How do I cancel faxes in the VSIFAX queue?

Many times it’s quicker to cancel faxes from the VSI-FAX queue in AIX, Linux or Windows instead of from the Eclipse outgoing fax status queue.

To cancel all faxes for a certain user (for example, johndoe):

vfxcancel -u johndoe "*"

To locate the job number and cancel a single fax (for example, job number 1234):

vfxstat
vfxcancel 1234
For more information on the many VSIFAX administration command functions, see the VSI-FAX Reference Addendum.

How to Purge the Outgoing Fax Queue

If the outgoing fax queue has old and/or stale information, it may be necessary to purge this queue.  To do this, open two separate sessions: one Eterm session logged into the Eclipse application, and an SSH root session. This is an advanced procedure, so proceed at your own risk or call Eclipse for assistance. This should be done after all valid faxes have gone out as it will clear EVERYTHING in the outgoing queue.

From Eterm’s main menu, press F2 -> T (TCL)
At the ; prompt, type in this command:

;clear.file.real fax.queue

After you hit ENTER, the session will most likely hang for a while, because there will be a lock on the file. Now, from the root session, find the Process ID for FAX.FEEDBACK3 with this command:

ps -ef | grep FAX

The Process ID (PID) will be the first set of number on the line with FAX.FEEDBACK3. For example:

[root@eclipse enp]# ps -ef | grep FAX
eclipseB  7248 29271  0 11:32 ?        00:00:01 phantom PHW FAX.FEEDBACK3
root     11469  7149  0 11:57 pts/2    00:00:00 grep FAX

Kill that process with this command:

kill -4 7248

The outgoing fax queue should now be clear and the fax feedback phantom should automatically start within 1 minute.

Type “exit” to close the root session and hit “ESC” to exit the TCL screen.

How do I modify my Linux tape backup script to send its logs via email?

It’s prudent to make a backup copy before editing system files. This prevents having to restore a file from tape, and allows you to track changes.
    • Log in as root
    • Open the backup script for editing:
vim /u2/UTILS/bin/snapsave.cfg
    • Find the MAILLIST value, and add any additional email addresses, separated by commas, like so:
MAILLST='root,itadmin@mycompany.com'
  • Save and quit

Related: How do I forward root’s mail to another address?

How do I enable the UniRPC daemon?

Installation

  • Check /etc/services file for an existing entry:
grep 31438 /etc/services
  • If it doesn’t exist, add the necessary line to the /etc/services file manually, or using the commands below:
uvrpc           31438/tcp                       # uvNet rpc port
cp /etc/services /etc/services.`date +%Y%m%d.%H%M%S`
echo "uvrpc           31438/tcp                       # uvNet rpc port" >> /etc/services
  • Start the UniRPC daemon manually:
/u2/unishared/unirpc/unirpcd
  • The UniRPC daemon will start automatically on future boots from the main UniVerse startup script

Troubleshooting

  • Telnet to the local server on port 31438 and make sure there’s a response
[root@firestorm ~]# telnet localhost 31438
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain (127.0.0.1).
Escape character is '^]'.

^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed.
  • Check for the unirpcd process
ps -ef|grep unirpcd

How do I view my Eclipse tape backup logs on Linux?

The standard tape backup script keeps a number of log files that are accessible to the system administrator. To view the log files, log into your server as root and run the following commands. You may also configure the backup script to send an email every time the backup is run.

/tmp/backup.err contains the output from the tape backup command

cat /tmp/backup.err

The log for a successful tape backup will show output similar to the following, which indicates that 12 GB of data was backed up.

Total bytes written: 12501135360 (12GiB, 5.4MiB/s)

/tmp/backup.chk contains the start and stop timestamps for the tape backup operation

cat /tmp/backup.chk

The following log file indicates the backup ran for 30 minutes.

Backup started at: Mon Feb 22 21:00:05 EST 2010
Backup ended at: Mon Feb 22 21:30:11 EST 2010

/tmp/snapsave.log logs database suspension and snapshot operations:

cat /tmp/snapsave.log

This log file shows whether successful snapshot and/or backup processes took place, and details the database and snapshot operations taking place. This is very useful for troubleshooting backup issues.

The following excerpt from snapsave.log is an example of a successful tape backup:

Mon Dec 12 20:00:02 EST 2011: Starting tape backup to /dev/st0
Mon Dec 12 21:33:11 EST 2011: Checking Snapshot:
  LV       VG     Attr   LSize   Origin   Snap%  Move Log Copy%  Convert
  lvol0    datavg swi-ao 512.00M u2         6.73                        
  lvol1    datavg swi-ao   4.25G pdw        0.33                        
  lvol2    datavg swi-ao   5.76G eclipse    9.42                        
  lvol3    datavg swi-ao 512.00M ereports   0.21                        
Mon Dec 12 21:33:11 EST 2011: Ending tape backup to /dev/st0