This is an error I hadn’t seen before, and here’s how I fixed it.

A mksysb operation was failing with the following error:

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg./usr/bin/mkszfile[1157]:  
FS_MIN_LOG = FS_MIN_LOG * 20480 : 0403-009 The specified number is not valid for this command.
 
0512-008 mksysb: The mkszfile command failed.  Backup canceled.

A google search revealed it was probably a bad FS causing the problem. To identify which one(s), I ran the following: –

sh -x /usr/bin/mkszfile

This gave the full output and I could see which file system it was processing when it crashed. I then unmounted the file system, fsck’d it, and remounted it before re-running the mkszfile.

In this case there were four file systems it complained about and after fsck’ing them the mkszfile ran through ok. A re-run of the mksysb then worked ok.

About troyski

I'm a freelance UNIX engineer working in the UK. I'm married to Tina and between us we have six children. I'm a bit of an Apple fan boy, and all the Windows machines in the house are a thing of the past now.

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