ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function

Well, I've got a slight problem. First, this is our test machine. I had a dbspace go bad which was not mirrored. This dbspace had an unimportant db so I attempted to drop the db. However on attempting to drop the db, I could not. It gave me errors. After several attempts at trying to drop the dbspace or the db, I did an over-ride & it 'seemed' to be OK. I was then able to drop the dbspace but still cannot drop the db. All the db's on the machine look fine, except this one. If i try to drop the db I get the following: 311: Cannot open system catalog (systables). 102: ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function.and now I guess the systables are messed up. I even created a new dbspace with the same name as the old, but not good either.... I cannot do an oncheck -pe but all others look fine. I attempted to go back in time & restore my data, but I got an error there also. 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 XBSA Error (BSAGetObject): A system error occurred. Ab orting XBSA session. 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 Due to the previous error, logical restore will not be attempted. 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 /home/informix/bin/onbar_d: process exit 3 (0x03) OK, any suggestions???

Well I guess there is info aboutthe database in the rootdbs. that info in the rootdbs is saying data for the database lives in dbspace x however dbspace x doesn't exist anymore I would suggest you restore the dbspace from archive drop the database then drop the dbspace Robin wrote: > Well, I've got a slight problem. > First, this is our test machine. I had a dbspace go bad which was not > mirrored. > This dbspace had an unimportant db so I attempted to drop the db. > However on attempting to drop the db, I could not. It gave me errors. > After several attempts at trying to drop the dbspace or the db, I did > an over-ride & it 'seemed' to be OK. I was then able to drop the > dbspace but still cannot drop the db. All the db's on the machine look > fine, except this one. If i try to drop the db I get the following: > 311: Cannot open system catalog (systables). > 102: ISAM error: illegal argument to ISAM function.> and now I guess the systables are messed up. > I even created a new dbspace with the same name as the old, but not > good either.... > I cannot do an oncheck -pe but all others look fine. I attempted to go > back in time & restore my data, but I got an error there also. > 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 XBSA Error (BSAGetObject): A system > error occurred. Ab > orting XBSA session. > 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 Due to the previous error, logical > restore will not be > attempted. > 2005-05-18 13:50:18 6608 6606 /home/informix/bin/onbar_d: process > exit 3 (0x03) > > OK, any suggestions???

A couple questions. How do you restore a dbspace from a point in time? I use onbar. Since it is no longer there & I took another backup since I dropped it, I can't just use onbar -r. I've tried restoring the entire instance from the backup but then I get error messages. Should I try a different date? Any help would be appreciated. Or can I easily drop the sysmaster & restore it? Or is that too drastic?