IT31972: THE COMMAND ONSPACES -CL AND THE TASK "CLEAN SBSPACE" WILL NOT CLEAN STRAY SMART BLOBS UNTIL AFTER SERVER IS BOUNCED

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• It is possible that smart blobs can become stray, meaning that
  they have reference counts of 0.
  
  Normally, when this happens the server will automatically clean
  up these sblobs from their sbspace, but there are sometimes
  reasons that this does not occur.
  
  When this happens, the command oncheck -pS will report sblobs
  that have reference counts of 0 as below:
  
   Space Chunk Page = [3,3,5]  Object ID = 1800023459
      LO SW Version                  4
      LO Object Version              1
      Created by Txid                501
      Flags                          0x31  LO_LOG
  LO_NOKEEP_LASTACCESS_TIME  LO_HIGH_INTEG
      Data Type                      0
      Extent Size                    0
      IO Size                        0
      Created                        Sun Sep 22 11:33:16 2019
      Last Time Modified             Sun Sep 22 11:33:16 2019
      Last Time Accessed             Sun Sep 22 11:34:06 2019
      Last Time Attributes Modified  Sun Sep 22 11:34:06 2019
      Ref Count                      0
      Create Flags                   0x31  LO_LOG
  LO_NOKEEP_LASTACCESS_TIME  LO_HIGH_INTEG
      Status Flags                   0x0  LO_FROM_SERVER
      Size (Bytes)                   146364
      Size Limit                     -1
      Total Estimated Size           -1
      Deleting TxId                  -1
      LO Map Size                    200
      LO Map Last Row                -1
      LO Map Extents                 2
      LO Map User Pages              73
  
  The command, onspaces -cl, or the task "clean sbspace" should
  clean up these sblobs with ref counts of 0.
  
  They do, however, if oncheck -pS reports these stray sblobs, the
  server must first be bounced before the onspaces command or the
  task will take effect.  If you run either before bouncing the
  server, you will see a message in the online.log comparable to:
  
      02/24/20 22:45:26  Cleaning stray LOs in sbspace 'sblobsp'.
  
  But a subsequent execution of oncheck -pS will confirm that
  these stray sblobs still exist.
  
  If you run the onspaces command or the task after the server is
  bounced the command will work and clean the stray sblobs.
  
  This down time to reclaim sbspace storage is inconvenient at
  best for customers.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
  * Users of Informix Server prior to 12.10.xC15 and 14.10.xC5.  *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
  * See Error Description                                        *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  * Upgrade to Informix Server 12.10.xC15 (when available) or    *
  * 14.10.xC5.                                                   *
  ****************************************************************
  

Problem conclusion

• Fixed in Informix Server 12.10.xC15 and 14.10.xC5.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  INFORMIX SERVER

• Fixed component ID

  5725A3900

Applicable component levels