Solving iSeries Access Data Transfer Problems and Detecting Disk Damage
July 27, 2011 Hey, Joe
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I’m having a problem downloading a file using iSeries Access Data Transfer from System i. Whenever I perform my download, I get the CWBDB0099 and SQL0420 errors shown below. I can click OK and still download the file, but I’d like to get rid of this error. What’s going on and how do I fix it? –Laura Here’s the error message that Laura is referring to and what I did to solve it.
After researching, I couldn’t find any references to the CWBDB0099 error with the SQL4020 sub-error. There were plenty of references to the CWBDB0099 error with sub-error SQL0181, which indicates an error of “Value in date, time, or timestamp string not valid.” IBM‘s Support Document on CWBDB009 and SQL0181 tells the user to run the Display File Field Description (DSPFFD) command on the file in question and look for any date fields that have a data type of ISO. If an ISO date type field is found, IBM instructs you to change your data transfer date/time format to ISO. I ran DSPFFD on the file and there were no date fields with a data type of ISO. However, there were three packed data fields of length 5,0 and one packed date field of length 8,0. I reasoned that it was possible that one or more of those fields were being recognized as a date field by the iSeries Access Transfer program. So I decided to try IBM’s fix even though it didn’t strictly apply to the problem I was seeing on Laura’s screen. To change the transfer’s Date/Time format to ISO, I did the following: 1. On the Data Transfer from iSeries screen, I clicked on the Format Options button.
2. On the Change Data Options screen that appears, I clicked on the Date/Time tab. I then clicked on the Date format drop-down box and changed the Date format to ISO. I finally clicked on the Apply button to save the change.
3. We tried running the problematic Data Transfer again. This time, it downloaded the data without throwing up the error message. So I guess this goes to show that sometimes a good enough approach will be enough to solve a problem. Bonus: Another Way to Detect Disk Damage While I was researching my article on finding damaged objects, IBM sent me some information on running the Service Tools’ Analyze Disk Surface option to detect damage objects and problems with your disk drive. Here’s the drill if you want to run a more intensive disk analysis feature to find damaged objects and brewing problems with your disk drives. 1. Run the Start System Service Tools command (STRSST) and sign in. 2. Take the following options to get to the Analyze Disk Surface option:
3. On the Select Disk Units for Analyze screen, select the disk drives that you want to analyze and press the Enter key. IBM tells me that this command will check the disk surface for problems and that it will detect damaged objects. The downside is that the command takes a long time to run, requires intensive disk usage, and it could slow down systems that are already performing slowly. My approach is to keep this feature in my back pocket to use on rare occasions when called for and to use the other techniques for detecting damage first. Be cautious when using this option for the first time. After the disk unit analysis completes, you can go into the Licensed Internal Code log by running the following options to view the results.
Look for major code 300 (Damage set) or major code 301 (Damage encountered) to see if the test found any damage. 0300 will show up the first time damage is detected, while 0301 will show up when a damaged object is detected for the second time and during later detections. You should also look for major code 0100 (Machine check) with minor code 0207 and call IBM if that code is detected. There is one other thing to watch out while reading the LIC logs for damage codes. If you see that major codes 0300 or 0301 occurred during an IPL, I’ve been told you can ignore those errors. When these codes occur during an IPL process, it represents a special situation where some damage is fixed during the IPL process. Of course, if you’re in doubt about what to do about these codes, call IBM for more information. HTH –Joe RELATED STORY Admin Alert: A Starter Program to Find Damaged Objects in i OS 6.1.1
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Above solution worked for me