disk reinit

Syntax

disk reinit 
	name = "device_name", 
	physname = "physicalname" , 
	[vdevno = virtual_device_number ,]
	size = number_of_blocks 
	[, vstart = virtual_address 
		, cntrltype = controller_number]
		[, dsync = {true | false}]
	[, directio = {true | false}]
	[, instance = "instance_name"]

Parameters

• name – is the name of the database device, which must conform to the rules for identifiers, and must be enclosed in single or double quotes. This name is used in the create database and alter database commands.
• physname – is the name of the database device. The physical name must be enclosed in single or double quotes.
• vdevno – is the virtual device number, which must be unique among the database devices associated with the SAP ASE server. The device number 0 is reserved for the master device. Otherwise, valid device numbers are between 1 and 2,147,483,647.

  To determine the virtual device number, look at the device_number column of the sp_helpdevice report, and use the next unused integer.

• size – is the current size of the device being reinitialized. The following are example unit specifiers, using uppercase, lowercase, and single and double quotes interchangeably: ‘k’ or “K” (kilobytes), “m” or ‘M’ (megabytes), “g” or “G” (gigabytes), and ‘t’ or ‘T’ (terabytes). You should always include a unit specifier. Quotes are optional if you do not include a unit specifier. However, you must use quotes if you include a unit specifier.
• vstart – is the starting virtual address, or the offset, for the SAP ASE server to begin using the database device. The following are example unit specifiers, using uppercase, lowercase, and single and double quotes interchangeably: ‘k’ or “K” (kilobytes), “m” or ‘M’ (megabytes), “g” or “G” (gigabytes), and ‘t’ or ‘T’ (terabytes). You should always include a unit specifier. Quotes are optional if you do not include a unit specifier. However, you must use quotes if you include a unit specifier. If you do not provide a unit specifier, the value provided is presumed to be in megabytes. The size of the offset depends on how you enter the value for vstart.

  • If you do not specify a unit size, vstart uses 2K pages for its starting address. For example, if you specify vstart = 13, the SAP ASE server uses 13 * 2K pages as the offset for the starting address.

  • If you specify a unit value, vstart uses it as the starting address. For example, if you specify vstart = "13M", the SAP ASE server sets the starting address offset at 13MB.

  The default value (and usually the preferred value) of vstart is 0. If the specified device does not have the sum of vstart + size blocks available, disk reinit fails.

  Note: If you are running the Logical Volume Manager on an AIX operating system, vstart should be 2.

  Specify vstart only if instructed to do so by SAP Product Support.

• cntrltype – specifies the disk controller. Its default value is 0. Reset it only if instructed to do so by SAP Product Support.
• dsync – specifies whether writes to the database device are flushed to the storage media, or are buffered only when using operating system files. This option is meaningful only when you are initializing an operating system file; it has no effect when initializing devices on a raw partition. By default, all operating system files are initialized with dsync set to true.
• directio – allows you to configure the SAP ASE server to transfer data directly to disk, bypassing the operating system buffer cache. The SAP ASE server passes the device options to Backup Server, which enables Backup Server to access the database device with the appropriate directio option.

  directio is a static parameter that requires a restart of the SAP ASE server to take effect.

  By default, directio is set to false for nonclustered SAP ASE servers, and to true for clustered SAP ASE servers.

  The directio parameter is ignored for raw devices.

• instance = "instance_name" – (clusters only) specifies the device as private and sets its owning instance to instance_name.

Examples

• Example 1 – Adds a new row to the sysdevices table. This new row contains the characteristics of the existing device currently being reinitialized:

  disk reinit 
  name = "user_file", 
  physname = "/usr/u/sybase/data/userfile1.dat", 
  vdevno = 2, size = 5120, dsync = true

• Example 2 – Adds a new row to the sysdevices table, with the data transferred directly to disk. This new row contains the characteristics of the existing device currently being reinitialized:

  disk reinit 
  name = "user_disk", 
  physname = "/usr/u/sybase/data/userfile1.dat", 
  size = 5120, directio= true

Usage

• You should use block devices as a database device only on the HP-UX, Windows, and Linux platforms. disk init and disk reinit display a warning message if you attempt to create a block device on a platform we do not recommend.

• disk reinit ensures that master..sysdevices is correct if the master database has been damaged or if devices have been added since the last dump of master.

• disk reinit is similar to disk init, but does not initialize the database device.

• You can specify the size as a float, but the size is rounded down to the nearest multiple of 2K.

• If you do not use a unit specifier for size, disk reinit uses the virtual page size of 2K.

• By default, the directio option is set to false (off) for all platforms.

• For complete information on restoring the master database, see the System Administration Guide.

See also sp_addumpdevice, sp_helpdevice in Reference Manual: Procedures.

Standards

ANSI SQL – Compliance level: Transact-SQL extension.

Permissions

The permission checks for disk reinit differ based on your granular permissions settings. You must be using the master database to use disk reinit.

Auditing

Values in event and extrainfo columns of sysaudits are: