Hello Users,
our company has been having a big problem for about 1 year now. Users have been getting a “bdb_error 1208” and a little while later the database kind of freezes up and we must reboot the database.

The BaaN Version is BaaN40c4 and the Informix Version is 7.3. The operating System is Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6.
Some people looked at the problem but nobody has been able to help us so far.

Is there anybody who can help us with this problem or can anyone tell us something about? Does anyone maybe know the reason for this error??????:confused:

We need help!!

Bjoern

-1208
There is no conversion from non-character values to character values.

If you are using a database server prior to Version 4.0, no automatic conversion from numeric values to character values occurs in SQL statements such as INSERT and UPDATE. Check that the specified value for each column agrees with the data type of that column. If you use a Version 4.0 or later database server, this message should not appear.or Baan error 1208 = 208 Informix:-208
Memory allocation failed during query processing.

The database server needed to allocate data-space memory in order to process the query, but none was available. This error may reflect a hardware limit, an operating-system configuration limit, or a temporary shortage of space.

Try the query again after a delay. If it still fails, consult your system administrator. If possible, revise your query to join fewer tables, to order or group on fewer columns, or to operate in two or more separate statements. On DOS systems, exit to the operating-system command line, free some disk space or reduce the complexity of your program, and resubmit the program.

In versions later than 5.01, only this error message informs you that the database server is unable to allocate memory.In the latter case, the allocated shared memory of Baan can be blocking for allocating more memory for the database process. In the bentman - shared memory - properties you can set the start address of the shared memory of Baan. If you raise this number, you can allow Informix more space. Maybe that helps...

We had a similar problem (BaanIVc3, Informix 7.23, WinNT4.0 SP3) a couple of years ago. Frequently the system would just start to slow down and seem to almost stop. We would do a reboot and everything was fine (for a while).

We discovered an inhouse application running an ODBC connection seemed to be causing the problem if the user got impatient (waiting for a large query) and opened up another session of the same program to do another query. Sometimes they would use task manager just to kill the query on the workstation then start a second process (as you know the query is still running on the server under this scenario). The second ODBC connection did create a slow-down and eventual lock-up of both the workstation and server.

To resolve this issue, we added a process-locking subroutine to not allow the user a second session on the same workstation (even if they kill the job with task manager). Since that time, we haven't seen the problem again.

I don't know the specifics of your internal operations, but if you are doing something similar, it may help.

Wouldn't this approach block multiple bshells (performance boosters)?

Hey,

first i will say thank you to all who whants to help at this problem! But at this time the problem is not solved.

Second, sorry for the late reply. But we had a virus on our system.

Thanks

Björn

Hi OmeLuuk,

The performance boosters should not be affected as they reside within Baan. The problem (for us) actually existed at the database (Informix) level, which in turn affected Baan performance.

By negating the extra processes on the same workstation, we stopped multiple access to Informix queries at the workstation level. The process I spoke of performs queries at the Informix level, completely bypassing Baan functionality. Since Baan is bypassed, the table boosters shouldn't come into play.

This particular workstation does not run Baan, just the in-house package that provides reports Baan (at least our version) is not capable of delivering).

Again I am not sure if this is what is causing the problem for our friend Bjorn, but I thought I would toss it out there as a possibility that may not have been considered.

P.S. As a side note, by typing this reply, I just came up with a whole new approach to another problem we are having! Thanks for the response OmeLuuk! You are a genius (even if you don't know what you suggested)!

'c`3