corrupted index files

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

What product version are you using and on which platform (OS and version)?
Are the files stored locally or on a network drive?
Are you using Fileshare?
Does the rebuild report that the file is corrupted? What is the exact message from rebuild?

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

mbp Visual Cobol V3.0
Windows server 2012 R2

Files stored on a shared network file server.
FIleshare: (we believe yes, because it's on a shared network file server)

Rebuild message
checking accessibility : Corrupted index file.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Are you really using the mbp Visual COBOL product or are you using the Micro Focus Visual COBOL product? You state that this has been working for over 20 years so that would most likely mean that you are using the mbp product which has been out of production since around 1995 or so.

Can you please confirm?

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Yes, we are using MBP Visual COBOL. My manager told me that it has been working for past 20 years and never seen an issue like this. So he thinks it is due to the changes of programs. Can, Corruped index file caused by code?

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

I desperately need help. it has been going on for three months.Around that time, we started recycling our order numbers.
And I can not recreate the issue in the test environment.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Like I mentioned previously, the mbp product has not been supported for over 20 years now. I believe that the last operating system that it was tested with was Windows NT V3.51. I am truly surprised that your application has continued to run under newer operating systems at all.

Can you explain to me, what changes were made to the programs?

The most likely cause of corruption is that the files are being shared and the record locking is not working correctly. A simple test would be to see if you can access the same record simultaneously from 2 different workstations. If it allows this then perhaps there is a problem with your network configuration. I know that frequently when using servers that have opportunistic file locks turned on it can cause corruption. In later operating systems it may be necessary to turn off the oplocks option or on systems supporting SMB, or SMB2, etc, that this should be disabled.

Another cause of file corruption is that processes are being aborted before the files have been closed. If you open your files at the beginning of processing and leave them open throughout the lifetime of the application, it might be better to only open and close the files only when you are accessing them.

Again, the mbp product has never been tested on any modern environment, so other causes can really be anything at this point.

I would highly recommend that you update your product to the latest Micro Focus Visual COBOL product which supports all modern environments.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

MBP Visual Cobol is on shared network server. and it is being run from workstations with Windows 7, windows XP, windows 10 (32 bit).
When accessed same record from two different workstations, one of them have to exit. However, i am not sure if this is correct for two different OS.
What is Opportunistic file lock?
We receive data from multiple customers via EDI, which gets imploded into our system by night batch runs.
Customer service manually add data to this file through out the day. And the corruption seems to be happening during manual entry, and same time shipping is also accessing the same file.

most changes are done to night batch programs. Adding new customers.
is there a way that the files get corrupted by passing on bad data? It seems to be more than one file is being corrupted.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Can you please tell me the command that you use to run the compiler? Is it viscob.exe or cobol.exe?
What is the name of the run-time system being used, vcsim.dll or cblrtsm.dll?
If this is truly mbp Visual COBOL then I really have no idea what is going on or how to help you.

You should probably contact Microsoft about getting help setting up the network so file sharing works correctly between these different operating systems.

A couple of articles that explain opportunistic locking and how to turn it off can be found below:

support.microsoft.com/.../configuring-opportunistic-locking-in-windows
blogs.technet.microsoft.com/.../

On newer operating systems SMB2 and SMB3 may be in effect. This is covered in the second article.

If you are using Micro Focus Visual COBOL 3.0 then we can probably help you diagnose the problem if you open up a support incident with customer care.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

These are the system files.
09/01/1992 03:05 AM 62,464 VCISAM.LIB
02/14/1997 06:03 AM 54,272 VCISAM32.DLL
09/01/1992 03:05 AM 56,576 VCISAMRB.EXE
02/14/1997 06:03 AM 63,488 VCISAMW.LIB
02/14/1997 06:03 AM 127,824 VCISRBP.EXE

I really appreciate your time. if we upgrade to newer version of MF Cobol, do you think the issue will be resolved or we will be migrating the issue to new version also?

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Well that is most definitely the mbp Visual COBOL product which was developed by mbp Software out of Germany prior to the software being acquired by Micro Focus back in 1995. If you notice the dates on the files, these were developed prior to the release of even Windows 98 or Windows 2000. In my opinion, you have been lucky to be able to run your applications for as long as you have without running into severe problems. (BTW, I worked for mbp prior to joining Micro Focus in 1995 as well)

Upgrading to the Micro Focus Visual COBOL product will definitely improve your chances of eliminating file corruption but if you have network configuration issues then you will still have to solve them. In MF Visual COBOL you also have the option to use Fileshare which can run on the server and synchronize all access to your files from various client machines.

The upgrade from mbp to MF may not be a simple one. Although the products share a common name of Visual COBOL they are actually completely different product lines. If you are using mbp features such as the SMS Screen Management System then those would have to be converted to something more modern.

You should contact your Account Manager to discuss the effort involved.

Thanks.

Hello, one of the Indexed file is being corrupted all the time. This file gets updated through out the day. It has been working for past 20 years. the problem started recently. unable to find the root cause. When use rebuild utility, we are loosing some data. This file has three alternate keys. Help anyone please!!!!!!!

Thank you Chris.
I saw in your profile that you've worked for MBP as well.
I was a mainframe Cobol programmer. Came to this job a couple of years back. And i am the only programmer here.

for past 20 years With Windows 7, it has been working. Since december 2017, we've added Windows 10 workstations.
The issue started in Feb. 2018. My guess, it's related.
We do use SMS Screen management system also.
We will definitely call MF Cobol account manager.
Thank you for your suggestions and time. appreciate it.