Workflow steps remaining in ready state for long

[Mike Gambier]

Ashish,

If I were you I'd check the following things to start with:

1. Is this a new/amended step? If so, are there any temporary exceptions 
(e.g. database locks) being fed back? Check in tech log if it is on, or 
failing that have a look in SWWWIRET to see if there are any clues there. If 
you find you do have temporary exceptions make sure you activated the 
Workflow exception handling batch job SWWERRE to have another go at trying 
the steps again (check in SWU3).

2. If you have changed anything on related to the WF definition or Business 
Object related to the task that is appearing to stubbornly refuse to start 
(but it used to work fine), it's probably something in your code/environment 
causing a feedback error. Syntax check your WF and code for errors, such as 
Agent Determination missing on dialog steps elsehwere in the definition. Try 
generating the Business Object, make sure the WF you are triggering is 
active on the right version and the event linkage looks right. Drop the 
Workflow buffers using SWU_OBUF to be sure you are using the latest versions 
of everything, if in doubt, and try to trigger the same WF again using SWUE 
maybe.

3. Check the data related to your 'stuck' steps. Are all of your WFs hanging 
at this point or are some working OK? If the latter is true then your 
definition may be dodgy with regards to binding or logic and may need 
revising. Normally this would error though rather than stall, but you never 
know.

4. If you have changed the way the WF is triggered (perhaps a different 
event entirely or a new container binding) make sure the WF being kicked off 
is receiving the new info properly. Perhaps your event raising code isn't 
quite right now?

5. Check for dumps to see if WF-BATCH is complaining about something that 
might be related.

6. If this is the first step in your Workflow and you're using the Event 
Queue check to see what kind of 'delay' you have between delivery jobs. 
Sometimes events can take a while to come through because they have lots of 
competition with other events. Wouldn't explain why your first step appears 
to be 'stuck' but it might explain why there's an apparent delay between 
events and WFs starting.

7. Sometimes the triggering event is only partially delivered and the call 
to your next step ends up being parked temporarily as a tRFC entry in 
ARFCSSTATE for destination WORKFLOW_LOCAL_100 if the aren't enough dialog 
process for Workflow to get hold of at the time. Have a peak at the RFC 
queue to see if this is filling up.

Mike GT

>From: "Ashish Paranjpe" <aaparanjpe at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: "SAP Workflow Users' Group" <sap-wug at mit.edu>
>To: SAP-WUG at mit.edu
>Subject: Workflow steps remaining in ready state for long
>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:38:34 +0100
>
>Hi All,
>I am facing a very atypical issue which I will try and explain below:
>
>When a workflow is triggered in the system, the first step of the workflow
>is a background step. Now Ideally, i would have expected this step to 
>change
>from "READY" state to "INPROCESS" within a fraction of a second. What
>happens with our workflows is that these steps continue to remain  în
>"READY" state for 2-3 hrs. Please note that there is no deadline monitoring
>active for these steps.
>
>I have 2 questions based on this:
>
>1. How does the workflow system function with regard to changing a step
>state?
>2. More important quaetion : Why is this above mentioned problem occurring
>in our system? Is it something to do with system performance?
>
>
>I may have raised this question before, but could not get a proper solution
>to the issue.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Ashish


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