Out of gnodes, solution found.

[DHASKIN%CLARKU.BITNET at mitvma.mit.edu]

Thnaks to those who responded; DEC/Atlanta actually called just as the first
e-mail responses were arriving.  The solution was trivial.  It's a shame it
took them almost 2 days to respond.

In the /usr/sys/config/SYSTEMNAME file which describes the configuration of the
Ultrix kernel to be built, the maxusers parameter does *not* correspond to
one's licensed number of users.  DEC does not recommend a specific number, but
as Ross Parker (parker at waters.mpr.ca) said:

> We run a Microvax 3600 with a 2-user license here with MAXUSERS set to 32.
> 32 is about the minimum for a timesharing system or a system that does
> any real work (we have 10 vaxes here... all are set to at least 32).

The solution was obviously to change the parameter and rebuild the kernel.
After rebooting we had no problem.

As Ross explained:

> FYI, gnodes are an in-core abstraction of the inode. They are used to
> reference files in both normally mounted file systems and NFS mounted
> file systems. 4.3 BSD has the same idea, but they're called 'vnodes'.

I am still dismayed with DEC/Atlanta, and if this had been more critical I
would have taken Dick Green's (green at unxa.DEC.com) advice:

>     I work for DEC and suggest that when you are dealing with any support
> center and are displeased YELL and SCREAM and ask to talk to a manager.

Luckily it was not a production machine.  If it had that could've idled people
for 2 days.  Of course, if it *was* a production machine I wouldn't have
rebuilt the kernel in the middle of the week.  :-).

Onwards and upwards...

Denis