Abend: Invalid cache buffer handle used

  • 7004400
  • 08-Sep-2009
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 8
SYS Volume is Legacy / Traditional file system

Situation

After upgrading to NetWare 6.5 Service Pack 8 the server abends upon boot-up.   
Server continually reboots itself during boot-up caused by multiple abends occurring.

Resolution

Workaround: 
1. Manually set NSS cache using the C:\NWSERVER\NSSSTART.CFG file with the following settings. 
/nocachebalance
/minbuffercachesize=10000   (this number will depend on how many 4 KB buffers you want to allocate to NSS cache) 
2. Eliminate the NDS cache file (SYS:\_NETWARE\_NDSDB.INI) and allow NDS cache to dynamically allocate cache.

Fix: 
Fixed in a SERVER.EXE  (Server Version 5.70.08 August 21, 2009) which can be obtained from Novell Technical Support.   

Additional Information

Troubleshooting information: 
Abend.log call stack:
MMCacheWriteCompleteServiceRoutine
MM.NLM|MM_CompleteMessage
MM.NLM|UpdateIOStatsCallback

Noticed from coredump that NSS would flush it's cache right before the abend. 

Customers who have seen this during boot-up have all had SYS Volumes which are Legacy traditional file system and not NSS.

Customers will also have the NDS cache set to preallocate cache.  This is found in the  SYS:\_NETWARE\_NDSDB.INI file.
Example of SYS:\_NETWARE\_NDSDB.INI 
blockcachepercent=40
cachecleanupinterval=60
cacheadjustinterval=60
maxdirtycache=60000000
cache=700000000
preallocatecache=true