Informix Error -55250: socket() failed.

Reasons / Common Causes

-55250 fires when onprobe's (or its oncockpit GUI client's) call to socket() fails — per the official guidance, three possible causes are named.

1. The TCP/IP networking subsystem not being up, per the official guidance.
2. The system's table of open files being temporarily full, per the official guidance.
3. System buffer space being unavailable, per the official guidance.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Confirm the TCP/IP networking subsystem is up, per the official guidance, as the first check.
2. Check the system's open-file table for exhaustion, per the official guidance.
3. Check for available system buffer space, per the official guidance, if the first two checks don't explain it.

Examples

N/A

No specific triggering statement is documented beyond socket() returning a failure.

Diagnostic Checks

1. Confirm TCP/IP networking is up on the host.
2. Check the open-file table for exhaustion (e.g. ulimit -n, system-wide file-descriptor limits).
3. Check available system buffer/memory resources.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -55251 — "Could not translate service name... getservbyname() failed." The next step in the same connection-establishment chain.
• -55252 — "bind() using service... failed." Another step in the same chain.
• -55274 — "Could not translate host name... gethostbyname() failed." Another step in the same chain.
• -55276 — "connect() to host... using service... failed." The final step in the same chain.

socket() failed before any name resolution or connection attempt — check that TCP/IP is up, the open-file table isn't exhausted, and system buffer space is available.