Return ClearCase systemd startup to original behavior

Troubleshooting

Problem

As documented in Known Issue DT245878, when systemd starts ClearCase on Linux, the albd server would not start if MVFS failed to load for any reason.

Because albd may be needed for other machines to work, we changed the systemd startup script to allow albd to start even when MVFS fails do load.

If the new behavior causes any problem, it is possible to return to the old behavior.

Symptom

The albd daemon starts even when MVFS cannot be loaded.

Cause

We changed the systemd startup script to allow albd to always start.

Environment

Any Linux with systemd.

Diagnosing The Problem

Run

$ journalctl -xeu clearcase

Observe an output similar to this:

Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ClearCase is stopped
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: Starting ClearCase
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ClearCase daemons: albd_server
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358999]: modprobe: FATAL: Module mvfs not found in directory /lib/modules/6.12.0-55.9.1.el10_0.x86_64
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: MVFS is needed but the installation for this kernel and ClearCase version was already tried and>
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: Loading the MVFS was unsuccessful(8:2)
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: /usr/bin/clearcase.systemd: Loading MVFS failed
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ---- Please review /var/log/messages for information on the problem.
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ---- You may need to rebuild your kernel, rebuild your mvfs module,
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ---- and reboot your system. Information on how to do this can be found in
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ---- your Release Notes and file /var/adm/clearcase/mvfs/mvfs_src/README.txt.
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: Cannot load MVFS, continuing without dynamic/automatic views
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver clearcase.systemd[358969]: ClearCase is started
Jan 01 12:34:56 myserver systemd[1]: Started clearcase.service - Start ClearCase services.

You can also see the albd process running:

$ ps -C albd_server
PID TTY TIME CMD
359311 ? 00:00:00 albd_server

Resolving The Problem

Run the following command on the affected machine:

$ sudo touch /var/adm/rational/clearcase/no_mvfs_is_error_tag

Try to start ClearCase, if the MVFS driver cannot be loaded, you will see an error message:

$ sudo systemctl start clearcase
Job for clearcase.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status clearcase.service" and "journalctl -xeu clearcase.service" for details.

The albd daemon will not be running:

$ ps -C albd_server
PID TTY TIME CMD

To return to the default behavior allowing the albd_server to run without MVFS, just remove the tag file and restart ClearCase:

$ sudo rm /var/adm/rational/clearcase/no_mvfs_is_error_tag
$ sudo systemctl restart clearcase

Related Information

How to rebuild MVFS

How to update MVFS

Document Location

Worldwide

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