Yes, that's exactly what we have done every time it's happened; still no real 
explanation though. It's taken them about 30 minutes to sort out each time, but 
has caused havoc at the Issue Desks! The way we become aware of this situation 
happening is that people start to report "record in use by system" happening a 
lot. I try to clear one, it can't be cleared, and then I look at "system status" 
and see that the number of blocks unprocessed is rising steadily! The system is 
meant to trigger an automatic "alert" to III but we always `phone too, to 
impress the urgency of the situation. This happened several times when we first 
went live in April, then happened again a few weeks ago. The last time III said 
the control program had gone down, as the system was "waiting for backup", but 
our IT staff here who do the backups (at night) say they weren't doing one at 
that (middle of the day) time. So, who knows what happened. I'm still concerned 
because with no explanation as such there's no way of knowing it won't happen 
again

Lesha


On Wed, 6 Oct 1999 20:36:48 +0100 (BST) Mieko Yamaguchi 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Lesha Fossey wrote:
> 
> > We have had a few times
> > where the "blocks unprocessed" has rocketed up to 2000 plus and we
> > could do NOTHING in circulation! In these situations we've first
> > become aware of the problem when every record says it's "in use"!
> > These records can't be freed, so I'd soon be made aware of a similar
> > problem...
> 
> You should not get 2000 plus unprocessed blocks unless you are loading a
> large number of records with lots of index updates (usually bibs) or
> running a backup.  I've caught some staff loading patron records in the
> middle of the day but patron records do not involve so much indexing and 
> the maximum number of unprocessed blocks were in two figures.  Printing
> circ notices and clearing holdshelf could also lock patron and item
> records briefly and should be scheduled at quiet times if at all possible.
> 
> Next time you see 2000 plus unprocessed blocks don't let anyone free any
> records (as you say it won't work anyway because the process of freeing a
> record also has to join the queue of unprocessed transactions!) but get on
> the phone to Innovative immediately.
> 
> Mieko
> -----
> Mieko Yamaguchi                                [log in to unmask]
> Technical Services Manager/System Coordinator        +44 (0)1248 382970
> Main Library, University of Wales Bangor, UK   +44 (0)1248 382979 (Fax) 
> 

--
----------------------
Lesha Fossey        
Assistant Librarian, Circulation Services
University of Exeter
Stocker Road            TEL: 01392 263867
Exeter                  FAX: 01392 263871
EX4 4PT         E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]



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