Service Pack Worries 1

[dsimpaired]

I am currently running Nw65 sp1 and wanting to update to possibly fix some printing issues and other minor occurences. Should I go to sp2 first then the latest or just update to the latest service pack? Any tips or recommendations on the best path?

 

[terry712]

personaly i would just go to latest

 

[TheLad]

The Service Packs are consolidated which means you don't have to go through the pain of applying them in order, one by one.

Providing you have taken the necessary backup/recovery precautions, applying the latest SP would be the preferred method.

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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[dsimpaired]

Thanks for the input guys, I have been running 6.5 since the summer and I didn't want to screw it up but I have just finished updating 18 servers and only had one casualty. One of my servers wont boot and it looks like the server.exe and the nwserver directory got messed up on the c drive for some reason, have applied backups and reapplied service pack and it's good to go, thx again!

 

[marvhuffaker]

I've seen that problem about 4 times in the last few months. the C: drive goes corrupt and takes the files out with it. sucks to get going but doesn't require a reinstall.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[dsimpaired]

Your right Marvin, Luckily I have a dossync bat file that copies my c drive to a d drive so it wasn't much of a restore and pretty easy to get it going but any idea if the service pack was the culprit? I thought I was lucky to get out with just one out of 18 updates going bad.

 

[marvhuffaker]

Well.. I've seen it happen after a service pack, but I think the files were already corrupt. Usually there are crosslinked files and fat mirror mismatches. Bad stuff.

I've cleaned up a C: drive using Chkdsk or scandisk, then loaded the server.. forced it to abend similar to what it had been doing.. And watched the C: get corrupt again. Something is running that is messing with the fat structure on C:. I never saw this problem until NetWare 6.5, and I am putting my money on FATFS.NLM (Did not exist before NW6.5).

From the docs: FATFS.NLM. The FAT Filesystem Module for NetWare. This module grabs calls to DOS and redirects those calls to function in the NetWare environment. As the FATFS.NLM loads, it initializes a file system interface with local hard drives.

I've seen reference to this and people removing this from their system. I can't remember for what reason though. Seems like it was something else. I'll check into it.




Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[dsimpaired]

Thanks for the headsup, as always, good info and thanks for your time!

 

[terry712]

yeeha

sp'd the first server with sp3
and have your exact prob

 

[dsimpaired]

Man, I feel lucky, if I would have trashed my 18 I would have been toast, getting out with only 1 down makes me feel pretty good now, did you get it back going terry?

 

[marvhuffaker]

I read a TID recently that said in a similar case they were able to just replace FATFS.NLM with one off and that fixed it. I'm assuming they also repaired the partition.

Even if it doesn't completely fix it, it's a good start. Haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[terry712]

well i just cheated as i was in a rush
i loaded dosfat onto an server
copied it to a pc , modified the startup.ncf
burned it to a cd
booted server and escaped
copied cd to c:\rescue and lauched server from there
with a postit pad on it to remind me to fix later

i tried it on another server today - a test one this time and i got the same issue
the boot log is public symbols on fatfs and some other one
thought about just swapping but never sure wuth that
weird thing is though it does still think it's sp2
so going to download the sp again in case it's got corrupted or something

i chkdsk'ed the partition and all seemed ok

will play abit more when have the time

 

[terry712]

going to have another play on monday

marv :- do you think this is dos related?

do you think if on my test one after i fix it again that is. will the sp work do you think if i copy the nwserver dir then format the dos partition - recreate a new one - copy the nwserver dir back and then perform the sp

is it an hp issue ?
i can test it on any thing else

 

[dsimpaired]

On my troubled server I ran scandisk on the c and it had a bunch of bad sectors. I ran fdisk, deleted the partition, recreated, set as boot and copied my server files back over but the bad sectors are still there. To have a temp fix I had a backup d partition so I boot to the c which will still boot fine then in my autoexec I run server from d:\nwserver (which sounds like you have done) The server was hanging over the last couple of days so I re-applied the service pack and now it seems to be running fine but my c partition still is troubled but I will wait until summer to pursue it if it will hold until then. I think I had some pre-existing issues that came to light during the service pack but something is definitely up.

 

[terry712]

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/10094805.htm

would you beleive it

 

[marvhuffaker]

Terry, that's different than the problems I've seen, although it's nice to be aware of.. DSimpaired.. The problems I've seen are logical problems.. If you have physical bad sectors, I'd be replacing the drive.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[wonsie]

I just SP3 two test Netware 6.5 servers and it looks like it messed up my partition on C:.

I'm gonna try and do SP2 and see if I have any better luck.

Anyone have any ideas on this.