OA63098: PPRA OMVS STORAGE RELEASE SP2 ABEND378 ABEND9C6 ABENDEC6 CORRUPTION

Obtain the fix for this APAR.

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• Customer IPLed the system and started to see abends in z/OS UNIX
  modules:
  
  ABEND378  RSN14
  ABENDEC6  RSN0B0F0555, RSN0B5B0557 and           RSN0B5E0557
  ABEND9C6  RSN00340001
  
  Customer had to Re-IPL to clear the situation
  
  ANALYSIS:
  Reviewing the dumps and logrec records we found:
  
  i) the S378 abend occured in BPXOINIT in a waitpid() SYSCALL,
  invoked by the zombie task,  BPXPRWAT was trying to release the
  KIDC storage during cleanup processing before returning to the
  caller.  However, the storage had already been freed.
  
  ii) The AbendEC6 RSN0B0F0555 occured when BPXPRIN2 invoked
  BPXPRTB1 to get a processid and BPXPRTB1 failed because PPRP
  addresses
  were invalid. The PPRA anchor was no longer valid.
  
  iii) The ABEND9C6 abends occured in different address spaces
  (all primary OMVS). They were caused by BPXPRIN4 trying to
  release the PPRA latch and the latch token from PPRALATCHTOKEN
  was zero.
  
  Further analysis showed that the PPRA had been freed and a PPRT
  cell pool for address space x'0037' was later obtained in its
  place.
  
  The systrace showed that a SP(2) freemain had been issued by
  BPXNSKIL
  
  KNOWN IMPACT:
  Unpredictable abends will occur and an IPL is necessary to
  recover.
  
  VERIFICATION STEPS:
  If any of the listed abends occured and storage release for
  subpool 2 in the OMVS address space fails because storage had
  already been released, This APAR may apply.
  
  The PPRA resides in subpool 2.  Take the address of the PPRA
  from the OCVEPPRA and verify the "PPRA" eye catcher or content.
  If the eye catcher or some of the PPRA table is not valid this
  apar may apply.
  
  If the systrace shows a subpool 2 freemain in the OMVS address
  space from BPXNSKIL, this apar applies.  If the sp freemain
  trace entry is not found, this apar may still apply.  Following
  is what the storage release would look like:
  
                 BPXNSKIL+1E20  R7C0
  PC     ...  0  00_1AA88ED0 00311 Storage Release
  SSRV   133  00000000  00000203 00000000 00000000
  

Local fix

• RECOVERY ACTION:
  IPL
  

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
  * Users running z/OS UNIX System Services on                   *
  * z/OS V2R3 (HBB77D0) or above.                                *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
  * An overlay caused BPXNSKIL to attempt to send a signal to an *
  * empty process group. In this situation we erroneously obtain *
  * a zero-length buffer to snapshot member of the process       *
  * group. At the end of processing when we go to free the       *
  * buffer, the zero length results in freeing all of subpool 2. *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  * Install this PTF and dynamically activate the service to     *
  * improve z/OS UNIX reliability.                               *
  ****************************************************************
  

Problem conclusion

• Checks need to be improved to avoid the inadvertent freeing of
  subpool 2.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

  UJ08826

Modules/Macros

• BPXNSKIL
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  OPENMVS SYS SRV

• Fixed component ID

  5695SCPX1

Applicable component levels

• R7D0 PSY UJ08826

     UP22/07/20 P F207

Fix is available

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