Resize or move the sys volume with a minimum of effort and risk to DS

  • 7004317
  • 26-Aug-2009
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

NetWare 6
NetWare 6.5

Situation

No more space available for the SYS pool
The pool containing the SYS volume is corrupt
DS is healthy
Free space on another pool enough to hold the SYS volume (temporary or permanent depending on your goals)
SYS volume is out of space
Resize or move the SYS volume with a minimum of effort and risk to DS

Resolution

The following utilities are needed:

 - Volume Conversion Utility (VCU)

 - File copy utility that runs on the server and can access the sys:_netware directory (CPQFM or CNW Commander are two freeware choices available)


 Preparation:

1. Identify a pool with enough free space for the SYS: Volume.

2. Verify DS is healthy

3. Clean up the SYS: volume

4. Copy the file copy utility to the server SYS:system directory (I will reference CNW Commander in this TID)

5. Notify users to logout of the server

 

Process:

1. Copy the majority of the SYS: volume to the other pool with the following command:

  "VCU SYS POOL"  where SYS is the volume to copy and POOL is the destination NSS pool.

  **Note do NOT rename volumes!!

2. Load the file copy utility

3. From the server console prompt unload NLSLSP

4. From the server console prompt unload DS

5. Copy all the files from the SYS:\_netware directory to the SYS_new:_netware directory on the destination pool.

If you are moving the SYS volume to a new Pool for more space, do steps 6-10, other wise skip to step 11:

6. Load NSSMU at the server console prompt

7. Use NSSMU to rename the original sys: volume to SYS_old:

8. Use NSSMU to rename SYS_new: volume to SYS:

9. Load DS

10. Load NLSLSP

Test for SYS: volume availability - you are done.

 

If you have a corrupt Pool:

11. Load NSSMU at the server console prompt

12. Use NSSMU to delete the original SYS: volume

13. Use NSSMU to delete the original SYS pool

14. Use NSSMU to create a new SYS pool

15. Move SYS back using VCU "VCU SYS_NEW SYS" where SYS_new is the volume name and SYS is the new pool name.

16. Verify DS and NLSLSP are not loaded

17. Copy all the files from the sys_new:\_netware directory to the sys:_netware directory on the new pool.

18. Use NSSMU to rename the sys_???: volume on the new pool to sys:

19. Load DS

20. Load NLSLSP

Test server for SYS: volume availability.

 

Cleanup:

Unload all utilities

After testing the server, including taking the server down and bring it back up, you can delete the old/temporary sys_new:/sys_old: volume.

 

Additional Information

If the VCU Utility is used from SP3 and the above procedure is not followed to convert the Traditional SYS volume to an NSS volume, there is a chance that NDS files in the SYS:\_NETWARE directory will not be copied and NDS may be corrupted or broken on the new NSS SYS volume.

NOTE: the full procedure above is only known to be necessary for NW 6.0 . For Netware 6.5 the manual copy of the DS Database isn't necessary nor recommended.

Formerly known as TID# 10088251