GeeKs Blogging @ dotCOM

Siebel Tools hangs when checking out objects

Hi,

Now this is strange. I had been running into some problems when I was checking out objects in my Siebel Tools. What used to happen was that I would set an object for check-out. It would show it fine for some time. all the extracts being done fine, all the tables being checked out one by one et al. All of a sudden, the operation would hang.

I know that the operation definitely hanged because I initially thought that maybe it is just stuck somewhere due to lack of bandwidth. Or maybe it could be that with too many processes running on my system, there just isn’t enough memory! But no. I tried leaving the check out process as it is, and went out for lunch. I came back after about 45 minutes, and it was still hung!. So, I guess the check out process WAS definitely hanging! However, it was happening intermittently, and not always. The check out did proceed to completion successfully some of the times, and only at times would it hang.

I was convinced when I was told by another member in my team informing me of similar issues with her Tools for the past few days. Now, this was enough fodder for me to start searching!

The first thing I did was to log onto the famous ORACLE Metalink, and search out for this problem. This is when I came across the following article:

ORACLE Metalink – Siebel Tools hanging during check out

For the people who donot have immediate access to the Metalink, it says,
“It was found that Object level checkout does not close the database connection. Every time a object is checked out, the connection is not cleanly closed. This results in the maximum number of connections.”

Surprised?
Let me elaborate..

It says whenever we check out and check in an OBJECT (please note the word ‘object’) in Siebel Tools, one of the database connections is left open. So, if I check out once, check in that object, two DB connections were opened – one for check out, and one for check in. However, only one got closed and one always remained open. This would mean, everytime I check out and check in, there would be one more open connection on the DB server. Since every DB server has a maximum number limit of the connections that it can handle, this limit will be reached and the system would stop responding.

This problem is found to be on Siebel version 7.8.2. The Siebel support claims that it is fixed in Siebel v8. In my case, I have Siebel 7.8.2.11, and I feel that this doesn’t help it.

The only solution recommended is to check out entire projects, and not individual objects. I am not sure if it would work out as a solution for any of us, it doesn’t for me! We have a big team working on it, and it may is possible for us to check out entire projects every time as it blocks the usage of that project for other members in the team. Also, it would take much more time in check outs and check ins, which is definitely not within feasible limits. Seems like a Siebel Product Defect that we have to live with.

If anybody has also faced a similar problem, and come up with some workarounds or solutions, please do add to this thread.