Running multiple instances of istool at the same time

sec105105 · Post by **sec105105** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:32 pm

Hi,

I am using istool to export a large % of jobs from my project, randomly spread through various subdirectories. Because I've got so many jobs, and the istool command has an 8k limit per 'command', I've split them up into 5 separate Windows7 .CMD files.

I find that when I run >3 at the same time, one or more of the export jobs fail, with an ambiguous return code of 3.

If I run the exact same files without overlap, they all finish fine every time.

Has anyone experienced issues running > 3 istool export commands at the same time, and any workarounds?

qt_ky · Post by **qt_ky** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:07 pm

I have run up to 4 istool exports in parallel, on a nightly schedule, on AIX, without having run into any errors like that.

I guess the return code is dropping you a hint as to the limit on Windows.

sec105105 · Post by **sec105105** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:17 pm

I suppose, but what limit am I hitting?

qt_ky · Post by **qt_ky** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:21 pm

I was just joking about the return code.

To list the possible return codes for istool, give it a command followed by the -help option. Not sure how much that will help you, because the export return code (or Exit code) of 3 means "Export failed."

I would hope there is some more detailed error on your screen or in a log file to indicate why, but it could just be a defect.

Here is a technote and patch reference for JR51192 with a very similar description to yours, except that it's talking about imports:

JR51192: MULTIPLE ISTOOL EXPORTS FAIL IN 9.1.2

What version are you on?

boolseye · Post by **boolseye** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:52 am

Today I ran almost 3-4 istool import export scripts almost at the same time. Each of the script was reading from one project and writing to another project.
I faced only one issue
" failed
Error exporting design time data: Value '2014-12-19T04:32:01.893-0600' is not legal."

I had to find the missed jobs and did the dsx export/import.
Going via dsx route takes time that is the only dis-advantage i observed.

pjin · Post by **pjin** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:30 am

I was running a single instance of istool export script, and got same error for several DS jobs "<job> failed. Error exporting design time data: Value '2015-06-05T03:08:52.856-0400' is not legal."

I recompiled all these failed exporting jobs, and reran the istool export script with no errors. My guess is somehow the design time or format became unrecognizable by istool export, and the recompile changed that design timestamp.

Hope this work-around helps.

PaulVL · Post by **PaulVL** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 12:52 pm

I know that on Unix the istool drops information under the ~/.eclipse path. Maybe there is some write contention there.