NIM Problems

2
1982

Could not perform NIM operation “nim -Fo define -t mksysb”.

Captures may fail with message DNZIMN861E on the “nim -Fo define -t mksysb” operation for various reasons.

1. ulimit set too low

If the message contains text like this:

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-001 m_mkbosi: processing error encountered on "myserver":
backup medium write error: File too large
Check backup media and rerun the backup

or like this:

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-001 m_mkbosi: processing error encountered on "myserver":
backup: 0511-432 A write error occurred: A file cannot be larger than the value set by ulimit.
backup: 0511-079 The backup media may be damaged.

Use a different disk to run the backup.

The ulimit value needs to changed on both the NIM master and the system that is being captured.

After the ulimit is change, nimsh and the Common Agent need to be restarted:
Common Agent:
/opt/ibm/director/agent/runtime/agent/bin/endpoint.sh stop
/opt/ibm/director/agent/runtime/agent/bin/endpoint.sh start

nimsh:
stopsrc -s nimsh
startsrc -s nimsh

2. Insufficient disk space on the NIM master

If the message contains text like this:

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-001 m_mkbosi: processing error encountered on "myserver":
backup: 0511-432 A write error occurred: There is not enough space in the file system.
backup: 0511-079 The backup media may be damaged.
Use a different disk to run the backup.

There is insufficient space on the NIM master system in the file system that contains /export/nim/appliances. Increase the available space and retry the capture.

3. The system hostname does not match the capture interface hostname

Note: This should not occur when using VMControl 2.3.1 and later as VMControl chooses the capture interface name based on the system hostname.

Error message:

DNZIMN861E Could not perform NIM operation nim -Fo define -t mksysb -a server=master -a comments="Capture of AIX LPAR that has 2 virtual NICs" -a location=/export/nim/appliances/7ea43744-92fc-43a0-8c36-79b6098557dc/image1.mksysb -a mk_image=yes -a source=standalonename -a mksysb_flags="X e" appliance-2_image-1:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
System Backup Image Space Information
(Sizes are displayed in 1024-byte blocks.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Required = 4118135 (4022 MB) Available = 54532148 (53255 MB)

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg.

Creating list of files to back up.

Backing up 90894 files

0512-005 savevg: Backup Completed.
The backup command completed with errors.
The messages displayed on Standard Error contained additional
information.

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-001 m_mkbosi: processing error encountered on "standalonename":
backup: 0511-089 Cannot open /tmp/290868.mnt0/image1.mksysb: The file system has read permission only.
Mount volume 1 on /tmp/290868.mnt0/image1.mksysb.
Press Enter to continue.

Explanation:
When capture fails with this error message, the most common cause is that the system hostname of the system, as returned by “uname -a”, does not match the hostname of the ethernet adapter on the capture system that is being used for the capture.

When this problem happens it usually happens on systems with more than one network adapter. To workaround the problem, the “smitty tcpip” command should be run on the system that is being captured and the system hostname should be set to match the hostname that is bound to the IP address of the network adapter being used for the capture.

4. DNS or reverse DNS lookup is disabled

Error message:

DNZIMN861E Could not perform NIM operation nim -Fo define -t mksysb -a comments="test" -a mksysb_flags="X e" -a server=master -a location=/export/nim/appliances/e855735a-bdf8-460d-b499-0a74eb8ae2aa/image1.mksysb -a source=thehostname -a mk_image=yes appliance-0_image-1:
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-006 m_mkbosi: (From_Master) connect Error 0

0042-008 nimsh: Request denied - 192.168.0.2

Explanation:
When capture fails with this error message, one of the reasons is that either forward or reverse hostname lookups are not working on the NIM master or the system to be captured.

DNS servers are not required in order for capture to work, but both the NIM master and the capture system must be able to do both forward and reverse lookups on each other’s hostnames and IP addresses. If DNS servers are not present or the DNS servers have reverse lookup disabled, the /etc/hosts files on the NIM master and the capture system will need to be updated to provide the mapping.

5. Cannot make an ssh connection from the NIM Master to the system that is being captured.

If the message contains text like this:

location=/export/nim/appliances/cd84878d-ac0d-495e-93dd-55f4adcda512/image1.mksysb -a source=mycapturesource -a mk_image=yes appliance-1_image-1: 0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-006 m_mkbosi: (From_Master) connect A remote host refused an attempted connect operation.
mycapturesource.mydomain.com: A remote host refused an attempted connect operation.
This could mean that there is no ssh "known hosts" entry between the NIM Master and the system to be captured. To solve this, run "ssh root@<machineToCapture>" from the NIM Master. If you get a prompt like the following:

The authenticity of host 'mycapturesource (111.222.33.44)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:00.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

respond “yes”. This will allow future ssh connections to be opened without further prompting. Then retry the capture operation.

6. Files locked or deleted during the capture operation

Error message:

DNZIMN861E Could not perform NIM operation nim -Fo define -t mksysb -a comments="test" -a mksysb_flags="X e" -a server=master -a location=/export/nim/appliances/e855735a-bdf8-460d-b499-0a74eb8ae2aa/image1.mksysb -a source=thehostname -a mk_image=yes appliance-0_image-1:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
System Backup Image Space Information
(Sizes are displayed in 1024-byte blocks.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Required = 6754168 (6596 MB) Available = 7778064 (7596 MB)

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg.

Creating list of files to back up.
.
Backing up 178138 files.......................

0512-003 savevg may not have been able to archive some files.
The messages displayed on the Standard Error contained additional
information.

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
backup: 0511-089 Cannot open ./home/db2inst1/db2inst1/NODE0000/IBMDIR01/T0000000/C0000000.CAT: A system call received a parameter that is not valid.
backup: 0511-089 Cannot open ./home/db2inst1/db2inst1/NODE0000/IBMDIR01/T0000002/C0000000.LRG: A system call received a parameter that is not valid.

Explanation:
NIM cannot capture systems that have processes that are actively creating, removing, or locking files. When a capture fails with an error message like this it means that the files listed were locked or removed by a process running on the system while the capture was in progress. The process that is writing or locking the files should be stopped to successfully capture the system. A common process that will be actively writing, removing, or locking files during a capture attempt is database software.

7. SSL Certificates expired

Error message:

DNZIMN861E Could not perform NIM operation nim -Fo define -t mksysb -a server=master -a location=/export/nim/appliances/f664b55c-1234-4dc4-abcd-zswd7e2c1a4/image1.mksysb -a mk_image=yes -a source=myServer-a mksysb_flags="X e" appliance-0_image-1:
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-006 m_mkbosi: (From_Master) connect Error 0

0042-404 nconn: Error connecting to SSL object.
0042-406 nconn: Error verifying SSL object after connection.
nconn: Error 0

Explanation:
SSL Certificates may be expired on the NIM Master and/or the Capture Source.

8. The /tmp file system could not be expanded on the system being captured

Error message:

Capture exception. See log file. DNZIMN861E Could not perform NIM operation nim -Fo define -t mksysb -a server=master -a location=/export/nim/appliances/b981a278-6ee8-4a92-b181-24fb9c748a91/image1.mksysb -a mk_image=yes -a source=xnw3058 -a mksysb_flags=”X e” appliance-0_image-1:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
System Backup Image Space Information
(Sizes are displayed in 1024-byte blocks.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Required = 3069416 (2998 MB) Available = 5566284 (5436 MB)

Expanding /tmp.

0512-041 mkvgdata: The /tmp file system could not be expanded.

0512-008 savevg: The mkvgdata command failed. Backup canceled.

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-001 m_mkbosi: processing error encountered on "xnw3058":
0516-404 allocp: This system cannot fulfill the allocation request.
There are not enough free partitions or not enough physical volumes
to keep strictness and satisfy allocation requests. The command
should be retried with different allocation characteristics.

Explanation:
During a mksysb define, the /tmp directory on the system being captured is used as working space. NIM attempted to expand /tmp to accommodate the mksysb define, but failed because of a limitation of physical space on the disk.

This can be resolved with one of the following two solutions:
1) Ensure there is enough space in /tmp on the capture client
2) Lower the size of other filesystems to free up space so that the /tmp filesystem can be expanded automatically.

2 COMMENTS

  1. wbalasnim01:/home/xsrajash$ ./nim.sh wbaurv10
    0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on “master”:
    0042-006 m_lslpp: (From_Master) connect Error 0

    poll: setup failure

    how to fix this?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.