Every time I boot up my computer these days I get an albd server error. This is the first thing that is supposed to run when you start Clearcase. From past experience I know Clearcase Explorer does not work when I get the albd server error. So I manually choose Control Panel in Clearcase. Then I attempt to start Clearcase. For a long time the status is “start pending”. Finally Clearcase is started. So I launch Clearcase Explorer. It comes up so I am feeling better. However when I try to mount a VOB, I get no VOB choices.This Clearcase has been a headache ever since we switched to using it for source code control. We only do it because our client has standardized on it. Yes I imagine Clearcase is powerful. However I am looking for a solution that works with minimal effort and upkeep from me. My job is not to muck around with Clearcase settings. I am supposed to code new features for our customer, with the occasional debugging of problems in the software we write.
Last time I had Clearcase problems, I went to our local Clearcase guy. He was able to get it working on my machine. However this is not his main job. The right way is to submit a trouble ticket with our client’s help desk. That will take forever. I need my source code control now. So I check out any web pages I can find on the albd server. It seems this process is required for VOBs and views. I could figure that out based on the things not working on my machine.
There is some promise from the IBM Knowledge Collection. They have a whole lot of ideas on how to debug a broke down albd server. The key advice is to check out the logs. So I go to Event Viewer on Windows. I see a whole bunch of Clearcase errors. They fall under to categories: (1) can’t find albd server on a specific host, and (2) can’t find albd. Nice details on that last error description huh? So I guess I need to find out what is wrong with the server that albd cannot find. Too bad that is not a server controlled by our team. I might just have to submit a trouble ticket after all. Bad show Clearcase.
