Persistent vs. Non-Persistent SET Parameters in NetWare 5 and 6
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Information Document #2946850
01 Mar 2002
NetWare 5 and 6 servers keep their SET parameters in a database using the NetWare Configuration Database Engine (CDBE). This has similar functionality to the registry used by Windows systems (3.x, 95, 98, NT, etc.). The CDBE stores changes and settings in the SERVCFG.000 file that is located on the server boot directory (normally in the C:\NWSERVER directory).
When you make any changes to the SET parameters through either the MONITOR utility or through the NetWare Remote Manager utility, these changes are made to the CDBE settings in memory, but the changes are only written to disk when the server is "gracefully" DOWNed. You can force changes SET parameter settings to write to disk (called flushing) by using the following command at the server console prompt:
flush cdbe <Enter>
This will write the changes to the SERVCFG.000 file located on C:\NWSERVER (or wherever the server boot directory is located).
Note: When the NetWare 5 Service Pack 1 is installed, the settings in the SERVCFG.000 will be lost. Part of the NetWare 5 Service Pack 1 contains fixes to prevent this from happening in the future, but for this patch, all server SET parameters that are modified from their default settings will need to be redone.
All SET parameters must register with the SETPARM engine and when a SET parameter registers with the engine, it declares itself with a "persistent" or "non-persistent" attribute. Modified SET parameters with a persistent attribute are placed in the SERVCFG.000 file to be used the next time the server is brought up. To get a list of all of the non-persistent SET parameters, type the following command at the server console prompt:
save notper environment filename.ext <Enter>
This command saves non-persistent parameters to whatever filename plus extension that you place in the command. (Note that <filename.ext> does not allow for drive or path names to be given.) The file is created at the root of volume SYS. You can then view the file with any text editor to see which SET parameters are non-persistent.
To get a list of all of the persistent SET parameters, type the following on the server command line:
save per environment <filename.ext>
If non-persistent SET parameters need to be set to a value other than the default and you want them to behave as if they are persistent, they must be set in the appropriate NCF file (such as the STARTUP.NCF, the AUTOEXEC.NCF, or a created .NCF file that is called through the AUTOEXEC.NCF file).
Other SET Parameter Console Commands of Interest
To see all SET parameters and their values, type the following command at the server console prompt:
display environment
To see all of the SET parameters that are set different from default type, type:
display modified environment
To save all of the SET parameters to a file in the root of volume SYS, type:
save environment filename.ext
To save all of the SET parameters that have been changed to a file in the root of volume SYS, type:
save modified environment filename.ext
To save Non-Persistent SET parameters that have been changed to a file in the root of volume SYS, type:
save notper environment filename.txt
To save Persistent SET parameters that have been changed to a file in the root of volume SYS, type:
save per environment filename.txt
To force a save of Persistent SET parameters to the SERVCFG.000 file, type:
flush CDBE
All of the save command that you use to generate text files have the same format; they will include the SET parameters from 16 categories in NetWare 5.x (these categories have changed some in NetWare 6). For example, output from the "save modified environment filename.txt" command will show all sections, but only those SET parameters that have been modified from the default settings are displayed under the category heads.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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