problem with duplicating a database

I would appreciate some help in sorting out a problem duplicating a database on a second machine. We have a financial application which uses Informix's C-ISAM file system and comprises a large number of data and index files. The live database resides on a Sun clone at one of our sites. The entire database is tar'd and compressed each night, transferred (ftp) to a DECstation running ULTRIX at another of our sites. The reasoning here is that we can provide local users with a better service and reduce the load on the WAN and the Sun. Local users want only read access. On the DECstation the transferred file is uncompressed and (un)tar'd. However,the database is unusable until two utilities are run - fixisamver, and bcheck.Both these utilities appear to be Informix's, especially the bcheck which generates a copyright header. The fixisamver changes the ISAM version to 2 but does not generate a header. Recently, the bcheck run has blown out from about 4 hours to 9-12 hours (somewhat variable). The main problem seems to be a large GL and a large project costing file (+ index) generate numerous errors resulting in their being rebuilt - taking 4.25 & 3.75hrs, respectively. Running bcheck on the Sun originals shows no errors. The transfer files give identical check sums on both machines. The versions of bcheck are 4.00.UH1 on the Sun and 4.10.UE1 on the DECstation. Neither Informix installation has been upgraded recently, according to the application developers. (It is possible that errors have been generated on smaller files for some time, except that we have not been logging them.) I have noticed that there are quite a number of files now generating these errors. A typical list of errors is (from the GL file): bad index node pointers bad data record pointers missing data record pointers index out of order bad b-tree node format duplicate index node pointers and so on - reads like a hypochondriac's complaint list!! If anyone has seen this problem and/or has some ideas for us to pursue I would appreciate hearing from them. Please mail me direct to save news spool space - one long-winded explanation is enough. Paul. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Lloyd cpl@resmel.bhp.com.au Computer Services Supervisor Ph: +61-3-566-7375 BHP Research - Melbourne Laboratories or +61-3-560-7066 PO Box 264 Fax: +61-3-561-6709 Rosebank MDC Clayton VIC 3169 Disclaimer: "All opinions are my own"