If you ever have the need for a memory dump to tape, a TC is the only way to
go.  Once you enter the RS command, memory is wiped and your only chance to
analyze what happened disappears.

Tom Madigan,
HP Systems Manager
International Communications Research, Inc.
605 West State St.
Media, PA 19063-2620
Voice/voice mail:  610-565-9280 ext. 450
Facsimile:         610-565-2369
Email:             [log in to unmask]

"We Gather Insight"

-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Ryan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 8, 2000 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Could it be that TC command does not work if you
h ave a power failure?


Actually, I do not trust the TC command, it has always seemed unstable to
me.

During an upgrade on our HP939ks I ran into some problems and HPRC wanted me
to reboot. The engineer told me to use the TC command instead of RS, I
disagreed but he insisted. When the system started comming back up I saw
several error messages that I had never seen before and once fully up we
could not access the tape drive to read the dump tape.

He then decided the original problem was caused by a hardware problem, when
originally it was obviously a software problem, I argued a bit and then
informed him I was going to do a RS. He said go ahead but doubted it would
do any good. The system then came up fine and he was able to analyze the
dump and see the problem. ( Which turned out to be a user for a deleted
account still existed and when the upgrade tried to create the account, it
failed with a duplicate entry in the directory error ).

This is an extreme example, but I have noticed several times in the past
that when TC was used some hardware acted strangely until another restart
was performed with an RS.

I now avoid TC unless HPRC demands it.