Installation Note 35138: An error regarding invalid XML characters occurs when upgrading a SAS® 9.1.3 metadata repository to SAS® 9.2
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In SAS 9.1.3, when the length of an attribute for a metadata object exceeds the documented length for that attribute, the metadata server invokes an overflow algorithm. This overflow algorithm might mark the attribute with a special binary sequence to indicate the overflow condition. The remainder of the text string is stored in an overflow TextPage object in the metadata repository and a record is written into an association data set that links the original object and the TextPage object with one another. If the attribute is subsequently updated in SAS 9.1.3 to a string with a length shorter than the defined length, the special binary sequence remains in the last character of the value even though the overflow TextPage object is no longer required.
The overflow algorithm in SAS 9.2 stores the total length of the attribute with the object. Therefore, part of the SAS 9.1.3 to SAS 9.2 upgrade process includes calculating the total length of the attribute value. When an associated overflow TextPage is not found for the object, the upgrade process does not expect the special binary sequence to be in the last character. As a result, when the total length of the attribute value is calculated, it includes the character containing the special binary sequence. The binary sequence is then returned as part of the attribute data in subsequent upgrade steps (instead of being omitted). An error similar to the following appears in the client upgrade log when you migrate the repository to SAS 9.2:
ERROR com.sas.services.ServiceException: Encountered service exception. [ com.sas.metadata.remote.MdException: An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0xffff) was found in the value of attribute "StoredText" and element is "TextStore". [ org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0xffff) was found in the value of attribute "StoredText" and element is "TextStore". ] ]
Select the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue. After you install the hot fix, you must restart the upgrade process from the migration package.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | SAS Release | |
| Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | SAS Metadata Server | Linux | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 |
| HP-UX IPF | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled HP-UX | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Windows Vista | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows XP Professional | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| z/OS | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.2 TS2M0 | 9.2 TS2M2 | ||