IBM Support

Cannot change chunk status. ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function

Troubleshooting


Problem

When you use onspaces to change the status of a down chunk to online, you receive the error "Cannot change chunk status. ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function"

Symptom


The database server has one or more chunks marked as down. You are attempting to bring the down chunks back online using the onspaces -s command and you receive the error "Cannot change chunk status. ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function". The chunk remains offline.

Example

onspaces -s dbs1 -p /path/to/dbs1chunk1 -o 0 -O
Warning: Bringing chunk back online.
Do you really want to continue? (y/n) y
Verifying physical disk space, please wait ...
Cannot change chunk status.
ISAM error:  illegal argument to ISAM function.

Cause

The dbspace has been flagged as disabled and all of the chunks in the same dbspace are marked as down.

A dbspace can be flagged as disabled due to a problem accessing the first chunk in the dbspace or due to corruption in the first chunk of the dbspace. The subsequent action by the database server will depend in the setting of the configuration parameter ONDBSPACEDOWN.

  • If the ONDBSPACEDOWN configuration parameter is set to 2 (wait), the database server will wait for intervention from the database administrator before flagging the dbspace as disabled.

  • If the database server is blocked on a checkpoint request due to down dbspace, the dbspace is currently flagged as disabled in memory and the onspaces -s command will fail.
  • If the database server was blocked on a checkpoint request due to down dbspace and onmode -O was issued, the dbspace is flagged as disabled in the reserved pages and in memory, so the onspaces -s command will fail.

  • If the ONDBSPACEDOWN configuration parameters is set to 0 (continue) the database server has automatically disabled the dbspace on detection of a problem with the first chunk in that dbspace, without giving a warning to the user.

Resolving The Problem


Restore the dbspace from an archive.

Tip: If the dbspace has been flagged as disabled due to a physical access problem, check with the operating system administrator that this problem has been fixed, and contact Technical Support for advice on the possibility of enabling the dbspace without a restore from archive.

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Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21153097