DataStage freezing when opening Sequential File Stage

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:10 pm

Of course this happens when I am working on loading an important file for a high profile project! Basically, I started loading a file with many records and I'm assuming this is related to a memory issue possibly??

Once this job ran and then aborted, everytime I try to open ANY sequential File stage within the project, Datastage completely freezes and I need to shut it down (by ctrl-alt-delete) - and restart.

Is there somewhere I should delete logs or something in memory that is causing this issue?

Help! Please! For now, I am working on the job without modifying/opening the sequential file stage, but it is beginning to be a pain and will definitely be an issue when I need to use and modify this stage.

Thanks,

Nicole

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:53 pm

What else has happened on the client machine? Has any new software - ANY new software - been installed? Has any software been removed?

This is unusual behaviour and, being asymptomatic, difficult to diagnose.

The quick fix may be to re-install the DataStage client.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:54 pm

As far as I know, no new software was installed. Tomorrow or Tuesday (no one is available now), I will ask another developer to login from their machine and see if it is happening to them as well.

Ray, are you thinking this is related to my machine as opposed to the DS server? It seemed to happen immediately following the abort of a job which was reading input from a file.

Should I try to do a re-install on my machine, if it is only on my machine?

Thanks for any advice. Again, i'm managing to get by for now as I haven't needed to modify the stage with what i'm doing and the job still runs, as long as I don't open the Seq file stage.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:18 pm

Not quite yet ready to reinstall. If you create a copy of the job can you open the Sequential File stage in the copied job?

ArndW · Post by **ArndW** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:57 am

This might be a good time to restart the DataStage service completely or even to re-boot the DataStage server machine. This would, among other things, get rid of any locks that might still be around and could be part of your problem.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:00 am

Yes, I did try making a copy - that was one of the first things I tried. But then I also tried a totally different job that was fine previously, and when opening the sequential file stage - it froze up again.

So, yes, I think you're right - I'll request that the admins restart the DS server as soon as someone is available.

Thanks,

Nicole

sjfearnside · Post by **sjfearnside** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:21 am

Does the problem only occur when accessing that particular stage or any stage? We have experienced a similiar situation with a DB2 API stage and it occurred only on that developer workstation.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:00 pm

Hi there - yes it is ONLY the Sequential File stage. I haven't been able to ask another DS developer to try it - since its a holiday today - but as soon as I get the chance, I will. I'm hoping the issue is resolved either by restarting the DS server, but if necessary, I will re-install when all else has failed.

sjfearnside · Post by **sjfearnside** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:09 pm

I can tell what has helped us on the issue. Once it was as simply as pressing the escape key because a windows was being opened off screen and that resolved the problem. The second time we removed registry info from the workstation by the direction of support and a third time the stage was removed and another similiar stage was placed on the palette. The job was then compiled and executed but of course failed. The original stage was then placed back on the palette and it began to work. I can't tell you why it worked but it got us around the problem. The 1st and last option maybe something you want to try. The 2nd option of deleting the registry content can be tried, and I wil give you what we received from support, if it is localized to your workstation.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:52 pm

I JUST tried the escape key and it worked!!! THANK YOU!

fyaqq · Post by **fyaqq** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:25 pm

Thanks a lot. I also encountered similar problem is aggregator stage. After following your suggestion, it is solved now.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:29 pm

Next time you're discussing this with someone technical, the language to use is that "a modal dialog box opens but does not get focus".

A more tedious way to find the modal dialog box is to minimize every other window. "Show desktop" sometimes works, but not always.