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How to resolve DataStage error "Unable to open descriptor file to update: Permission denied"

Troubleshooting


Problem

Why DataStage job / jobs fails with "Unable to open descriptor file to update: Permission denied" error.

Symptom

Files can not be overwritten or can not be deleted by other users other than dsadm user id.

Cause

Wrong umask setting 022 is used by dsadm user to run DataStage jobs, this causes DataStage job / jobs which are scheduled via Director client to fail with below errors.

main_program: Unable to open descriptor file to create: Permission denied
main_program: Error writing ORCHESTRATE File Data Set descriptor for '/dataset/TEST.ds'.
main_program: Fatal Error: Could not create output file /dataset/TEST.ds. filesystem related error

Diagnosing The Problem

Design a simple DataStage job to create either a Dataset or a Sequential file and follow below steps to test umask value of the dsadm user id & file permission.

1/ Open Job properties.

2/ In Before job subroutine: select ExecSH from drop down list and type umask under Input Value:

3/ Open DataStage Director and schedule the job to run every day, this will create crontab script dsr_sched.sh on the server.

4/ After job is Run, open the job log and look for umask value.

If umask value in the job log is 022, then follow below steps to resolve file permission issues.

Resolving The Problem

Add umask 002 in dsr_sched.sh script.

1). Got to Project directory

- For DataStage 7.x -- Ascential/DataStage/Projects/<Project Name>

- For DataStage 8.x -- IBM/InformationServer/Server/Projects/<Project Name>

2). Find dsr_sched.sh script and edit dsr_sched.sh.

- This is how existing dsr_sched.sh script looks like.


uvhome=$2
shift 2
cd $project
. $uvhome/dsenv
$uvhome/bin/uvsh "DSR.SCHED $*"

3). Add umask 002 like below and save dsr_sched.sh script
uvhome=$2
shift 2
cd $project
. $uvhome/dsenv
umask 002
$uvhome/bin/uvsh "DSR.SCHED $*"

Now schedule test job and check job log for umask value, you should find umask vale as 002 and file permissions as -rw-rw-r--

[{"Product":{"code":"SSVSEF","label":"IBM InfoSphere DataStage"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"--","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"}],"Version":"9.1;8.7;8.5;8.1;8.0;7.5.3;7.5","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21570937