Ontape --- out of disk space

I am getting an error from our ontape level 0 backups. The error message reads "ISAM error --- no free disk space". During the backups, there is quite a bit of database activity (inserts, deletes, updates). I believe that this error is caused by ontape having to preserve changed log pages in a temporary space while it is running. I think this defaults to DBSPACETEMP. Is there any way to make ontape use a Unix filesystem for these temporary files rather than the temp dbspaces. Or, is the only solution to increase the size of the temp dbspaces, or possibly create another temp dbspace ( I already have 3 size at 500 MB, 500 MB, and 200 MB). ___________________________________________________________ Jay Aymond EXE Technologies jay_aymond@exe.com

Look at the IDS Admin Guide, under Configuration Parameters, under DBSPACETEMP. It will list the order in which temporary space environment parameters are scanned to determine space availability. You can also set DBSPACETEMP at the environment level to override the contents of the ONCONFIG parameter. You may also want to investigate DBTEMP. There are some notes on the http://www.iiug,org website that suggests that using hard disks for sorts instead of using DBSPACETEMP may actually be faster. Has anyone researched this any further, in a large environment such as the one mentioned by Jay? Take care. Clifton Jay Aymond <jay_aymond@exe.com> wrote in message news:37a33c90.10251009@netnews.worldnet.att.net... > I am getting an error from our ontape level 0 backups. The error message reads > "ISAM error --- no free disk space". > > During the backups, there is quite a bit of database activity (inserts, deletes, > updates). I believe that this error is caused by ontape having to preserve > changed log pages in a temporary space while it is running. I think this > defaults to DBSPACETEMP. > > Is there any way to make ontape use a Unix filesystem for these temporary files > rather than the temp dbspaces. Or, is the only solution to increase the size of > the temp dbspaces, or possibly create another temp dbspace ( I already have 3 > size at 500 MB, 500 MB, and 200 MB). > > > ___________________________________________________________ > Jay Aymond > EXE Technologies > jay_aymond@exe.com >

You do not specify what version of IDS you are using so you may have one of two problems: Either you do not have enough total tempspace in all tempdbs's or you do not have large enough tempdbs's. If you have 7.3x then the former is definitely the problem and you can either add more space to each tempdbs (keep them about even) or add an additional tempdbs. If you have 7.[12]x you may be running out of space in only one tempdbs. In 7.2x the onarchive thread creates a temp table for each dbspace to hold that space's physical log pre-images of pages modified during the archive round robin across the tempdbspaces each table in only one tempdbspace. These tables live until the ENTIRE archive is completed. Since the tables are created round robin it is possible for the two or three busiest dbspaces' temp tables to be created in the same tempdbs and therefore for that one to fill up while there is plenty of space left in the others. For 7.2x then you want, for archive safety, to have fewer larger tempdbspaces, ideally only one, to reduce this problem. This is, of course, not ideal for any sorts that use the tempdbspaces and perform best with at least three tempdbspaces. In 7.3x Informix fixed this problem. All of the temp tables are fragmented across all of the temp dbspaces and each table is dropped as soon as the archive of its dbspace is completed and its contents have been dumped out to tape. For both these reasons it is better to have more smaller tempdbspaces in 7.3x which is also good for optimizing sorts that use the tempdbspaces. It is always a good idea to post version and platform information. At least so the responses you have to wade through will be shorter. Art S. Kagel Jay Aymond wrote: > > I am getting an error from our ontape level 0 backups. The error message reads > "ISAM error --- no free disk space". > > During the backups, there is quite a bit of database activity (inserts, deletes, > updates). I believe that this error is caused by ontape having to preserve > changed log pages in a temporary space while it is running. I think this > defaults to DBSPACETEMP. > > Is there any way to make ontape use a Unix filesystem for these temporary files > rather than the temp dbspaces. Or, is the only solution to increase the size of > the temp dbspaces, or possibly create another temp dbspace ( I already have 3 > size at 500 MB, 500 MB, and 200 MB). > > ___________________________________________________________ > Jay Aymond > EXE Technologies > jay_aymond@exe.com