Hello All,

We just finished replacing a disk which was "heading south".  So it was
curious to see Kenneth's comment concerning the replacement of a disk.  We
thought we'd be able to move all the files, which had any extents on the bad
disk, to other disks , using MPEX's ALTFILE command with the
'ONDEVICE(ldev);DEV=' option.  Well it moved all the files....we think.  I
say  that because the DISCFREE command on the flaky disk indicated that
space was being used for something, but we couldn't see that there were any
files still there.

Anyway, after HP installed a new(reconditioned?) disk, we were able to boot
the box, but the new drive was classified as "unknown"  After countless
tries with volutil, we cried 'uncle' and called the reponse center.  We were
told to slap the SLT into the tape drive and perform an install.  As I
compose this message, we're restoring files from a full backup tape.

Here's my question: Is there a clean way to clear a disk of data, replace
it, then put the data back on without having to go through these
calistenics?

BTW, I'm assuming that part of Kenneth's procedures include restoring files
from the backup he created....or am I missing something?

Thanks for your replies.....Cary
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sletten Kenneth W [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, November 06, 1998 2:37 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: LDEV 1 & SYS vs; was sysstart
>
>
> Stan suggested:
>
> > ....  ability to specify a default volume set for an account ...
> > it ought to be part of the    :ALTACCT command!)
>
> This is a really good idea;  it's clearly the "failsafe" solution for
> both end-user *and* third-party vendor accounts....  and not just
> :ALTACCT but also of course  :NEWACCT.   I hope SIGMPE will
> add it to the enhancement list....  seems like it would be another
> ideal candidate for the CFE program....
>
> As HP 3000's keep getting bigger and faster, I would think the
> ability to efficiently manage multiple volume sets would move
> higher on the priority list for more and more user sites....
>
> > So...you might choose to put important packages (like HourGlass,
> > SPLash! and the Lund Toolboxes) on the system volume
> > set (MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET), ......
>
> > Note the smiley!
>
> Lucky you added that last note, Stan.....     ;-)
>
> ...  unfortunately, if you put them on the <long_name>, then you
> cannot have the reliability of Mirroring those important accounts
> (that's right:  After 3+ years or more of agitating for being able to
> mirror the SYS_VOL, I still have not given up....).
>
> ...  and unless and until we *do* get the ability to mirror SYS_VOL,
> there is another big advantage to keeping the number of MBytes on
> that volume set as small as possible:  If you have enough spindles
> in the <long_name> that the total capacity of well over one disc is
> "surplus", then you can recover very quickly from a one-spindle
> failure in the volume set.  Here's how:
>
> (1)  Be sure you keep one or more good full system backup(s)
> readily available...  I'm paranoid;  I like to have two that have
> passed CHECKSLT and VSTORE....
>
> (2)  Shut down and power down the system.
>
> (3)  Open up the box and take out the bad spindle (assuming
> you can figure out which one it is (and assuming you are willing
> to take the responsibility for "do it yourself hardware surgery" on
> your machine) ).
>
> (4)  Power up and do an INSTALL.  Note we did this once on our
> machine when Predictive said a disc was going south.  Once we
> were powered up, the INSTALL only took about 15 minutes.  Then
> bring up the user volumes again...  Back in business without having
> to wait 4+ hours or maybe until next day for HP hardware support...
>
> Ken Sletten
>