DTExec stops running without error message

For a client i have built an application to give them the possibility to load packages for their data warehouse.

This application starts a database job in SQL Server, which in turn starts a dtsx package. This package loops over the contents of a table and starts the packages that are marked to be executed.

This all work well most of the time. Sometimes though, DTExec, the process running the packages, just stops running. There are no entries in the event viewer or anywhere else.

I run Windows Server 2003 with SQL Server 2005 SE SP1. The packages are run from the filesystem, not the database.

Has anyone encountered the same problem and know a solution? I can't find any info on the internet.

- Matthijs
Do you have package logging turned on? Enable all of the logging events and see if you can catch something that way. Log to a text file or to SQL Server.|||No logging was active. I'll turn it on and see if the problem occurs again. One of the problems is that it stops randomly so it's not easily reproducable.

Thanks for the quick response. I'll post again when it happens again.

- Matthijs
|||The problem occured again. I checked the log and the last thing in there is the OnPostValidate event of one of the script tasks. Again no error in the windows eventlogger and nop apperant reason why it stopped.

There have been some other problems though. It have been brought to my attention that the server on which the process runs has the tendancy to overheat. It gives a message that it will be shut down due to overheating or the loss of cooling and right after that a message that shutdown was cancelled by the administrator.

Because of this it occured to me that the problems might come from damaged memory. I'm going to have the client's IT support department check the systems memory and see where that gets me. Do you think that this is a possiblity? I would say that when memory is damaged it should't effect just one process, but that other processes would suffer from the same damage. This does not seem to be the case however. So it's a longshot but i'll have them check it anyway.

- Matthijs

|||

If the fault is suspected with DTEXEC, package logging may not help, but the console output from DTEEXEC itself may be of use. Ensure you have set the job step log, in teh Advanced tab of the job step. If DTEXEC itself errors I would expect this to capture it.

If a shutdown started and was then cancelled, it could have started to kill off processes? If it is running hot then you could get all sorts of strange corruptions, but they would probably not manifest themselves under normal conditions.

|||The cancelled shutdown scenario has not happened lately. That was mostly last summer. I thought it might be result of the damage done back then. I will enable logging in the job step and wait until it happens again.

- Matthijs

|||There seems to be no logging option in the advanced tab of the job step. In the general tab there is a loggin tab, but i think this just logs the package log entries, just like the package itself does.