Performing a NSS Verify, NSS Rebuild, and NSS Scan on Linux.

  • 7006457
  • 16-Jul-2010
  • 10-Oct-2016

Environment

Novell Open Enterprise Server 1 (OES 1) Linux
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES 2) Linux
Novell Open Enterprise Server 11 (OES 11) Linux
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2015 (OES 2015) Linux

Situation

NSS verifies should be part of your normal maintenance for data stored on NSS volumes.
NSS scans and NSS pool rebuild should be done at the request of Novell Technical Support to address specific issues.

Resolution

These are basic instructions.  For advanced features please read the man pages for the ravsui, ravview, and --help with nssscan.

Replace POOLNAME with the actual pool name.

Instructions for NSS pool verify.
A NSS pool verify is a read-only action, as such so no changes are made to the NSS meta data .

1. Deactivate the NSS pool and place the pool in maintenance mode.
nsscon
nss /pooldeactivate=POOLNAME
nss /poolmaintenance=POOLNAME
exit
2. run ravsui to verify the pool
/opt/novell/nss/sbin/ravsui verify POOLNAME
3. After the verify completes, exit the verify screen then reactivate the pool with
nsscon
nss /poolactivate=POOLNAME
exit
4. Go into nssmu to remount the volume
nssmu
volumes
Press "F7" to mount
5. Look at verify results and save them to a file
ravview vbfn POOLNAME > /verify-POOLNAME.txt
6. Look at the verify-POOLNAME.txt file and around line 31 you will see "Errors found" and "Warnings found" if any of these are warrant a pool rebuild to be necessary.


Instructions for NSS pool rebuild.

NSS pool rebuilds will perform a number of necessary actions required to fix NSS meta-data corruption.  There is a potential risk of data loss when running a NSS pool rebuild, as such this not considered to be a regular maintenance task. I It is advised to always capture a complete backup before performing this action.

When a file level backup is not possible, then please verify if the hardware is capable to create a snapshot and if you can perform the rebuild on that snapshot to make sure it works before performing the same action it on the actual live system data.  In forth-coming cases, Micro Focus Technical Services may request a NSS pool scan be taken and restored in a lab environment to determine pool rebuild success.

1. Deactivate the NSS pool and place the pool in maintenance mode.
nsscon
nss /pooldeactivate=POOLNAME
nss /poolmaintenance=POOLNAME
exit
2. run ravsui to rebuild the pool
/opt/novell/nss/sbin/ravsui rebuild POOLNAME
3. After the rebuild completes exit the rebuild screen then reactivate the pool with
nsscon
nss /poolactivate=POOLNAME
exit
4. Go into nssmu to remount the volume
nssmu
volumes
Press "F7" to mount
5. Following the NSS pool rebuild, please verify if the original problem was resolved.
When not, we would need to capture a NSS pool scan to be analyzed by development,

Instructions to perform a NSS pool scan
NSS pool scans only collect the NSS metadata such as details about files, folders, folder structures , etc, It does not capture actual file data.
1. Deactivate the NSS pool and place the pool in maintenance mode.
nsscon
nss /pooldeactivate=POOLNAME
nss /poolmaintenance=POOLNAME
exit
2. Perform the nss scan, this will create a series of 10 MB scan files (T*.ZSB) will be located in the directory where nssscan is started from.
For OES1 and OES2:
nssscan save POOLNAME /dev/evms/POOLNAME
 
For OES11 and OES2015:
nssscan save POOLNAME /dev/pool/POOLNAME
3. After the scan completes exit the rebuild screen then reactivate the pool with
nsscon
nss /poolactivate=POOLNAME
exit
4. Go into nssmu to re-mount the volume
nssmu
volumes
Press "F7" to mount

Additional Information

Capturing a NSS pool scan, may consume a lot of disk space, determined by the size of the pool, the amount of data on that pool, and the amount if NSS meta-data.

While the NSS pool scan set is being created, it is possible to copy the files that are created of to another server or workstation, in order to prevent the system from running out of disk space, and cause different problems.
In order to be able and restore a NSS pool scan however, all the individual files with need to be present, or a restore and analysis is not possible.

When sending this to Micro Focus Technical Services, please include a fresh supportconfig from the server as well.