Using Fixup

When you restart a server, the server quickly searches for any unlogged databases that were modified but improperly closed because of a server failure, power failure, hardware failure, and so on. A few minutes after server startup is complete, the Fixup task then runs on these databases to attempt to fix any inconsistencies that resulted from partially written operations caused by a failure.

When users attempt to access one of these databases and Fixup has not yet run on the database, the users see the message This database cannot be opened because a consistency check of it is in progress. A similar Fixup process occurs when you restart a Notes® client.

Multiple Fixup tasks run simultaneously at server startup to reduce the time required to fix databases. The number of Fixup tasks that Domino® runs by default at startup is equal to two times the number of processors available on the server. Although this default behavior should be adequate in most circumstances, you can edit the NOTES.INI file to include the Fixup_Tasks setting. The actual number of tasks run is the smaller of the configured number of tasks that can run and the number of databases that require fixing. For example, if you set Fixup_Tasks to 4 but only one database requires fixing, then only one Fixup task runs.

Keep in mind that after you set up transaction logging, Fixup is not needed or used to bring databases back to a consistent state.

Use Domino® Administrator to use any of these methods to run Fixup manually to fix a corrupted database. With each of these methods, you can customize how Fixup runs.

  • Run Fixup using the Fixup tool in the Files tab -- Use this method to run Fixup on one or a few databases; you can easily select the databases and you don't have to use command-line options, but you can't use the Domino® Administrator until Fixup finishes.
  • Run Fixup using the Task - Start tool -- Use this method to run Fixup on all databases; you can continue to use the Domino® Administrator while Fixup runs and you don't have to use command-line options.
  • Run Fixup using a console command -- Use this method if you want to use command-line options or to run Fixup directly at the server console when there isn't a Domino® Administrator client available.
  • Run Fixup using a Program document -- Use this method to schedule Fixup to run at particular times.
  • Run Fixup on a Win32 platform -- Use this method if you are unable to run Fixup at the server console. This method requires that you use the "n" prefix, for example, nfixup - F.