Maximo Consultant's Blog

Category: sql

How to run SQL query in Maximo without database access?

10 March 2023 / / 3 Comments

With the introduction of the Maximo Application Suite, I have had to deal with more and more Maximo environments on the cloud. This often means there is no access to the backend such as the database or the Websphere/Openshift console. Sometimes, to troubleshoot issues, it is critical to be able to run queries on the database. In this post, I will introduce a new approach to accessing the database using Automation Script.

From Maximo version 7.6.0.9, we can now build custom API using automation script. This is a powerful new feature yet it looks to be underutilized by the community.

The first obvious use case is it gives us the freedom to build any API we want without being restricted by the limitations of the Maximo Integration Framework. For example, we can create an API that returns data in CSV or binary format. Or we can use it to upload data and bypass the business layer.

Since it allows us to use the browser to interact with Automation Script, and the script framework has access to all Java functions of the MBO layer, We can exploit it to execute all sorts of weird operations.

https://[MAXIMO_ROOT]/maximo/oslc/script/[SCRIPT_NAME]

In an article I posted a few days ago, I used API script to call a Java function to refresh Maximo sequence and avoid a restart. Using the same approach, we can do a database configuration and deployment without downtime. 

In this post, I’ll demonstrate how we can use API script to run SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE SQL statements to Maximo database without direct DB access. This can come in handy when DB access is restricted. Of course, we can use MXLoader to achieve the same result. However, this method is a lot more convenient.

Creating an API script is very simple, we just need to create a script without a launch point. Then we can call it by accessing this URL on the browser:

If you’re already logged in and have a session. That is all it takes. Otherwise, to authenticate the request, you can pass in username and password parameters like you normally do when calling the REST API.

https://[MAXIMO_ROOT]/maximo/oslc/script/[SCRIPT_NAME]?_lid=[USERNAME]&_lpwd=[PASSWORD]

To run a SELECT query on the database, I created a script named RUNSQL with the code below:

To use the script to run a query, I typed the SQL query directly in the URL in the sql parameter as below. 

https://[MAXIMO_URL]/maximo/oslc/script/runsql?method=SELECT&sql=SELECT top 10 assetnum,description,status FROM asset WHERE status = 'OPERATING'

In this case, the data is returned to the browser in the CSV format.

To execute a query that does not return data (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE):

https://[MAXIMO_URL]/maximo/oslc/script/runsql?method=DELETE&sql=DELETE maxsession WHERE userid = 'maxadmin'

Note: I have tested this against SQL Server. Haven’t got a chance to test it against DB2 and Oracle database.

How to reset sequence without restarting Maximo?

8 March 2023 / / 0 Comments

One error we often have to deal with is an incorrect sequence when adding new data to Maximo. There are many situations which can cause this issue, such as:

  • When loading data using MXLoader, or inserting data directly via SQL
  • Sequence corruption due to unknown cause in Production, probably due to errors caused by cancelled/terminated job
  • Restoring database from a copy or after an upgrade.

When this happens, the user sees an error with a duplicated key value such as 

BMXAA4211E - Database error number 2601 has occurred…

The solution is well-documented and straightforward, we just need to find the current maximum ID value used in the table and update the corresponding sequence to use the next value.

For example, if the error occurs with the WORKORDERID field of the WORKORDER table, we can do this SQL update and restart Maximo.

UPDATE maxsequence SET maxreserved = (SELECT max(workorderid) + 1 FROM workorder) WHERE tbname = 'WORKORDER' and name = 'WORKORDERID'

However, I like to avoid restarting Maximo if possible due to some obvious problems such as:

  • I recently had to do a quick deployment which involves uploading some data. For some unknown reasons, loading the data via MXLoader causes random sequence corruption a few times. For this client which has a large cluster, restarting Maximo will require an additional 30-60 minutes downtime.
  • A location data hierarchy update requires me to insert a few thousand new records into the LOCANCESTOR table. I needed to update the sequence to a new value for subsequent data upload via MIF to work. Since it is a cloud environment, if I can avoid a restart, we won’t need to be dependent on the availability of the cloud provider.

To address that problem, the simplest solution I found to hot reset the sequence cache without restarting Maximo is by calling the reset sequence Java function via an automation script. The steps are as follows

  • Create a new script with no launch point:

Whenever we update maxsequence table with a new value and need to reset the cache, just execute the script by calling it via the REST API: 

[MAXIMO_URL]//maximo/oslc/script/runtask?_lid=maxadmin&_lpwd=maxadmin

If it works correctly, you should see something like below.

Executing the reset sequence script by calling it via REST API

No restart during a deployment means we can all go to bed earlier. Best of luck.

UPDATE:  On a clustered environment, I find it doesn’t seem to refresh all the JVMs. Thus, to be sure, we might need to run it on each JVM separately (by accessing the script from the JVM 908x port)

Solving problems with Update DB process when install or upgrade Maximo

12 July 2018 / / 0 Comments
When upgrading Maximo or installing new add-ons or fix packs, new source files will be copied to SMP folder which include Java classes and DBC (database configuration) script files. After that, the installer will run the UpdateDB process to update the database, run the BuidMaximoEar process to build the EAR file, and then deploy the EAR file to Websphere.
 
The DBC script files contain incremental changes to the Maximo database which add changes to GUI, update data, and modify DB configuration objects. Most of the problems you get when installing fix packs or upgrading Maximo come from the UpdateDB process which execute these DBC files in a set order.

Thus, if you have a problem with this process, you can follow the below general steps to troubleshoot and fix the problem:

 
  • When you have an error with UpdateDB process, note down the name of the log file that contains the error message. It has this format: [Process Name][YYYYMMDDhhmiss].log. 
  • If you have a problem with the UpdateDB process when running the installation program and don’t know the log file name, locate the [SMP]/maximo/tools/maximo folder and run the updatedb.bat (.sh) tool
    again. It will produce the same error
  • Open the log file which is located under
    [SMP]/maximo/tools/maximo/log folder to get the detailed error message.
  • Fix the problem then run the UpdateDB tool again from the command line. It will continue from the last success point.
 
Following is an example on how I got a problem when trying to create a demo database from an SMP copy I received from my client just a few hours ago. When installing demo instance by executing maxinst.bat, Maximo will create a standard initial  database by running a bunch of SQL statement from [SMP]/maximo/tools/maximo/en/maxdemo.ora for Oracle (or maxdemo.db2, or maxdemo.sqs for DB2 and SQL Server respectively). Then it will call the UpdateDB process to apply incremental changes to this database to install add-ons/fix packs which are already installed in this SMP folder).
 
During this process, I got the follow error:
 
 
To get more details about the error, I locate the Updatedb20180712173523.log in folder: [SMP]/maximo/tools/maximo/log. It gives me more details about the problem:
 
 
The problem occurred while it tried to execute the file V7110_03 script for the Oil & Gas add-on. In this case, if I scrolled up several lines, I can quickly see the problem, which is caused by an ORA-01000 – maximum open cursors exceeded. Basically, I forgot to set open_cursors parameter to 1000 as recommended by IBM, leaving it with default value = 300 when creating a new database. Thus, all I have to do in this case is increase it to 1000, then run the UpdateDB tool again. With real production database, sometimes I have to increase it to 5000 or 10000 in order to apply some fix packs.
 
In many cases, the problem is not easily identified by just looking at this log file. So we have to scroll up to a bit further, to identify which statement is causing the issue. Then, we will have to open the DBC script file which can be found under [SMP]/maximo/tools/maximo/en/[add-on folder]/[dbc script file]. For example, in this case, it is …/en/oilandgas/V7110_03.ora
 
 
 
There are a number of script file types:
 
  • Files with .ora, .sqs, .db2 extensions: are just normal SQL files applicable for Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2 respectively. You can run the SQL statement from this file against the database to check for problems directly.
  • Files with .msg extension: are used to
    add/modify existing messages. You normally don’t have a problem with these.
  • Files with .mxs, and .dbc extensions: are used to
    modify application GUI design, and apply data updates or database
    configuration changes.
 
Most of the problems come from .dbc files. To understand DBC script and identify what each statement does, you can refer to this DBC XML Format Technical Reference 
 
Some common problems we have when running UpdateDB include:
 
  • Error when creating a unique index: in this
    case, we have to query and update the data to remove or fix records with
    duplicated keys
  • Error when creating existing objects: most of the
    time, we can drop the existing object as a new object will be created by the
    script anyway
  • Missing script files, or script file doesn’t follow naming convention, which have ordered number. If there’s a missing script file, you can create an empty file by copy/paste from an existing dbc file, and rename it to have a missing ordered number. For files which don’t follow naming convention, I got get this java.lang.ClassCastExeption a few times when updatedb with Linear add-on, turns out there is a file named V7500_linear.dbc which updatedb expects to have a number after V7500, so all I have to do is change it to V7500_02.dbc and it doesn’t complain any more
  • DB operation fails due to maximum open_cursors or processes exceeded (in Oracle): increase the open_cursors, processes parameter and try to run UpdateDB again.
  • Java NullPointerException: this one is quite difficult to figure out. We have to look at the DBC file to understand what it’s trying to do. This is often caused by bad data, such as orphan records referencing a non-existence parent.
  • Error with certain DB operations like when it is unable to create a new Workorder table after Drop the table (when there’s a change to the table
    structure): I’m not exactly sure what mechanism causes this, but I found the
    problem goes way if I run the UpdateDB process again (and again). I only
    attempt to fix it if the problem persists after the 3    rd run.
 
I hope this helps you when the going gets tough.
 
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