IBM Support

Checkouts are not visible after a VOB replica replacement

Troubleshooting


Problem

This technote explains why an IBM® Rational® ClearCase® view may not be able to see the checkedout items from a VOB that is replicated using MultiSite® after the VOB is restored from a sibling replica copy of the VOB.

Symptom

Performing a cleartool describe -long of the VOB reveals that the VOB holds checkout references to certain views.

Example:



C:\>cleartool describe -long vob:\my_test_vob
versioned object base "\my_test_vob"
  created 28-Feb-02.14:20:29 by user_group@HOST
  VOB family feature level: 3
  VOB storage host:pathname "host:E:\ClearCase_Storage\VOBs\my_test_vob.vbs"
  VOB storage global pathname "E:\ClearCase_Storage\VOBs\my_test_vob.vbs"
  database schema version: 54
  VOB ownership:
    owner user
    group group
  VOB holds objects from the following views:
host:e:\ClearCase_Storage\views\user\dynamic_view.vws [uuid c341f2f7.9d7b465e.bcb5.d6:12:27:93:53:24]
host2:C:\ClearCase_Storage\views\user2\snap.vws [uuid 8b7c8096.3b364589.8dcf.d4:7d:73:0e:45:eb]
  Attributes:
    FeatureLevel = 3


After replacing a VOB with an existing replica, checkouts that existed prior to the last successful synchronization are no longer seen in the original views.

Cause

This is due to the view database. It contains a reference to the original replica Object ID (as opposed to the VOB Object ID) and does not refer to the new replica OID.

Note: If there are no issues with the checkouts as described in this technote, please refer to the Saving Views from a Replaced Replica section in the Rational ClearCase MultiSite Administrator's Guide when replacing a replica.

Resolving The Problem

The view database must be updated to identify the new VOB replica OID.

A special utility (view_sr) is available in ClearCase version 4.x and higher.

IS VIEW_SR A SUPPORTED UTILITY?

No. The view_sr utility is not supported for unauthorized use. Use of the tool is only supported through direct support intervention and instruction.

ABOUT VIEW_SR:

The view_sr utility is a view re-parenting tool that can be used to update the view database with the new replica OID. The tool will look for view references to the old VOB replica and will replace them with references to the new VOB replica.

The view_sr utility is stored in the following location:

  • UNIX and Linux:  /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/
  • Microsoft Windows: 
    ClearCase 7.0.x C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils
    ClearCase 7.1.x C:\Program Files\IBM\RationalSDLC\ClearCase\etc\utils

WHEN TO USE VIEW_SR:

It is important that the utility is run immediately after the new VOB replica is created before taking any other actions in the views against the new VOB replica.


Usage: view_sr <view-tag> <vob-tag>

Where <view-tag> indicates the view holding the checkouts and <vob-tag> indicates the VOB that contains the checked-out elements.

Note: If the view_sr tool fails to run against a particular view OR the view was used to access a restored replica before the tool was run against it, you will need to run the recoverview command as outlined in the Saving Views from a Replaced Replica section in the Rational ClearCase MultiSite Administrator's Guide.

DOES THE VIEW_SR UTILITY WRITE TO THE VOB DATABASE?

No. The view_sr utility writes only to the view database.

For checkout events that had been replicated from the replaced replica, the VOB will already know about them.

For checkout events that occurred after the last outgoing packet from the replaced replica, the view_sr utility will re-parent the checkouts as view-private files.

The view_sr utility writes to the view database as follows:

  1. The view_sr tool looks into the replica oid list for the VOB tag (family) specified on the view_sr command line.

  2. The view_sr tool looks for matching replica/VOB oids known to view_db.

  3. Once view_sr finds a match between the VOB database replica oid list and view database known VOB oids list, view_sr will overwrite the match with the oid of the replica/VOB specified on the command line.


KNOWN ERRORS

Attempts to run the view_sr script results in the following error:

Switch replica:boston_hub.old
to replica:boston_hub@/vobs/test
view_sr: Error: Unable to reparent view. (unknown error in view_server).
view_sr: Error: Additional information may be available in the view log on host "host1".
view_sr: Error: Can't switch
152b0e39.ae4711cd.a20f.00:01:72:30:11:99(boston_hub.old) to
4ac28eec.07a011d6.b911.00:01:80:c4:76:15(boston_hub@/vobs/test)
:unknown error in view_server

Errors in view_log:

01/14/02 11:07:23 view_server(1932): Ok: Switching view relationship from replica 152b0e39.ae4711cd.a20f.00:01:72:30:11:99|to replica
4ac28eec.07a011d6.b911.00:01:80:c4:76:15
01/14/02 11:07:26 view_server(1932): Ok: ..removed/converted
derived-objects.
01/14/02 11:07:26 view_server(1932): Error: Internal VIEW DB error,
operation 'D_RECWRITE' on object 'DB_VOB' failed: 3 (errno=0)
01/14/02 11:07:26 view_server(1932): Error: db_change_vob_oid failed: unknown error in view_server



The error is a result that they have already used this view against the replacement replica causing a record to exist which causes the raima db to complain about a duplicate entry.

The view_sr utility should be run before using the view against the new replica.

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Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21142752