The duplicate-checking process (DUPMODE=DISCARD) discards an observation that has a timestamp value less than or equal to the upper limit of a datetime range. However, in some cases, System Management Facility (SMF) records with exactly the same datetime stamp are split across tapes. In these circumstances, the first few records of the second tape are discarded because they match the criteria of being less than or equal to the upper limit of an existing datetime range.

No error messages, warnings, or notes are generated to indicate that there is a problem.

There is no workaround to the problem.

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

To prevent these records from being discarded, apply the hot fix and specify the macro variable CPDUP_ALLOW_EQ.

When this macro variable is set to Yes, it specifies whether observations with equal timestamp values can be processed when they are the first records processed for the value that is specified in the IDVAR parameter. The default value for this macro variable is No.

If it is helpful for your site, you can also set the CDPUP_ALLOW_MSG macro variable. This macro variable specifies whether messages should be produced when both of the following conditions are met:

1. CPDUP_ALLOW_EQ is set to Yes.
2. Observations with equal timestamps are encountered.

To set these macro variables, add the following statements to the beginning of the batch job.

If the macro variables are not specified in the batch job, their absence is interpreted as No. The following text shows the format of the messages that are produced when both of these macro variables are set:

Potential duplicate has been processed _n_=<observation number> system=<system name> id=<system id> 
smftime=<SMF timestamp>

The following is an example of an actual message that might be produced:

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for SAS IT Resource Management 3.3 is available at:

A fix for this issue for SAS IT Resource Management 2.7 is available at: