9-52 IBM Informix OnLine Database Server Administrator’s Guide
Determining Database Consistency
Step 1: Determine Where a Heuristic Decision Occurred
There are a number of ways for you to determine the specific OnLine partic-
ipants affected by a heuristic decision to either roll back or end a transaction:
■ Examine the return code from the COMMIT WORK statement.
■ Examine the messages in the OnLine message log file for each
participant.
■ Examine the tblog output for each participant.
Each of these options is addressed in the paragraphs that follow.
Two error messages indicate that database inconsistency is possible because
of a heuristic decision at a participating OnLine:
■ -698 Inconsistent transaction. Number and names of
servers rolled back.
■ -716 Possible inconsistent transaction. Unknown servers
are ...
If a database inconsistency is possible because of a heuristic decision at a
participating OnLine, one of the following messages appears in the OnLine
message log file:
■ Mixed transaction result. (pid=nn
user=user_id)
This message is written whenever error -698 is returned. Associated with this
message is a list of the OnLine database servers where the transaction was
rolled back. This is the complete list. The list that appears with the -698 error
message could be truncated if a large number of participants rolled back the
transaction.
■ Possible mixed transaction result.
This message is written whenever error -716 is returned. Associated with this
message is a list of the OnLine database servers where the result of the trans-
action is unknown. (You must determine if the transaction was committed or
rolled back at each of these OnLine database servers. To do this, read the
logical log at each participant OnLine.)
If a database inconsistency is possible because of a heuristic decision at a
participating OnLine, a HEURTX log record appears in the OnLine logical log.