eDirectory segmentation faults

We have a virtual machine running OES Linux, it's been very reliable for over a year. But yesterday, the VMware host experienced some sort of communication errors and apparently corrupted some of the eDirectory files.

The problem showed itself in a failure of eDirectory to start. Instead, the boot.msg file had errors like

Starting Novell eDirectory server done
Executing customized settings after starting the Novell eDirectory server...
/etc/init.d/nldap: line 146: 4691 Segmentation fault $sbindir/nldap -c >/dev/null 2>&1

There didn't seem to be anything that I could do. nldap was broken and I couldn't seem to get any further.

oes-lx1:~ # ndsstat
segmentation fault

oes-lx1:~ # rcndsd status
/usr/sbin/rcndsd: line 351: 14649 Segmentation fault $bindir/ndsstat >/tmp/nds.stat.$$ 2>&1
/usr/sbin/rcndsd: line 351: 14652 Segmentation fault $bindir/ndsstat -h `hostname` >/tmp/nds.stat.$$ 2>&1

I tried to upgrade eDirectory from 8.7.3 to 8.8 using rug (look here ) and the upgrade seemed to work. But in fact, it didn't. When I tried to configure eDirectory from YaST, it found the previous version DIBs (the eDir database files), but then failed on the upgrade.

Well, as the most practical solution, I've decided to build a new OES2 SP1 server. Replacement of the older OES server was on the roadmap; we just seem to have gotten to that crossroads a little sooner than planned.