Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

3080.0. "OA$FORMATTER behaviour with 092FF7A2" by VNABRW::EHRLICH_K (The seventh seal!) Wed Jul 28 1993 10:59

Hi all,

	yesterday I've visited my customer to check his ALL-IN-1 system.
Everything's fine now - no problems with the FCS - BUT we've a 'funny'
behaviour with the OA$FORMATTER Queues.

We're using ALL-IN-1 V3.0-1 + ICF#2 + ICF#6 + ICF#7 German LLV + VMS V5.5-2 
and about 300 User.

Here's the problem:

Sometimes it happens, that print jobs (background printing -> OA$FORMATTER)
are 'hanging around' in one of the executionqueues with 092ff7a2.
And all jobs after the this one can't be processed. 092ff7a2, too.

There're no replies ($REPLY/ENA) therefore no entries in OPERATOR.LOG.
No ACCVIO, No Dumpfiles (OA$FORMATTER.DMP), nothing.

$ dir /sec sys$system:oa$formatter.*
Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]
OA$FORMATTER.EXE;16  [SYSTEM]              (RWED,RWED,RWED,RE)

It's strange, that the executionqueue is 'IDLE' -> not STOPPED or PAUSED.
But all printjobs are queued to this executionqueue only and they all are
retained on error with 092ff7a2.

After stopping / starting all OA$FORMATTER queues there's the same result.
You've to delete all entries first and then to stop/restart all OA$FORMATTER
queues. 

Well, for a workaround, customer has written a procedure which will do this,
but this can't be a solution. 

Here're the Queues + their entries:

Generic server queue OA$FORMATTER
  /GENERIC=(OA$FORMATTER_BM01,OA$FORMATTER_BM02)
  /OWNER=[SYSTEM] /PROTECTION=(S:E,O:D,G:R,W:W) /RETAIN=ERROR

Server queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01, idle, on BM01::, mounted form DEFAULT
  /BASE_PRIORITY=4 /DEFAULT=(FEED,FORM=DEFAULT) /OWNER=[SYSTEM]
  /PROCESSOR=OA$FORMATTER /PROTECTION=(S:E,O:D,G:R,W:W) /RETAIN=ERROR

  Entry  Jobname         Username     Blocks  Status
  -----  -------         --------     ------  ------
    346  KWKBHKWFBM      VOGL             38  Retained on error
       %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 092FF7A2
         Submitted  27-JUL-1993 15:12 /NOBURST /NOFLAG /NOFEED /FORM=DEFAULT
         /PARAM=("OA$PARAMS=100,LASER$9L07,LN03_DL1,1,OA$HLS_80","OA$FMTCTL=2")
         /PRIORITY=100 /NOTRAILER
         File: _DSA4:[VOGL.ALLIN1.OA$TEMP]VOG000418.WPL;1 /NOBURST
             /DELETE /NOFEED /NOFLAG /NOTRAILER
         Completed  27-JUL-1993 15:12 on queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01

    347  14893_REPARATUR_VT420
			 FINK             13  Retained on error
       %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 092FF7A2
         Submitted  27-JUL-1993 15:12 /NOBURST /NOFLAG /NOFEED /FORM=DEFAULT
         /PARAM=("OA$PARAMS=100,LASER$LN05,LN03_DL,1,OA$HLS_80","OA$FMTCTL=2")
         /PRIORITY=100 /NOTRAILER
         File: _DSA4:[FINK.ALLIN1.OA$TEMP]FIN002050.WPL;1 /NOBURST
             /DELETE /NOFEED /NOFLAG /NOTRAILER
         Completed  27-JUL-1993 15:12 on queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01

    348	092693_RETTET_DAS_KIND_STEIERM
		         HILLBRAND	  13  Retained on error
       %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 092FF7A2
         Submitted  27-JUL-1993 15:12 /NOBURST /NOFLAG /NOFEED /FORM=DEFAULT
         /PARAM=("OA$PARAMS=100,LASER$FJK4,LN03_DL1,1,OA$HLS_80","OA$FMTCTL=2")
         /PRIORITY=100 /NOTRAILER
         File: _DSA4:[HILLBRAND.ALLIN1.OA$TEMP]HIL004067.WPL;1 /NOBURST
             /DELETE /NOFEED /NOFLAG /NOTRAILER
         Completed  27-JUL-1993 15:12 on queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01

    352	ARTIKEL_FUR_ZEITUNG
		         MACHO		  71  Retained on error
       %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 092FF7A2
         Submitted  27-JUL-1993 15:14 /NOBURST /NOFLAG /NOFEED /FORM=DEFAULT
         /PARAM=("OA$PARAMS=000,LASER$FJK2,LN03_DL1,1,OA$HLS_80","OA$FMTCTL=2")
         /PRIORITY=100 /NOTRAILER
         File: _DSA4:[MACHO.ALLIN1.OA$TEMP]ZUUELRTUZ.WPL;1 /NOBURST
             /DELETE /NOFEED /NOFLAG /NOTRAILER
         Completed  27-JUL-1993 15:14 on queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01
...
	
    371	1322493_OREHOVSKY_KURT
		         WEISKIRCHNER     13  Retained on error
       %NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 092FF7A2
         Submitted  27-JUL-1993 15:19 /NOBURST /NOFLAG /NOFEED /FORM=DEFAULT
         /PARAM=("OA$PARAMS=100,LASER$FJK3,LN03_DL1,1,OA$HLS_80","OA$FMTCTL=2")
         /PRIORITY=100 /NOTRAILER
         File: _DSA4:[WEISKIRCHNER.ALLIN1.OA$TEMP]WEI000758.WPL;1 /NOBURST
             /DELETE /NOFEED /NOFLAG /NOTRAILER
         Completed  27-JUL-1993 15:19 on queue OA$FORMATTER_BM01

Server queue OA$FORMATTER_BM02, idle, on BM02::, mounted form DEFAULT
  /BASE_PRIORITY=4 /DEFAULT=(FEED,FORM=DEFAULT) /OWNER=[SYSTEM]
  /PROCESSOR=OA$FORMATTER /PROTECTION=(S:E,O:D,G:R,W:W) /RETAIN=ERROR

After this I've looked at the documents. They are all fine, because after
restarting the queues they can easily be printed.

So maybe you've seen or heard this before and maybe there's something more I
can check. I'm out of ideas, really.

Best regards
Charly_from_CSC_Vienna

PS: I've posted this entry in both conferences ALL-IN-1 & WPS-PLUS.
    

    Charly,
    
    Could it be due to PRA ? 
    Have you try turning off background formatting for LASER$JFK* ?
    Try that and then send a job to the queue.
    It'll probably give you more infomation.
    
    ching-U

I've seen similar problems before when the WPS-PLUS Formatter (but not any 
of the other formatters in OA$FORMATTER) stops working because it does not 
recover from an error condition.  A particular file causes the WPS-PLUS
Formatter to have an error, and then all subsequent calls to the WPS-PLUS
Formatter routine are rejected with an error status, which OA$FORMATTER
reports. 

The only way to recover from the problem is to restart the image so that a
fresh copy of the WPS-PLUS Formatter routine will be used.  For
OA$FORMATTER this requires stopping and starting the queue.  For OA$MAIN it 
requires exiting and re-entering ALL-IN-1.

Also, the error status 092FF7A2 translates to:

    %WPSPLUS-E-GENERIC_MSG_TRA, Error occurred during operation

which shows that the error is coming from the WPS-PLUS formatter.


You will probably find that when the problem occurs OA$FORMATTER jobs 
requesting ASCII or CDA formatting will continue to be processed without 
problems.

The first retained job in the OA$FORMATTER queue is probably the one that
causes the problem.  Try formatting that same file in the foreground to see
if that also results in an error. 



Richard

Hi Richard,

first, thank you for your helpful explanation.

Last week I couldn't reach the customer, but yesterdy I've had success.
Here's something I've found during some analysis.

MGT MFP MPR PR and select the printer

Format Printer Type           LN03_DECLASER
Destination Printer Type      SYSTEM_PRINTER

MGT MFP MPR PT and select the printertypes

Printer Type                  LN03_DECLASER
Printer Device                LN03_DL1 ---> That's the PRA.

and the other values are the same as in DECLASER PRA.

Printing foreground is ok. We've deleted DO WPPBGFORMAT from SYSTEM_PRINTER.
After having a look into the first document which will the OA$FORMATTER
to get the errormessage looks pretty good. There was no ControlBlock, nothing.

As I told you, that happens random.

Maybe the OA$FORMATTER fails a document before.
Crazy.

Best regards
Charly_from_CSC_Vienna
    

    Hi All and Mr. Vain!,
    
    I had the same problem reported and upon my investigations I found that
    the customer had not converted the printer table.  The customer was
    using the version 2.4 (WPS-PLUS 3.1) printer tables.
    
    To check have a look at the table using edit/edt <printer table>.pra,
    if it does not have V4.0-000 in the first line than it has not been
    converted.  To convert the table use the WP PT CO options.
    
    Regards,
    
    Sunil