31098 - A SAS® server might become unresponsive on highly loaded systems

Problem Note 31098: A SAS® server might become unresponsive on highly loaded systems

An internal locking mechanism in the SAS^® tasking supervisor that is used to queue asynchronous requests for synchronous services might cause an incoming asynchronous request to wake up a task to not post to the queue, thus causing the task to remain unresponsive. The window of opportunity for this to happen normally is very small, but under heavy system load conditions, the problem becomes more likely to occur.

The original issue was reported with multiple SAS/SHARE^® servers running on a Windows server, but the issue is not limited to SAS/SHARE software; the problem can occur with any SAS server running as a Windows service.

Select the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
Product Family	Product	System	Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft® Windows® for x64	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Server	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows NT Workstation	9.1 TS1M3 SP3
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Windows Vista	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0
		Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems	9.1 TS1M3 SP3	9.2 TS1M0

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) for this issue is available at:

http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_sbcs_prod_list.html#031098

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) with Asian Language Support (DBCS) for this issue is available at:

http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_dbcs_prod_list.html#031098

An internal SAS queueing mechanism has a small window of opportunity for being locked out of waking up a SAS task in a multiprocessing environment, and this "window" can stay open longer when the system is highly loaded.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	alert

Date Modified:	2008-03-07 09:05:42
Date Created:	2008-02-04 15:33:46