Identifying Problems with a Frozen System (Informix) 

Use

This procedure tells you how to identify the problem when your system has frozen, that is, completely stopped processing. These are the main reasons for a frozen system:

●      The logical-log files are full and an emergency backup is needed

●      Lockwait situations are occupying all work processes

Procedure

...

       1.      Check to see if the logical-log files are full and perform an emergency backup if so:

...

                            a.      Check the message log in one of the following ways:

■       Checking the Database Message Log (Informix) in the database monitor

■       Using onstat -m as user informix

If the following message appears, you need to perform an emergency backup:

Logical Log Files are Full -- Backup is Needed

                            b.      If necessary, use your normal data recovery tool – ON-Bar, ON-Archive, or ontape – to perform an emergency backup. This frees the logical logs, allowing normal system processing to continue.

       2.      Check to see if there is a lockwait situation.

If lock holders and waiters occupy all work processes, then even users with no interest in the locked records are prevented from working.