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How to terminate processes in NetWare 5

By komp ·
I'm running a NetWare 5 server (no SPs applied yet) with 8 XP clients. All is very stable except for one issue. Imagine this scenario:

1. User "A"'s computer crashes, forcing a reboot without proper logoff.
2. When "A" logs back on after a reboot, he cannot access his files because his previous connection (now a ghost) is still there with files still open.
3. The admin then goes to the server console's Monitor, sees "A"'s ghost connection, and tries to remove it.
4. The Monitor stops responding.
5. The admin then Alt-Esc his way to the Console screen and tries to down or restart the server.
6. The server complains that files are still open and asked admin to confirm shutdown.
7. Admin hit's "y", and the server goes dead while trying to dismount volumes.
8. Seeing there's no other way, the admin reaches for the 'reset' button...

So is there a better way to resolve this issue, like killing/restarting a dead process (in this case the Monitor) or something?

Please help.

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by pgm554 In reply to How to terminate processe ...

Sounds like opportunistic locking issue.
You need to apply the service packs first.

Set Client File Caching Enabled = OFF this will disable opportunistic locking on the server side. NetWare 5 only setting with Service packs.
This setting is found in Monitor.nlm under Server parameters / NCP
This will resolve the server utilization problems and workstation hangs if they are being caused by opportunistic locking. No degredation in the workstation response time has been reported when this has been turned off.

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by pgm554 In reply to

Unlike Windows, Novell really doesn't have a task manager that can shut down individual processes (threads).
Windows is pre-emptive multitasking, while Novell is non-pre-emptive multitasking (in NW5.x and below).An NLM, when properly written, is a thing of beauty.However, when it is poorly written, can cause great problems (because it works at ring 0 of the kernel).

For your particular problem, you can go into monitor and look for open files and shut them down.
This problem with opportunistic locking only occurs on NT 4.0 machines and above.
WIN 3.x-ME aren?t affected.
Novell has been fixing this one a long time (since 5 came out).

So be wary of this on all of the newer builds of Novell(even 6.5).

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by komp In reply to

Poster rated this answer.

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by komp In reply to How to terminate processe ...

Thanks pgm554 for the tip, I will start downloading service packs as soon as I get back to work (this will take a while as I'm on dial up).

While I'm at it, does anyone know how to terminate processes under NetWare? Sort of like the task manager in Windows where you can see all running processes and kill them as you wish.

I ask this because in my case, everything is still functioning except Monitor.nlm. If I could just kill it then I wouldn't have to go for a hardware reset and just shutdown normally instead (better for the server).

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by grbeckmeyer In reply to How to terminate processe ...

As far as shutting down processes, type 'modules' at the console prompt to see a list of all running NLMs. You can try typing 'unload modulename', but in many cases they have to be unloaded from the particular NLMs screen. I doubt it is actually monitor holding the file open, it is just showing you what files are open. There are two other things to try if a normal down fails. 1 - Hit ctrl-alt-esc and select the option to down the server. If that fails, you can try shift-shift-alt-esc (note that you need to use both shift keys, this ones a finger stretcher). This should take you into debug mode, from there you type Q and enter and that should drop you back to a DOS prompt. This is not much better than a cold reset as it does not 'clean up' the system before shutting down.

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by komp In reply to

Thanks guys, I should be able to apply my service pack by tomorrow. And thanks grbeckmeyer for your tip on shutting down processes and the way to debug mode. I'm sure I will benefit from it. :)

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by komp In reply to How to terminate processe ...

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