client process waits for all eternity

Hello,

I've encountered the following problem: One of our adsm clients
(2.1.0.6, running on AIX 4.1.4.0) seems to 'wait' forever when
it encounters a database file that is constantly in use by a
database server process. Eventually the connection with the server
times out, but the client is still waiting and doesn't continue with
the backup.

When I do a 'backup by file specification' from the GUI nothing
happens. Not a single byte is being transferred to tape and the
client waits until I abort the backup. At this point the backup
can't be aborted by clicking on the 'stop' button. The only way
to abort the process is to exit the GUI.

According to the user of the database the server process has a
lock on the database file all the time.

An obvious solution would be to EXCLUDE the database file from
backup since a backup of a running database is inconsistent anyway.
I've already used this solution, but I'm still curious what is going
wrong here. It is my understanding that adsm skips an open file
instead of waiting until the end of time.

I've done some little tests by trying to back up a file that was
used for read/write operations by a C-program, but adsm simply
skipped the file instead of waiting forever.

I don't have much information on the database system that
is being used. It is some kind of experimental system used
for research purposes.

Has anyone seen this kind of behaviour before?

Regards,

Alexander

(running ADSM V2.1.0.12 on a SP2 (AIX 4.1.4.0) using 3494 with 4 3590 units,
 backup/archive client's 2.1.0.6 on AIX 3.2, AIX 4.1.4, SunOs, Solaris,
 IRIX, Win95, WinNT, HSM client 2.1.0.6 on AIX 4.1.4.0)

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* Alexander Verkooijen     * SARA                  *
* Systems Programmer       * Academic Computing    *
* alexander AT sara DOT nl        * Services Amsterdam    *
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