I believe dsmserv.dsk only has to point to one valid dbvol or logvol,
though typically it has all of them listed.  Each log/dbvol volume contains
a full list of all the volumes used by the server.  When the server starts
up, it looks in dsmserv.dsk to find a valid volume, then reads the entire
list of volumes from one of the log/dbvols and attempts to bring them all
online.

This is my understanding of how things work, based on some conversations I
had years ago after our database was corrupted and we had to recover it.

Thus, if your dsmserv.dsk did not have any legitimate log/dbvols in it,
your server would not be able to startup.  I cannot explain why deleting
this file remedied your situation.
..Paul


At 10:22 PM 2/17/2008, Steven Harris wrote:

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the REAL startup check is?

--
Paul Zarnowski                            Ph: 607-255-4757
Manager, Storage Services                 Fx: 607-255-8521
719 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-3801    Em: psz1 AT cornell DOT edu