Informix Error -139

Reasons / Common Causes

-139 completes the same trio as -137 (chunks) and -138 (dbspaces): an administrator-facing configuration ceiling, this time on the number of logical logs the instance can have. LOGSMAX in ONCONFIG caps how many logical logs can exist, and that count has been reached.

1. The instance has reached its configured LOGSMAX limit on the number of logical logs.
2. Logical logs added incrementally over time to handle growing transaction volume, without revisiting whether LOGSMAX itself — a hard ceiling on count, separate from individual log size — needed raising alongside them.
3. An originally under-provisioned LOGSMAX at initial configuration.
4. High transaction-volume growth driving a need for more logical logs (for backup granularity, rollback coverage, or reduced wraparound risk) that outpaces the original count ceiling.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Increase LOGSMAX in ONCONFIG.
2. Reinitialize shared memory for the change to take effect — the same required step as -137/-138.
3. Consider whether fewer, larger logical logs would better address the underlying need, rather than only ever adding more at the current size — raising individual log size can reduce pressure on the count ceiling directly, alongside or instead of raising LOGSMAX.
4. Review overall logging strategy proactively for systems under sustained transaction-volume growth, rather than reactively raising LOGSMAX each time this ceiling is reached.

Examples

The fix

# ONCONFIG
LOGSMAX  32

# Then reinitialize shared memory

Reconsidering log size vs. count

A system that has repeatedly raised LOGSMAX over time, each time transaction volume grew, might get more durable headroom from increasing individual logical log size instead — fewer, larger logs can serve the same total logging capacity without repeatedly approaching the count ceiling.

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check the current LOGSMAX setting:

   grep -i "^LOGSMAX" $ONCONFIG
   

2. Check current logical log count and status:

   onstat -l
   

3. Review transaction-volume growth trends if this recurs, to decide between raising LOGSMAX again versus increasing individual log size for more durable headroom.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -137 — "ISAM error: chunk table overflow." The same configuration-ceiling pattern applied to chunks.
• -138 — "ISAM error: dbspace table overflow." The same pattern applied to dbspaces.

All three (-137, -138, -139) share the identical fix shape: raise the relevant ONCONFIG parameter, then reinitialize shared memory — the only real variable is which resource's ceiling was hit.