When an Object Goes Bad
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Mar 1999
Q.
Dear Ab-end: I have NetWare 4.11. When I do an NLIST on USER=* looking for a container, I always get an error message: "FD77" at the same user. I have tried running DSREPAIR, but it isn't finding anything wrong. What does this mean? And how can I fix it?
—Upset in Utica
A.
Dear Upset: From your description, it appears as though you may have a corrupt object that needs to be deleted and recreated. According to a TID published on Jan 9, 1998, the FD77 error code, when generated by an NLIST, means "an unexpected error occurred." While that may not be very helpful, here are some possibilities for what may be causing the problem:
Some third-party objects in NDS will create a new revision entry every time the object is "touched" (accessed, modified, and so on). All Novell-created NDS objects maintain one revision entry. If the object allows multiple revisions, then an object might have several thousand entries. This would exceed the default buffer of 4100.
The object is corrupted is such a manner that the attributes list exceeds 4100. For example, the attributes links could have somehow created a loop so that Attribute 1 points to Attribute 2 which points back to Attribute 1. If this occurs, the same entries are read over and over again until the buffer overflows. Running DSREPAIR would reduce the revisions to one.
With that said, here are some possible solutions:
Run a full, unattended DSREPAIR on the servers holding the container's NDS partition (in other words, the servers holding an NDS replica for the partition that stores the container that the NLIST was being run against).
Run a LANalyzer (or other protocol trace software) trace to determine which object in the NLIST is generating the error and then either delete/recreate the object or attempt to repair the object.
Building a Bigger Raid System
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.