Remote insert actioned before local update ???

Hi,

Can anyone put me straight.....

We have four DEC Alphas (VMS 7.1-1h2) ORACLE 7.3.2, three of which are used
as part of an online credit vetting system and the forth used as a data repository for subsequent use should the applicant want to take up the offer
they have been vetted for.
The application collects data, and score it using ORACLE 7.3.2 packages
(written in-house).

Once this process has been completed and a set of tables written to, a Pro COBOL program comes along and interacts with the Alpha 1-3 ORACLE tables
and a Series 90 Bull mainframe at one point updating one of the tables with
a value derived from the BULL mainframe (DM IV / TP) - later to be the key
on Alpha 4.
As well as updating the table (Aphas 1-3) a row is inserted into a transfer
table on the forth Alpha.
Another Pro COBOL program runs on the forth box and its jobs is to transfer
only relevant data from Alphas (1-3) to Alpha 4.

My problem is as follows :

Intermittently the transfer program aborts with an ORACLE -1400
(trying to insert null value into NOT NULL column, I think) - the key
value
for Alpha 4 is the column being updated on the Alpha 1-3 tables.

We tried moving the remote insert in the Alpha 1-3 program so it was last
before the commit - still didn't work.

We tried committing the Alpha 1-3 table work then doing the remote insert
individually then committing this - same thing.

Now and again the column on Alpha 1-3 is null when the program on Alpha 4
goes to get it.

This process is controlled by a logging indicator.

When the remote insert is done the indicator is set to 0.

Alpha 4 picks up the min key of Alpha 1-3 with an indicator of 0 and gives it to a package (written in-house) that transfers the data.

I thought this would mean that when Alpha 4 saw the indicator set to 0 it could go off and get the data of Alpha 1-3 tables with no problems.

Can anyone give me a clue what we've done wrong.

How does an insert into Alpha 4 get actioned before the update to a table
on Alpha 1-3 even though the code says to do the update first then the remote
insert ?

Thanks in advance for reading this far.

Ian (new to ORACLE in Feb 1998)

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Click here to e-mail me mailto:ian.downham_at_which.net Received on Sun Jan 24 1999 - 07:07:24 CST