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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

1028.0. "Merging PENDING.DAT ..." by TAV02::CHAIM (Semper ubi Sub ubi .....) Mon Jul 13 1992 08:17

One of our large customers with a very active mail flow had the following
happen:

Yesterday many of his users started receiving mail messages from last week.

Investigation uncovered that yesterday morniong within the framework of normal
maintenance a backup/restore was made of the oa$data directories, however the
backup file used was from last week. 

At this point he is now missing information regarding mail messages over the
several days in between. He has backups.

He wants to take his current PENDING.DAT file and CONVERT/MERGE it with the
PENDING.DAT which existed directly prior to the bac/restore. 

1. Will this work (assuming that his shared areas are completely in tact)

2. Is this enough, or are there other files that will require "restoration"

As he is under tremendous pressure, he would greatly appreciate speedy replies.

Please post AND mail me replies (TAV02::CHAIM).

Thanks,

Cb.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1028.1My advice is to go backACUMEN::VICKERSRearranging the DEChairsTue Jul 14 1992 00:0522
    I can't believe that no one has replied.  Hopefully, you have resolved
    the self inflicted problems at the customer site by now.

    Doing a CONVERT/MERGE on the PENDING file is almost certainly a bad
    idea as the records have special internal structures including
    continuation markers.

    I fear that there is really no way to get the PENDING the file to be
    exactly correct.  The only way would be to perform record level surgery
    which would be very difficult and error prone.

    The other files to be examined for damage would be the profile,
    attendee, and meeting files.

    My advice would be to fall back to the previous versions of the files
    in OA$DATA and to issue an apology and give career counseling to the
    party responsible for the restore.  Trying to cover the error is almost
    certainly going to be more likely to result in further damage as well as
    pain.

    Sorry,
    don
1028.2Restore pending, then get pending,...SHALOT::WARFORDRichard Warford @OPA DTN 393-7495Tue Jul 14 1992 00:497
    Best method, is to write a little script that will newdir to each
    account and do a get pending. Then restore the old pending.dat, run the
    script. Restore the current pending.dat and continue runnging. The
    only potential problem is in defered messages. So take a look at those
    and see if you really have a problem with it.
    
    Rick
1028.3More infoIOSG::WDAVIESThere can only be one ALL-IN-1 MailTue Jul 14 1992 18:2322
    I've been in the Pending DSAB code recently, and even I was unsure how
    to advise you - but my feeling is NO. As don says, there can be
    continuation records - and merge can't take account of these at all.
    Effectively the pending file is a series of duplicate key entries.
                    
    KEY            is there more   
    "MAIL WDAVIES""Y".... DATA ... DATA ..... DATA
                   cont record 1 
    "MAIL WDAVIES""1".... DATA ... DATA ..... DATA
                                
     
   Now imagine if you have 1 record in each for "MAIL WDAVIES"
   Both have continuation set to NO... 
   
    Rick's solution is the neatest - as the cab$pending dsab will not allow
    you to directly manipulate entries.
    
    _HOWEVER_ It does NOT clear the SENDER QUEUE - to do this run teh
    sender,and then examine the queue, and mark out the ones which were not
    cleared.
          
    Winton
1028.4Discussed in old conferenceAIMTEC::WICKS_ADEC Mail Works for ME sometimesTue Jul 14 1992 18:4017
    
    
    
    Note 3094 in the old conference has a procedure by Terry Porter for
    doing this (so it must work) - here are the steps that refer to PENDING
    for your info:
    
    3. Make sure the sender and fetcher queues in PENDING are empty. Blow
       away the sender and fetcher queues from one of the two systems. If you
       have deferred mail on both systems then you have to chose which to
       destroy.     
       
    9. Copy across and merge OA$DATA:PENDING.DAT                                  
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
1028.5IOSG::WDAVIESThere can only be one ALL-IN-1 MailTue Jul 14 1992 19:554
    Andy, not questioning your superior information - but does this really 
    work with users who have large inboxes ????
    
    Winton