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Informix Error -630

-630 Cannot prepare database server server-name for commit.

The specified database server cannot prepare the local transaction associated with this Informix STAR two-phase commit transaction. Eventually, all participants roll back all work associated with the transaction. No administrative intervention is required. See the ISAM error for more information about why the database server could not prepare to commit the local transaction.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-630 is the participant-side counterpart to -627: it fires when a specific named database server (a participant in an Informix STAR distributed transaction, identified in the error message) can't prepare its local part of the transaction — per the official guidance, all participants eventually roll back all work associated with the transaction automatically; no administrative intervention is required.

  1. A local failure on the named participant server preventing it from entering the prepared state, per the official guidance's pointer to checking the accompanying ISAM error for the specific reason.
  2. Network connectivity issues between the coordinator and the named participant, preventing the prepare instruction from being processed successfully.
  3. Local resource contention or a lock conflict on the named participant, distinct from any problem on the coordinator or other participants.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. No administrative intervention is required, per the official guidance — all participants automatically roll back their work.
  2. Check the accompanying ISAM error on the named database server, per the official guidance, for the specific reason its local transaction couldn't be prepared.
  3. If this recurs against a specific participant server repeatedly, investigate that server's local health and its network connectivity to the coordinator specifically, rather than treating it as a general distributed-transaction issue.
Examples
Checking the named participant's local state
$ INFORMIXSERVER=<server-name> onstat -
-- connect to the specific participant server named in the -630 message,
-- then review its online log and any accompanying ISAM error there
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Identify the specific server-name named in the error and check the accompanying ISAM error on that server.
  2. If recurring against the same server, check its local resource health and network connectivity to the coordinator specifically.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -627 — "Cannot prepare coordinator for two-phase commit." The coordinator-side counterpart to this participant-side error.
  • -628 — "Cannot end two-phase commit transaction at coordinator." Same family, at the end-transaction step.
  • -629 — "Cannot end heuristically rolled back transaction." Same family, for a heuristically-rolled-back transaction specifically.

The participant-side counterpart to -627 — check the specific named server-name's local health and ISAM error rather than the coordinator's.