Troubleshooting
Problem
ISM uses a daemon process called 'nsrexecd'. If the daemon cannot run properly, the storage manager will not be able to function.
Symptom
Cause
The rpcbind server process on Linux is critical for programs that map a listener port to a specific program address. By default, SUSE Linux port 111 is used for sunrpc mapping. Newer releases of rpcbind are designed to be more secure and prefer loopback connections. The default SUSE rpcbind setup prevents ISM from using a network connection and ISM is unable to work.
Diagnosing The Problem
On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, when 'ism_startup' is initiated, a defunct process will be visible in the process list.
# ps -aef | grep nsr
root 4047 1 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrexecd
root 4048 4047 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 [nsrexecd] <defunct>
root 4052 1 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrd
root 4056 4052 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrmmdbd
root 4059 4052 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrindexd
root 4060 4052 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrmmd -n 1
root 4061 4052 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrmmd -n 2
root 4062 4052 0 11:19 ? 00:00:00 /opt/IBM/informix/bin/nsrmmd -n 3
Resolving The Problem
Because of tightened security in the rpc portmapper service on SUSE Linux, when ISM makes an rpc call, it receives an rpc Authentication error: 'Client Credential too weak'. There is a way to prevent the error and prevent the nsrexecd daemon from becoming defunct.
The rpc portmapper is controlled by the executable rpcbind. The older mode of rpcbind can be used to ignore tight security, by running rpcbind with the -i option. All listener services need to be restarted when there is a change to rpcbind, so it is recommended to modify the file /etc/sysconfig/rpcbind to include this line:
RPCBIND_OPTIONS="-i"
Root user can restart rpcbind with the command "/etc/init.d/rpcbind restart", or by restarting the host machine.
Once rpcbind is restarted, restart ISM (as root):
> ism_shutdown
> ism_startup
At this point nsrexecd will be running correctly. Use 'ps -ef | grep nsr' to check for the nsrexecd process, or try the command "ism_catalog -create_bootstrap" to confirm functionality.
Example: (the command needs to be run as root)
${INFORMIXDIR}/bin/ism_catalog -create_bootstrap -pool ISMData
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Document Information
Modified date:
03 June 2021
UID
swg21664648