Large BI File

[leighgiles]

G'day,

The bi file on our test system became very large and when I attempted to truncate it using proutil the .lg file showed

(10601) SYSTEM ERROR: Attempted to exceed maximum size on file

How do I truncate the bi file?

Thanks
Leigh

 

[RealHeavyDude]

You don't give any details about your environment therefore all I am saying is pure speculation: Whenever a database is accessed crash recovery takes place - even truncating the before image writes to the before image log itself just in case you could crash during crash recovery. If there is no more space available in the before image then you will see that error message.

I would say that you either

• did hit the 2GB limit if you are bound to that (workgroup database license for example)
• your fixed BI extents did run out of space
• your variable BI extents did run out of file system space

Depending on what the root cause for your issue is the steps you need to take are different.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[leighgiles]

Thanks

The limit of 2gb was reached.

proutil -C truncate bi didn't seem to have any effect on the bi file

 

[RealHeavyDude]

That's expected behavior - you can't truncate the before image file for the reason I've mentioned when you have hit its limit regardless for what reason.

You need to add another before image extent to the database structure and you should be fine.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[cj_brandt]

what version of Progress are you using ?
Version 8 had a limit of 2gb BI area, if you hit that, the db has to be restored from backup.
Version 9 and up don't have the limit, simply add space to the bi area or enablelargefiles.

I don't know if the workgroup db limits the size of the bi area.

 

[Rob Fitzpatrick]

I keep a list of differences between Workground and Enterprise, and update it whenever I find any new info. Gus recently posted a list on PSDN that included all the differences I knew about and a few more. There was no specific mention of a BI area size limit. However as RHD indicated there is a 2 GB limit per extent on Workgroup. As far as I know it should be possible to have a BI with multiple 2 GB extents.

Gus' post: http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-107109

 

[TomBascom]

Workgroup is perfectly happy to have multiple bi extents. No individual extent will be larger than 2GB but the total is unlimited.

Workgroup doesn't support enabling of large-file databases.

But if "largefiles" is enabled with an Enterprise license and then accessed with Workgroup (perhaps due to a backup & restore) I believe the db will work just fine and that large files will be used. But I haven't personally verified that lately -- so you might want to test it before you assume that I'm right.

 

[leighgiles]

We are using OE10.1c with an enterprise licence, enablelargefiles hasn't been enabled.

So adding another bi extent would enable me to proutil truncate bi?

I suppose this leads on to what do you do if the bi is deleted/corrupted?

 

[RealHeavyDude]

If the before image is deleted or corrupted the database is deleted or corrupted. The two go together - one can't be without the other. There is no way to recovery the database without a valid backup then and rolling forward your after images. You do have after image enabled, do you? If not, every change to the database since the last good backup will be lost with no chance to recovery them.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.