Running Fault Tolerance Administration Concurrently

ID: Q96738

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft LAN Manager, versions 2.1, 2.1a, 2.2

SUMMARY

If any combination of FTADMIN and WFTADMIN attempt a concurrent Verify or Verify/Refresh, error messages will be returned and, in some cases, unusual program results or crashes may occur.

SYMPTOMS

Because the interaction of two fault tolerant administration processes is very dynamic, some of the following results may not be easily reproducible.

If WFTADMIN or FTADMIN is doing a verify at one machine and FTADMIN is then executed at another machine, it will return

FTADMIN cannot verify

followed by

The disk information could not be loaded. SYS0108: The specified drive is being used by another process.

At this point, all drive icons may disappear from the screen. The server will have to be reselected, or the refresh option will have to be selected to restore the icons. If you do this too soon (the remote Verify is not finished), FTADMIN will continue to return the SYS0108 message. On occasion, FTADMIN will terminate with a Trap D. Because the trap is not at the core operating system level, ending the instance of FTADMIN that trapped will return the computer to normal operation. Another result of attempting a concurrent Verify is that the "phantom cracked icon" may appear.

If FTADMIN or WFTADMIN is doing a Verify at one machine and then WFTADMIN is run at another machine, it will return either

Error 2528 locking the drive: Some other process has locked the disk. Cancel or Retry.

-or-

Error 108 getting FTerror information: The disk is in use or locked by another process.

Retries will produce the same message until the Verify is done.

Another concurrent operation issue is selecting the "refresh" option while Verify is running elsewhere. Selecting <Options>, <Refresh error log> in FTADMIN while WFTADMIN is doing a verify can produce not only a SYS0108 but also a SYS1943, "A program caused a protection violation," along with a Trap D. Because the trap is not at the core operating system, it is recoverable.

If you select <Options>, <Refresh>, <Refresh now> in WFTADMIN while FTADMIN or another WFTADMIN is doing a Verify, an

Error 108 getting FTerror information: The disk is in use or locked by another process

will be returned. If <Cancel> is selected the <Choose Server> screen will appear. Attempting to choose the server being verified will continue to produce the same error message until the process is done. This may also cause errors in the verify process virtually identical to those caused by attempting to run Verify in FTADMIN while WFTADMIN is already Verifying the drive in question.

CAUSE

Multiple administrators on a network attempting to run Verify or Refresh when a Verify has already been executed on the drive in question at another machine.

Fortunately, none of the above problems are truly fatal. Being aware of them reduces this issue to that of a minor annoyance in virtually all cases.

Additional query words: 2.10 2.10a 2.20

Keywords :
Version : :2.1,2.1a,2.2
Platform :
Issue type :