filePro data entry failing on restored 5.6.10D4 Linux server - SOLVED!!!

[Mike Schwartz]

> On Thu, 01/28/2016 04:12 PM, Mike Schwartz <mschw at athenet.net> wrote:
>> Hi Ernie:
>>
> > I can certainly try rebuilding the indexes again.  However, seg viols
> > in all the files across the board (payroll, order entry, purchase
> > orders,
> > etc.) where files in those systems never touch the other filePro files
> > means that ALL the indexes are bad???
> >
> >      I can understand if it was the files that post something to
> > general ledger or some such thing and if one of the general ledger
> > files had a bad index.

 ----- ----- -----
 [mjs] scoansi # cat reindex echo "Started `date`"
/home/mjs/retime cd /u/appl/filepro for file in *
      do echo $file
      cd $file
         /u/appl/fp/lib/freechain $file
      for indx in `ls index.[A-H] 2>/home/mjs/retime`
          do echo $file $indx
          echo $file $indx `date` >>/home/mjs/retime
          i=`echo $indx | sed s,index.,,`
          echo $file $index $i
          /u/appl/fp/dxmaint $file -o$i -r -a -e
         sleep 2
      done
      cd ..
 done
 echo "Ended `date`" >>/home/mjs/retime
 ----- ----- -----

     The issues I was having after restoring the tape backup onto the backup
server at this customer was due to some (probably several) corrupted filePro
indexes.

     BIG THANKS to everybody who suggested solutions, especially Ernie
Barnard from fPtech support!!!

      Here is the comedy of errors (bad assumptions) that caused the
problems:

1)  Since the hard drive died over the weekend and the Friday Evening tape
backup log reported that the backup completed successfully, including
verify, I ass-u-me'd that all the files would restore properly onto their
main server.

       The office manager checks to make sure all users are logged out of
the system (all filePro windows should be closed) but it's possible there
might have been filePro processes hung up on the system from aborted reports
or clerk sessions.  I have no way of confirming that.

2)  After the restore, the server booted up, I did run a script that we used
for years to rebuild the automatic indexes (see above).  (Yes, I know that
Bob Stockler's nice 5.6.10 index maint utility is better than old index
rebuilding script I've been using since the mid-80's.  Thank you "Saint"
Bob... )

     Unfortunately, this script was only rebuilding automatic indexes A
through H.  After we upgraded to filePro 5.6.10 in 2011, some of the users
in the office added indexes past "H" to some of the filePro databases and
not mentioned it to either the boss or I.  (This code has run so well since
the mid-1980's that neither the boss nor I has had to do much
reprogramming.)

3)   The index rebuilding script was hitting a data file named "nohup.out"
in the /u/appl/filepro subdirectory and then skipping all the data index
rebuilding for all the filePro databases after "n".   The indexes fly past
so quickly on this server that I didn't notice that it was missing
rebuilding the indexes after "n" until I added some debugging lines into the
script.

   Again, our old index rebuilding script is out the window in favor of Bob
Stocklers from now on...

     I removed the nohup.out file.  Our old reindex program rebuilt the
freechains on all the filePro databases, so I will reprogram it just to
build the freechains...

     Ernie mentioned that the most common cause of segment violations is a
corrupt index.  That's what got me looking more carefully at our index
rebuilding.

     The "plus" side:

     Without filePro, this medium-sized manufacturing firm was barely able
to keep their business going for 3 days.  There were some missed shipments
and the boss was preparing to tell everybody to stay home today (Friday).
Today is payday, and yesterday they were preparing to hand-type payroll
checks for each of the 100 or so employees.  (Automatic bank deposits would
NOT have worked because they are exported from filePro...)

     Before he left yesterday, the vice-president, who has always trimmed
anything he could off of the data processing budget, told me to get him a
quote right away on a new server (or virtualizing their filePro server), as
well as getting everything updated.  He said, "This filePro system is the
most important "tool" we own!"   

Thanks again for all the ideas I got from everybody and especially to
filePro Support (Ernie)!!!

Mike Schwartz