TMF Operations and Recovery Guide (G06.26+)

The TMF Catalog
HP NonStop TMF Operations and Recovery Guide—522417-003
6-5
Changing the State of a Dump
Changing the State of a Dump
The ALTER DUMPS command alters the state of existing online dumps and audit
dumps.
Dumps can be in any of the following states:
•
Assigned: required for file recovery
•
Released: no longer needed for file recovery
•
Invalid, unreadable: not usable for file recovery
It is relatively rare that you must manually change the state of dump files in the TMF
catalog.
If you change the state of the most current online dump of a file to invalid, the file
recovery process uses the preceding generation. If you invalidate the only dump entry
for a file, the file cannot be recovered. Note that a dump could accidentally be deleted
from the TMF catalog if the last assigned file in the dump is changed to the invalid
state (in which case you would need to use the ADD DUMPS command to reenter it).
To indicate that a particular dump file is no longer required for file recovery, alter the
dump entry to released. You might do this, for example, if you lower the
RETAINDEPTH value and want to omit the earliest generation of an online dump from
being used for recovery. Note that if the only dump entry of a file is released, the file
cannot be recovered by the file recovery process. A dump could accidentally be
deleted from the TMF catalog if the last assigned file in the dump is changed to
released status.
To indicate that a previously released file is available for use by the file recovery
process, alter the dump entry to RELEASED OFF, INVALID OFF; you might do this, for
example, if a file was deleted, but the tape volume or a backup of the disk dump is
available and you want to use the dump.
You must be a member of the super user group to use the ALTER DUMPS command.
Note. Use the INFO DUMPS command after each online dump to get a detailed report of
dumps currently recorded in the TMF catalog. Save your reports in a disk file stored in a safe
location, sorted by date. You can also manually track online dump entries by using the forms
provided in Appendix A, Dump Tracking Forms. Also as just noted, you can generate a
command file that contains ADD DUMPS commands for re-adding to the TMF catalog all
entries for dumps with a specified serial number. To create this command file, enter the INFO
DUMPS command in this format:
INFO / OUT filename / DUMPS, OBEYFORM, SERIAL serial-number
In addition, keep a backup copy of the $SYSTEM.ZTMFCONF subvolume, which contains all
TMF configuration information. This information is critical if entries in the TMF catalog are
accidentally deleted or damaged and need to be reentered into the catalog.