DB2EUG: DB2/NT - SQL0298N using files vs devices

[David Bargeron]

Hi List,   Hopefully someone can shed some light on a problem we had with using files for containers after a SSA reconfiguration exercise.   Our System: DB2 7.1-fp2 NT Server 4-sp5 - SSA   We needed to reconfigure our SSA to free up some storage. The plan was to: a -  backup database db1 (5 datatablespaces (in 5 containers) + 1 long tablespace (in 8 containers) the containers use NT     files) b - reconfig the SSA c - create the database db1 + all containers in files. d - restore backup of db1 into new db1   Unfortunately when we tried to create the 'new' db1 (step c above) we were getting SQL0298N Bad container path errors when using files for the containers. e.g. create long tablespace....( file '\m:' 2363800).   However when the 'file' keyword was replaced with  'device' e.g.  ....( device '\\.\m:' 2363800). All was ok. Our IBM engineer assured us that the SSA was fine and NT was happy about the drives.   Then the restore into the new db1 failed the same, until we did a redirected restore and SET the containers as 'devices'.   Does anyone have an idea why after the reconfig we couldn't use 'file' for the long tablespaces and the potential problems we may encounter ? (I believe files are recommended for DMS long tablespaces)   Thanks   Dave Bargeron LloydsTSB UK