Status Code: 11                                                                                            Top

Message: system call failed

Explanation: A system call failed. This status code is used for a generic system call failure that does not have its own status code.

Recommended Action:

1.      Check the All Log Entries and Problems reports to determine which system call failed and other information about the error.

2.      A frequent cause is that the server's file system is full. For example, if you see a message similar to the following in the Problems report or bpdbm activity log:

06/27/95 01:04:00 romb romb db_FLISTsend failed: system call failed (11)

06/27/95 01:04:01 romb romb media manager terminated by parent process

06/27/95 01:05:15 romb romb backup of client romb exited with status 11 (system call failed)

On UNIX systems, run a df command on the /usr/openv/netbackup/db directory.

If the df command does not reveal the problem, check the bpdbm activity logs or do a grep for the message system call failed

in /usr/openv/netbackup/db/error/*

On Windows NT systems, verify there is room in the disk partition where NetBackup is installed.

3.      Verify that the system is not running out of virtual memory. If virtual memory is the problem, shut down unused applications or increase the amount of virtual memory.

To increase virtual memory on Windows NT, 98, and 95:

a.       Display the Control Panel.

b.      Double-click System.

c.       On the Performance tab, set Virtual Memory to a higher value.

4.      Check for a semaphore problem. This error can be caused by the system not having enough semaphores allocated. This is most commonly seen on Solaris 2 servers when an RDBMS is also running.

The symptoms of the problem vary. In some cases, error messages in the NetBackup log indicate a backup failure due to an error in semaphore operation; another symptom is the inability of the NetBackup Device Manager service Media Manager device daemon, ltid, to acquire a needed semaphore (this is the NetBackup Device Manager service on Windows NT).

System requirements vary; thus, no absolute recommendations can be made. One customer running both NetBackup and ORACLE on their Solaris server made the following changes to their /etc/system file and then rebooted the system (boot -r); the changes were found to be adequate:

set semsys:seminfo_semmni=300
set semsys:seminfo_semmns=300
set semsys:seminfo_semmsl=300
set semsys:seminfo_semmnu=600

Set these attributes to a value great enough to provide resources to all applications on your system.

5.      Check for a shared memory problem. This error can occur if the system cannot allocate enough shared memory. This usually occurs when you use multiplexing, which increases the shared memory requirements. A symptom is an entry similar to the following in a NetBackup log (or report) could not allocate enough shared memory

If you see this type of message, refer to the vendor documentation for your platform for instructions on increasing the amount of shared memory on your system.

Because system requirements vary, we can make no absolute recommendations, other than to use values great enough to provide resources to all applications. Although, in at least one instance, the following was found to be adequate on a Sun platform:

set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=8388608
set shmsys:shminfo_shmmin=1
set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni=100
set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg=10
set semsys:seminfo_semmnu=600
set semsys:seminfo_semmns=300

After making the changes to the /etc/system file on the Sun platform and rebooting with boot -r, the problem was resolved. Note that in the above, shminfo_shmmin must be less than or equal to 100 for NetBackup processes to run.

6.      Examine other activity logs or the progress log on the client.

7.      If a backup on a Windows NT NetBackup client fails with status code 11 and the client is using Open Transaction Manager (OTM) for open file management, it is possible that the error was caused by the OTM cache file being full. If this is the case and bpbkar activity logs are turned on, a message similar to the following should appear at the end of the backup:

04/28/99 11:27:56 AM: [216]: ERR - OTM Error:0xe0001005
04/28/99 11:27:59 AM: [216]: INF - OTM Terminate - disabled for all processes
04/28/99 11:27:59 AM: [216]: FTL - Backup operation aborted!

If this error is encountered, you may need to increase either the initial OTM cache size or the maximum OTM cache size, depending on the requirements of your installation and your usage of OTM.