this as far as I know. I know that probkup would be a better idea, but they wanted to change platform or something (they want it for more then 8 years now).
So I guess this is a proper behavior from the system.
 

Rob Fitzpatrick

ProgressTalk.com Sponsor
Dumping and loading to change platforms is perfectly fine. Doing it nightly for no apparent reason seems like an attempt at a solution for a problem that no longer exists or has been forgotten.

If your organization can't come up with a valid business or technical reason for doing this nightly dump, and if you have tested that you have working backups and AI, then I would suggest that you just stop the nightly dumps.
 

TomBascom

Curmudgeon
Warning: another user is using this database in update mode.
Accessing the database with -RO may give unexpected results. (1531)

Specifically it might result in error 210...

As Rob said -- this process appears to serve no purpose. If you're dumping it and nobody is loading it or using it in any way then you should get rid of it.

BTW 9.1d is ancient, obsolete and unsupported. You should upgrade. You should have upgraded 8 years ago. Are you still running AIX 4.3? Still have Windows 98 on everyone's desktops?
 

Hypnos

New Member
Well, yeah, it's old. The AIX is old too. Windows 98? No, the situation is not that bad. We told them that these things are old, but we cannot do anything about it, especially me. We just provide support for the company owning the system. I was told to keep it alive, and I'm doing it.
I think all I can do to stop the dumping, use probkup instead, and tell them that if nothing change this not going to end well.

Anyway, thanks for all the replys.
 

Hypnos

New Member
They do backup the database, but with copying the database directly to the backup area without using probkup. And when it's needed they copy it back, and run a prostrc repair.
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
That's not a valid backup strategy IMHO. By the way, do they have AI turned on?
 

Rob Fitzpatrick

ProgressTalk.com Sponsor
They do backup the database, but with copying the database directly to the backup area without using probkup. And when it's needed they copy it back, and run a prostrc repair.

You can do this, *if* the database is offline and *if* all of the database files have been copied. And you find the file paths in the structure file, *if* it is up to date. That's a lot of ifs. Better to use probkup. It knows where all the data is and works offline or online.
 

Hypnos

New Member
Okay, probkup is on the way. And I will disable the dump.

Cringer: The AI not enabled, just the BI.

Thanks for clearing me up. Sorry if I look dumb, but I work with Progress just for a few months and mostly as a programmer, not a DB Admin.
 

Cringer

ProgressTalk.com Moderator
Staff member
It's OK Hypnos. We're not trying to make you out as dumb. Some of the decisions that have been made for you aren't very wise though. And some of them are plain shocking. Not having AI on is one of them. Basically if you were to get a corrupt database then you would have to revert back to the last good backup. If that was done last night then you would lose all the work done today. After Imaging gives you the facility to roll forward all the changes since the last backup meaning you shouldn't lose work. If this database has any business value then AI should be on. It's a no-brainer. Read up about how to use it in the documentation and get it activated ASAP. No doubt someone will be along shortly with a link to a useful presentation about it! :)
 
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