Troubleshooting in CCMS (Informix)

Troubleshooting in CCMS (Informix)

This section tells you what to do in the event of problems with the DBA Planning Calendar in the Computing Center Management System (CCMS) for the Informix database.

Any scheduled action can occasionally fail, so you must at least check the more critical actions such as archive and backup daily. Refer to Checking the Results of Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.

To find the cause of the failure:

Was the background job executed correctly?

You can consult the job log. If no job log exists, the background job was probably not started. You can get more details using the job overview with transaction SM37 (note that the names of all jobs scheduled in the Calendar start with DBA). The job log will also tell you whether an external program was started.

Consult the action log (if one is available) if you are sure that the background job ran successfully.

If available, you can also display the operating system log.

Common errors are:

No tape in the tape drive.
The tape in the tape drive is write protected.
The tape in the tape drive has not been initialized.
The tape drive contains the wrong tape.
The tape is full.
An error has occurred in the tape drive.

Once the error has been corrected, you can reschedule the action to execute immediately using Start immediately, making sure there are no clashes with other scheduled actions. Refer to Scheduling Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.

The information below relates to the alert monitor for R/3 Release 3.x. If you want to use the Release 4.0 alert monitor, see Monitoring the Database with the Release 4 Alert Monitor (Informix)

Database Administration – Alerts

The SAP/Informix Database Alert Monitor in CCMS warns you if you are approaching a critical situation. This section discusses the alerts concerning archive and backup. For details about the remaining alerts, see SAP/Informix Database Monitor.

To display the monitor, do the following:

Choose Tools ® CCMS ® Control/Monitoring ® Alert Monitor (3.x).

Choose Alert text for the database server.

You see the Database alerts at the bottom of the list of alerts. A summary appears to start with, showing an overall status for the set of database alerts.

Choose Database to get more details.

The following table shows the alerts you can expect to see displayed here. See "Database Administration – Thresholds" below for details of when these alerts are triggered.

Warnings in the Database Alert Monitor for Archive/Backup and Update Statistics

Alert type

An alert is issued if...

Action

Miss. Indices

Database tables do not have the required indexes.

Add the appropriate indexes to the tables.

Freespace

There is little freespace left in the database.

Use the CCMS Monitor or SAPDBA to identify where space is running out and take appropriate action (for example, add a chunk to a dbspace, reorganize a table etc.).

DB-Logs

Space in the logical-log files is running out.

Back up the logical logs as soon as possible. Refer to Scheduling Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.

Backup

An archive has not been performed recently.

Perform an archive as soon as possible. Refer to Scheduling Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.

Optim. Stats

Update statistics needs to be run (red alert) or the statistics need to be checked (yellow alert).
OSS note 64210 gives a detailed description of this alert.

Run update statistics or check the statistics, using the DBA Planning Calendar or SAPDBA.

See also:

SAP/Informix Database Monitor

Database Administration – Thresholds

The alerts outlined above in Database Administration — Alerts are configured using thresholds which you can set yourself.

To see and if necessary modify the current threshold values, do the following:

Choose Tools ® CCMS ® Configuration ® Alert Thresholds.

Choose Change on the database server.

Choose Database to display the database alert thresholds.

The following thresholds are of interest for optimizer statistics, archives and backups:

Thresholds for Archive/Backup

Name of Threshold Alert

Meaning

Update Statistics – Last check (days)

When the last check on the database statistics is older than the specified number of days, an alert (Optim stats, yellow) is issued.

Update Statistics – Last run (days)

When the last run of the database statistics is older than the specified number of days or a check has highlighted that key tables need an update, an alert (Optim stats, red) is issued.

Remaining Log Space (KB)

When the remaining log space is less than the threshold value displayed here, an alert (DB-Logs) is issued.

Most Recent Archive Age Allowed (in days)

If the most recent archive is older than the threshold value displayed here, an alert (Backup) is issued.

Start Auto Log Save When Over % Filled

This feature is not yet implemented. You can currently trigger automatic log backups according to the logical log fill level using Backing Up the Logical Log (Automatic) in the DBA Planning Calendar (Informix).

Database Alert Thresholds

DBA Planning Calendar (Informix)

Alert type	An alert is issued if...	Action
Miss. Indices	Database tables do not have the required indexes.	Add the appropriate indexes to the tables.
Freespace	There is little freespace left in the database.	Use the CCMS Monitor or SAPDBA to identify where space is running out and take appropriate action (for example, add a chunk to a dbspace, reorganize a table etc.).
DB-Logs	Space in the logical-log files is running out.	Back up the logical logs as soon as possible. Refer to Scheduling Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.
Backup	An archive has not been performed recently.	Perform an archive as soon as possible. Refer to Scheduling Actions in the DBA Planning Calendar.
Optim. Stats	Update statistics needs to be run (red alert) or the statistics need to be checked (yellow alert). OSS note 64210 gives a detailed description of this alert.	Run update statistics or check the statistics, using the DBA Planning Calendar or SAPDBA.

Name of Threshold Alert	Meaning
Update Statistics – Last check (days)	When the last check on the database statistics is older than the specified number of days, an alert (Optim stats, yellow) is issued.
Update Statistics – Last run (days)	When the last run of the database statistics is older than the specified number of days or a check has highlighted that key tables need an update, an alert (Optim stats, red) is issued.
Remaining Log Space (KB)	When the remaining log space is less than the threshold value displayed here, an alert (DB-Logs) is issued.
Most Recent Archive Age Allowed (in days)	If the most recent archive is older than the threshold value displayed here, an alert (Backup) is issued.
Start Auto Log Save When Over % Filled	This feature is not yet implemented. You can currently trigger automatic log backups according to the logical log fill level using Backing Up the Logical Log (Automatic) in the DBA Planning Calendar (Informix).