Work Item Stalled

[Sherman S. Wright]

Hi -
 
I've been following this discussion with great interest since we are experiencing
similar occurrences.  Our background process is an automatic approval of a
purchase requisition, which was working fine in 4.0B, until we applied all LCPs
(we were at 14, now at 35).  Ever since then, approximately 20 percent of our
background tasks have "stalled" (STARTED, but not COMPLETED or ERROR).  In almost
all cases, the deadline monitoring job (SWWDHEX), causes a STOPPED CPIC error on
the Process Overview (SM50), and "hung" Transactional RFC errors (SM58 -
"Transaction executing" and "Transaction recorded").  I've been looking into all
of the recommendations that I've seen, but so far no luck.  Please keep the
possible solutions coming...
 
Regards,
Sherman
 
 
Mark Huffman wrote:
 
> Smells even more like a timing problem to me. You can get backgound
> items stuck "In Process" where the root cause is a timing issue and the
> workitem does not go to "Error" status. What business objects are being
> used, what table(s) are you trying to update with the backgound task and
> what ir being updated immediately prior to that?
>
> STARK,TAMMY (HP-Roseville,ex1) wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Mark.  I will keep checking this out.  I can try changing the
> > workflow, but seems kinda strange because this workflow (and the background
> > task) has been in production for three years.  It has only been since we
> > upgraded to 4.5B that I have had this problem.  It doesn't happen very
> > often.
> >
> > P.S. Roseville is near Sacarmento.
> >
> > Tammy Stark
> > Information Technology Engineer
> > Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> > Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> > tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Huffman [mailto:m.r.huffman at worldnet.att.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 4:21 PM
> > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled
> >
> > Since what i suggested earlier probably isn't going to apply to your
> > scenario, another little trick would be to ask do you really need that
> > to run as a background item. Maybe change the method flag to synchronous
> > (if it isn't already) and delete the Bkgrd flag on the task (you will
> > need to update the workflow as well, but don't necessarily need to
> > create a new version). We have a  lot of items running this way, that in
> > previous releases I would have automatically thought should be
> > "background".
> >
> > Sometimes you come across a persnickety object method that has to be run
> > as a background task and errors out if this flag is not set - though the
> > method flag is still synchronous.
> >
> > Other things to look at are of course timing issues - the "black plague"
> > of workflow - maybe you need to build a sleep in if you think some table
> > has already been updated and in certain runtime scenarios it hasn't
> > been.
> >
> > In any case - you need to give us out here on the WUG a bit more info ..
> >
> > Good Luck
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > P.S. Where is Roseville?
> >
> > STARK,TAMMY (HP-Roseville,ex1) wrote:
> > >
> > > Ya, I can manually end it.  I was hoping I could find a solution to this
> > > rather than doing that.  I definately don't want to delete the work item.
> > >
> > > I will keep trying.
> > >
> > > Tammy Stark
> > > Information Technology Engineer
> > > Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> > > Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> > > tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Bernhard Koenig [mailto:Bernhard.Koenig at ubsw.com]
> > > Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 12:34 PM
> > > To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: Work Item Stalled
> > >
> > >      Tammy,
> > >      I'm working with a 46B system. I hope 45 is similar to 46.
> > >
> > >      Use transaction SWUF ==> runtime administrator functions.
> > >
> > >      OR
> > >
> > >      Go to your inbox. Highlight the workitem, press icon (small yellow
> > >      button with a cross) "Other functions". Pick "change workitem", than
> > >      select "manually completed", or "logically deleted".
> > >
> > >      Thanks
> > >      Bernhard Koenig
> > >
> > > ______________________________ Reply Separator
> > > _________________________________
> > > Subject: Work Item Stalled
> > > Author:  tammy.stark (tammy_stark at hp.com) at unix,mime
> > > Date:    7/20/00 2:10 PM
> > >
> > > Hello!
> > >
> > > I am having this problem again.  I have a workflow that is stalled.  When
> > I
> > > look at the log, everything is fine.  The workflow is NOT in an "Error"
> > > status.  The workitem (which is a background step) that it is currently
> > > trying to process is just sitting there (reading "In Process") but it will
> > > not finish.  It started yesterday.  I checked transaction SM58 and there
> > are
> > > NO entries.  This used to be very simple to fix on 3.0D.  We are on 4.5B.
> > > Any
> > > ideas?
> > >
> > > Thanx!
> > >
> > > Tammy Stark
> > > Information Technology Engineer
> > > Hewlett Packard, Business Critical Computing - IT
> > > Voice mail: 916-748-2170
> > > tammy_stark at am.exch.hp.com
> > >
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