Customview Report Runner Error 997

[leeniep]

Does anyone know what an error 997 in the Report Runner log is or what it means. I receive this on several daily reports and can not figure out why. I have no reference that defines the errors so don't know where to go to fix it.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
Leenie P

 

[Moebius01]

Is there any more data in the log? Also, are the reports set to print, output to disk, email, etc..? Error 997 is a rather generic catchall error for RR/RW, but it usually means one of a few things. Running out of memory, the directory where the file is scheduled to export to does not exist, or for a printed report - print spool failure.

Let me know any details you can and I'll see if I can pin it down further.

 

[leeniep]

Moe,

The reports are set to export to a file, there is no more info in the log outside of the report name, destination and start time etc.

When we have a problem with the destination drive or directory not existing we usually get a file is full error.

I just hate these errors that are so generic, it makes it tough to troubleshoot. Memory may be a problem is the reports overlap I suppose. We run about 50 reports nightly so I would think that is a really big possibility.

Thanks for the help.
Colleen
Leenie P

 

[Moebius01]

Ok, let's play with the memory thought for a while.

When you have the 50 odd reports scheduled, are they scheduled to kick off at the same time, or staggered? Generally this shouldn't matter as they should all just queue up in the schedule, but if they're not, try setting them all to run at the same time; say 2:00 am (which allows the Aspect to finish the collapse and backup procedures).

Also, if you're not doing so, set up a schedule to reboot the server, preferably daily. According to Aspect, the report runner server should be rebooted at least every 500 report executions. We found that daily provided the best results and schedule all our servers to run some automated backups and such and then reboot around 11:30 each night. That way they're fresh before the reports kickoff at 2:00.

Finally, thinking about the other options, you might try deleting and recreating the schedule for the reports that are erroring (and verify the destination just in case). The Access DB that holds the schedule info and the dll that holds the export locations can get corrupted quite easily. Last question to ask on that, are they exporting to the local drive or a remote location? We used to export directly to a file server but began getting more and more 997 errors. So, we started exporting to the local drive and using a batch command to replicate to the file server.


Run through some of those ideas, and let me know if any help. I'm back from all my vacations, so I'll be trying to check in at least every couple of days.

 

[leeniep]

Moe,

Thanks for the response.

We stagger the reports start times, begin with the first just after 2:00 am and they are spread out to run over a 3 1/2 hour time frame with the last starting around 5:30 am.

The rebooting of the server sounds like a great idea, it is not currently setup to do it automatically each night but, if I remember, I will report before I leave for the day on Friday just because I don't want to face report problems Monday morning for 2 days of reports. That just shoots Monday's all to heck. I'll look into the rebooting daily.

We export to network drives and when I started working here I found that there were several reports setup to export to drives that did not exist, got that part handled. I'll look at exporting to the local then moving, that may also help.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the assist... Leenie P

 

[Moebius01]

And I'd definately think about scheduling all the reports to kick off at 2 instead of staggering them. Ever since 2.1 of Runner it's been able to deal with overlap better, but I still had better success scheduling them all at the same time. They just lined up in the schedule monitor and kicked off one by one.

If you need any help with the rebooting, let me know. The resource kit for windows has a shutgui program that can easily be executed from a batch file making it simple to schedule.

 

[leeniep]

Moe,

Well unfortunately we are not running 2.1 we have 2.02 so I am not sure if I should still set them to run all at 2:00 or not.

Also, I am not familiar with the shutgui program or the resource kit. We are running Windows NT 4 is this available in NT 4?

Thanks
Colleen
Leenie P

 

[Moebius01]

Yes, it's from the Windows Resource Kit. You should be able to get a copy (I believe) here :

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/ntkit/default.asp

It has lots of handy tools to play with, including auto logins and such, as well as shutgui. Basically, all you'd need to do after installing it would be to create a .cmd file to execute it then schedule the batch file with the ATScheduler (resource kit also has a tool to make that easier). The batch file would look something like this :

REM *****Reboot Local Machine********
c:\ntreskit\shutgui.exe /R /T:45 /C
Exit
REM *****End File*******

You can do alot with the batch files when dealing with Runner/Writer. The command above is actually part of a backup script I wrote that zips up all the report templates, the runner2.mdb, and a few other critical files, then stores the zip (named for day of week) on a file server. That way if we have a critical failure on a reporting server, we can restore them to operation, including all the defined and scheduled reports, in about 30 minutes. Used to take all day to redefine and reschedule 100+ reports.

Also, if I'm not mistaken we've been scheduling all reports at the same time since v1.0 of Runner. Basically, what happens is if a report runs past the scheduled start time of the next one (especially in older versions), the next one never runs. I think that may even generate a 997 as well. If you schedule them all at the same time, they all stack up before the first one starts so there's no risk of missing. You might try it and see what you think.

If you decide to try and run local and replicate to file servers, let me know. I have some pretty handy batch files that make it very easy to do and manage. I'd be more than happy to help you set it up. I remember the frustrating days of having to re-run and export reports and all.