ALARMPROGRAM modified on start up

I've got an unusual problem with a 14.10.FC2IE site where on start up the ALARMPROGRAM is being modify from $INFORMIXDIR/etc/alarmprogram.sh to $INFORMIXDIR/etc/no_log.sh. This is resulting in the logical logs not being backed up automatically. 07:39:03 Onconfig parameter ALARMPROGRAM modified from /opt/informix/etc/no_log.sh to /opt/informix/etc/alarmprogram.sh. # onstat -g cfg full ALARMPROGRAM IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 14.10.FC2IE -- On-Line -- Up 01:13:39 -- 4734960 KbytesConfiguration Parameter Info id name type maxlen units rsvd tunable 133 ALARMPROGRAM CHAR 257 * * default : $INFORMIXDIR/etc/no_log.sh onconfig: /opt/informix/etc/alarmprogram.sh current : /opt/informix/etc/alarmprogram.sh Description: Use the ALARMPROGRAM configuration parameter to display event alarms. Has anyone come across this before or any ideas why this is happening? Regards, ------------------------------ Greg Bunting ------------------------------

Greg: I don't see the problem. The output you posted shows that the ALARMPROGRAM was changed to alarmprogram.sh and the onstat -g cfg clearly shows that that is the current setting. If this is an upgrade or new install, did you make the change to alarmprogam.sh to enable log backups: BACKUPLOGS=Y Art ------------------------------ Art S. Kagel, President and Principal Consultant ASK Database Management Corp. www.askdbmgt.com ------------------------------

Hi Art, Yes, this is a tried and tested alarmprogram.sh with BACKUPLOGS=Y. If I run '$INFORMIXDIR/etc/alarmprogram.sh 2 23' the logs are backed up. If I do an 'onmode -l' the log file shows that the backup is aborted by client: 13:44:13 Logical Log 558 Complete, timestamp: 0x1745ec0e. 13:44:13 Logical Log 557 - Backup Started 13:44:13 Logical Log 557 - Backup Aborted Aborted by client. We are using ontape to back up to disk. The permissions on ontape look ok to me: # ls -l /opt/informix/bin/ontape -rwsr-sr-x. 1 root informix 6983232 Aug 20 2019 /opt/informix/bin/ontape Thanks, ------------------------------Greg Bunting ------------------------------

When I see this behavior, it is normally because the environment (sometimes PATH) was not set correctly when Informix was started. I sometimes put commands at the start of alarmprogram.sh to output the environment to a file, and include something like "which ontape" to make sure that the backup command is found. ------------------------------ Mike Walker xDB Systems, Inc www.xdbsystems.com ------------------------------

Hello Greg, I think your device should have 660 permissions and owner and group should be informix Milan Rafaj Infrastructure Architects & Specialists Teamleader Kyndryl Consult +420 737 264 248

The sequence of messages you're describing indicates your alarmprogram.sh is getting called and is executing your ontape which then does attempt a log backup. 13:44:13 Logical Log 557 - Backup Started 13:44:13 Logical Log 557 - Backup Aborted Aborted by client. What would you get when running 'ontape -a' manually? ------------------------------ Andreas Legner ------------------------------

Greg: As Mike said, it might be that the environment that oninit was started in was incomplete, possibly with a bad PATH. You can query sysmaster:sysenv to find out what the server's environment looks like: > select * from sysenv where env_name in ('PATH','INFORMIXDIR','ONCONFIG');env_id 23 env_name INFORMIXDIR env_value /opt/informix/infmx env_id 40 env_name ONCONFIG env_value onconfig.elendil env_id 42 env_name PATH env_value /opt/informix/infmx/bin:/home/informix/bin:/opt/informix/infmx/bin:/ usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/gam es:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin 3 row(s) retrieved. A bad setting for ONCONFIG is unlikely as the engine would not start up properly, but, those are the environment vars that I commonly check when something weird is happening. Art ------------------------------ Art S. Kagel, President and Principal Consultant ASK Database Management Corp. www.askdbmgt.com ------------------------------

Hi Art, This is what I get back from the query: env_id 23 env_name INFORMIXDIR env_value /opt/informix env_id 40 env_name ONCONFIG env_value onconfig.electra_1410ids env_id 42 env_name PATH env_value /opt/informix/bin:/opt/informix/extend/krakatoa/jre/bin:/usr/local/s bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin Thanks, ------------------------------ Greg Bunting ------------------------------

Hi Andreas, Where I run 'ontape -a' manually it completes successfully. Also when I run the alarm program ($INFORMIXDIR/etc/alarmprogram.sh 2 23) that completes as expected as well. Regards, ------------------------------ Greg Bunting ------------------------------

Thanks everyone for your input with this. I have managed to find the issue by preventing the removal of the temporary mail files: Logical Log 563 Complete, timestamp: 0x1773c7b4. /opt/informix/bin/backup_filter.sh: line 1: cd: /opt/informix/etc/.openssl: Permission denied function write_to_filter failed code -1 errno 0 'ontape -a -d' has been executed and returned CODE=0 It appears that the .openssl file had 'root' user ownership - changing this to be owned by 'informix' resolved the issue. Thanks again. ------------------------------ Greg Bunting ------------------------------