Long Record Keys and the UD4.6

Back in June of last year, I wrote a blog posting about the release of the Universal Driver 4.6. Within that announcement, was a note about a change in the way that long record keys were to be handled. However, some more information has come to my attention and this posting is therefore to provide that extra information.

We were recently approached by a client who had upgraded to the Universal Driver 4.6 and who subsequently ran a long key check against their database. This check reported a number of long keys, but a subsequent attempt to remove them from the system using the removal utility failed. As an example, the error message received when trying to delete the bad records was “Unable to delete “M*15607”, FS100, M*15607”. And the actual key was M*15607 15608 15607 15608 etc…. It exceeded 552 characters.

The reason for this failure is down to the removal utility being run under the UD4.6 is bound by the imposed maximum key length. The Linear Hash Service will also have been generating application event logs on the server’s event log when it attempts to read or delete a long key.

As per the installation guide for the Universal Drive 4.6, the system should have been checked for long record keys ‘prior’ to the installation of the Universal Driver 4.6. The installation of the utility is covered in its own installation guide (Network Driver Update for Large Keys) which is included, along with the file, within the Universal Driver installation zip file.

However, if this step is missed out and it is run after the installation of the Universal Driver and it results in long record keys being found, the following steps can be followed to correct the issue:

1) Ensure that everyone is logged out of the system (all OpenInsight applications).
2) Locate and rename the REVPARAM file/s to something other than REVPARAM.
3) Change the chosen driver back to the 4.5 driver using netdrv.exe, or the previously used driver if you are coming up from an older one.
4) Start the application/s and run the utility to report and remove all of the long keys.
5) Change the chosen diver back to the 4.6 driver using netdrv.exe.
6) Rename your name changed REVPARAM file/s back to REVPARAM.

These steps should allow you to access the application through a single user maintenance mode without using the 4.6 service. The utility can be installed into OpenInsight version 7.x and 8.x systems and it is included in OpenInsight from version 9.1.