4.11 - "No Server Base Licenses Installed" 1

[mikiec71]

Firstly, I must confess that I'm completely clueless when it comes to Novell. I joined my company about 4 yrs ago and they've had this Novell 4.11 server running a legacy system that, apart from having to reboot it ocassionally, hasn't given me too much grief. However, I came in today (Monday) to find that the server had frozen. When I tried to reboot it, it wouldn't do anything after the memory test.

I eventually narrowed the problem down to the motherboard and so hooked the scsi drives up to another pc (both Pentium II processors) and it booted up and appeared to work fine, although I didn't attach it to a network card. The original server had a network port on the motherboard whereas the replacement doesn't.

I subsequently replaced the old motherboard and processor with the working one and attached a network card (which was plugged into the old motherboard but not used).

However, now, when it starts to boot up, it asks for the Server Name and the IPX address. I know the server name but I haven't a clue what the IPX address was. Whatever I type in for IPX, I get the message "No Server Base Licenses Installed".

Is there any way of retrieving the original IPX address?

Thanks

EDIT: I tried the same thing without the Network Card attached and I now get the same problem. The message appears after it has loaded MAC.NAM

 

[JockMullin]

The symptoms you describe sound like the server has not successfully mounted the SYS volume.

The server boots from a DOS partition, which loads the server.exe module, which is the nucleus of the OS. Then it should mount the SYS volume in order to get the configuration information (and the licenses) from the first Novell partition, which contains the SYS volume.

Give it any name for the server. Give it a hex IPX address (such as '1' for the IPX address. You should then get to the server prompt on the console.

Then enter MOUNT SYS. This will give you an error message telling you why SYS won't mount.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Thanks Jock.

I did MOUNT SYS and the error I get is :-
There are no accessible disk drives with NetWare partitions
Check to see that the needed disk drives have been loaded, etc

The drives all listed on the SCSI test.. I've got a C: and a D: drive and then mirror drives of them. The only thing I can think of is that I might have changed something in the BIOS but then if it wasn't booting from one of these drives then surely I wouldn't even have got as far as this?

Any ideas?

 

[JockMullin]

What is the drive/controller setup exactly? Do you have 4 drives or just 2? What is the controller?

C: and D: sound like 2 copies of the boot partition on mirrored drives.

Are you sure you don't have the drives reversed? If the setup uses SCSI terminators they have to be on the last drive. Are you using the same SCSI controller as originally? You may have to load a different SCSI driver if not.

Double check your cabling/connectors.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

I have 4 SCSI drives attached to an Adaptec driver card. When I first set this up, it worked fine, so I can't see what might cause the problem, but I'll explain anyhow...

4 SCSA drives,
0 - C: (80h)
1 - D: (81h)
2 - (82h)
3 - (83h)

According to the physical labels on the drives themselves,
SCSI 0 - Vol 1 Sys Primary
SCSI 1 - Vol 1 Sys Mirror
SCSI 2 - Vol 2 Primary
SCSI 3 - Vol 2 Mirror

The terminator is attached to SCSI 0 and the lead is attached to the SCSI card from SCSI 3.

One other thing that might be worth mentioning is that they were attached to a SCSI port on the original motherboard, whereas now they are attached to a SCSI card as the replacement m/board doesn't have one. However, this SCSI card WAS attached to the original motherboard I should point out again, that this all worked fine, the first time I tried it in its current configuration. The only difference is that before, I had the replacement motherboard in one case and the drives in another, whereas now, the motherboard has been moved into the same case as the drives.

Sorry if that's confusing.

 

[JockMullin]

That setup looks OK.

You say the server booted OK previously on that same Adaptec controller, so the Novell SCSI disk driver must be OK for that controller, which must mean the onboard SCSI adapter on the original MB was compatible with the SCSI card you are using now.

Yet your symptom is what would happen if Novell was unable to access the sCSI drives due to a config problem or missing SCSI driver.

Can you see if there is a file on your C: drive called MONITOR.NLM and also look for one called INSTALL.NLM. Note the path to the directory containng them. Also look for files config.ncf (which should be there) and autoexec.ncf (which probably won't be unless your predecessor was farsighted).

Get the contents of those files and post them here, pls.

Meanwhile I am looking for NW4.11 docs around here because it has been years since I've done this and it's making my head hurt.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Thanks for your help Jock. I can't do a DIR on the C: drive and I don't know how to pause the screen messages... do you know how to do this? It scrolls off too quickly for me to read the messages. The other potential issues might be that the processor is now a PII 400 whereas it was a PII 266 and the memory is now 100 whereas it was 66 (MHz?) and it's now at 128Mb with 512Mb Cache - I don't know what it was previously as it doesn't say on the memory chips.

 

[JockMullin]

Once you get the server prompt, type DOWN and hit enter. Verify you really want to down the server, and when it tells you to, type EXIT and hit enter to return to DOS.

Then you should be in the directory where SERVER.EXE resides.
If the DOS prompt doesn't tell you the path, type PROMPT $P$G to make it do so.

Then cd \ and do a dir *.cfg /s /p to find the cfg files, which will most likely be in the same folder as server.exe. CD to the folder and TYPE the files to see what is in them.

Also do a dir *.nlm /s /p to find out which Netware loadable modules are available on the boot drive.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

OK, done that, but the files MONITOR.NLM, CONFIG.NCF & AUTOEXEC.NCF aren't there.

C:\NWSERVER is the directory where the SERVER files are kept.

However, there is a STARTUP.NCF. Here's the contents:-
LOAD C:\NWSERVER\PX411.NLM

SET RESERVED BUFFERS BELOW 16 MEG=200
SET MINIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS = 250

LOAD AIC7870.DSK SLOT=10002
LOAD AIC7870.DSK SLOT=4
LOAD MAC


I noticed that the PCI slot is different from the one I originally had the SCSI card plugged into and given that it's got a specific SLOT number in the STARTUP.NCF, I'm going to try it in the original slot and see if it makes any difference. Clutching at straws, perhaps, but worth a try.

 

[mikiec71]

OK, didn't make any difference, so I went into the SCSI BIOS settings and the Host Adapter SCSI ID is set to 7 - would that make any difference? I'm not going to change anything just yet.

Cheers for your help Jock!

 

[mikiec71]

Hallelujah!!!

OK, after doing a bit of digging, I discovered that the drivers I was using were quite old and that the SLOT Number wasn't necessary if you had the latest drivers, so I downloaded and installed them, and after taking out the SLOT Numbers from the STARTUP.NCF, it booted up! WOOHOO!!!

Only problem now is that it's not connected to the network.

The original motherboard had an RJ45 socket on-board but the replacement doesn't. I've got a network card plugged in which was also from the old m/board but obviously not used, so now I need to try and get it working.

But, after all that I've gone through in the past two days, I feel like this is a fairly simple challenge! I'll let you know in a bit, if it works

 

[JockMullin]

Excellent, you did what I was going to suggest. Sorry about mis-remembering the name of STARTUP.NCF.

Now the problem is you need the Novell drivers for the network card you are using, so you need to know exactly what it is.

At the server prompt LOAD INSTALL. This will bring up a menu and in there you should be able to find a way to edit AUTOEXEC.NCF which is located on SYS:\SERVER. This contains the commands which execute once SYS is mounted and that is where the drivers for the network card will be loaded. Look for lines with frame references in them such as:

load <drivername> SLOT-? FRAME=ETHERNET _802.# NAME=???
This will be followed by a BIND IPX TO <name> NET=#

To experiment you can just manually type the load command on the console (leave out the slot param & it will prompt you with a default) to see the errors. Most likely it will be device not found. If you get drivers for the card you do have, you can put them on the c: drive and just supply the path on C: in the load command to tell the OS where to find them, then once you get it working you can copy them to SYS later from a WS.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Good News and Bad News

I followed what you said and found the driver settings for the HP board had been commented out in the AUTOEXEC.NCF, so I 'uncommented' them and after a bit of fiddling, rebooted the server and have successfully connected to it! YIPPEE!!!

Now the bad news.... When I select some of the mapped drives in Windows, I get the message "O:\ is not accessible, The Network Name cannot be found".

However, I can access some of the other mapped drives OK.

The directories I can access all appear to be on NMC01 (the server) or NMC01\SYS or NMC01\VOL1. The ones I can't are on NMC01\Vol2. This is a real problem as that is where the files I need to access are held.

Any ideas?

 

[JockMullin]

Ok, so at the server command prompt type:
MOUNT VOL2 (I'm assuming that is the name of the second volume). It sounds like it is just not mounted.

IF ther is a problem, you will get an error message.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Just a bit more information... when I look at the Disk Information on the Console Monitor, it lists all four drives and shows their disk sizes.

However, only the first one shows as having partitions.

 

[mikiec71]

MOUNT VOL2 (I'm assuming that is the name of the second volume). It sounds like it is just not mounted."

OK, tried that and I get the messages:-
Volume VOL2 is missing segment 0
Volume VOL2 first segment (1) does not start at block 0
Definition for sync 1 of volume VOL2 removed
Definition for volume VOL2 is invalid
Volume VOL2 could NOT be mounted. Some or all volume segments cannot be located.

Could it be that the driver or the board is only pointing to the first drive and that's why it can't access the others?

 

[JockMullin]

I think it is more likely that when the server died some info from that volume was lost.

At the console, LOAD INSTALL. In that menu there is an item for disk and volume info, sorry I don't remember the exact terminology, and in there is an item for mirroring.

Look at what it says for the status of the mirrored partitions. It will likely be necessary to break the mirror and try to get the volume up unmirrored, which may require a repair. After that the bad volume segments can be deleted/reinstalled and remirrored, but you have to be very careful not to delete the wrong one!!!

Tell me you have good backups of the data on this volume!!
You must proceed very carefully with this or you risk losing the entire volume.

Unfortunately I don't have Netware 4 docs available here - I only have 1 cust left running 4 and they are not nearby.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Unfortunately for me, as Murphy's law would dictate, the backups don't appear to have been working properly for some time now.

However, the most important stuff is on Vol1 and I'll do a full backup of that tonight. It's a legacy system which I really want to move off Novell so I've got an inkling of what I'm doing with it! The stuff on Vol 2 is mostly pretty old and is backed-up. The only awkward thing is that I've used Vol 2 as a temporary job archive which would be awkward if I lost it, but not the end of the world.

I'll do the full backup tonight before I try anything else.

Are you based in the US, Jock?

 

[JockMullin]

Hi again

Further to my last, I located Novell docs online. You might want to look at this link:

http://www.novell.com/documentation/nw4/docui/index.html#../superenu/data/homigz03.html

In particular look at the section on Vrepair.

At the console prompt: LOAD VREPAIR VOL2
accept the default settings and see what happens.
Note vrepair only writes changes to the disk after prompting you, so there is no danger in letting it analyze the situation. On the other hand it shouuld normally have run automatically when the volume failed to mount during normaal startup.

However it will help to know what it has to say.

Jock

 

[mikiec71]

Hi Jock,

I'm running the backup on VOL1 and SYS at the moment and I won't be touching it until I know I've got that nice and safe. I also want to do some testing to see if I can run the legacy system from an NT server.

Don't know whether I'm just being naively optimistic here, but the server doesn't recognise the other partitions on the other three disks, two of which are mirrors, which suggests to me that maybe the driver is only accessing the first one. However, it does show all four drives. I can understand one of the drives failing, but all three at once???!!! The messages from the server all point to it being a driver problem.

I'm UK based, so I'm off home soon. Thanks for all your help, Jock No doubt I'll be in contact again tomorrow