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Informix Error -632

-632 Cannot create optical cluster.

An attempt to create an optical cluster has failed. See the ISAM error for more information.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-632 fires when creating an optical cluster fails for a reason the accompanying ISAM error identifies — per the official guidance, this error itself is a general failure indicator, with the specific cause carried by the ISAM error alongside it.

  1. An underlying ISAM-level error during the optical cluster's creation, per the official guidance's pointer to checking the accompanying ISAM error — the only documented path to the specific cause.
  2. Optical Subsystem-level storage issues (the optical media/jukebox/library being unavailable, full, or misconfigured), a plausible category of cause given the subsystem involved, though not explicitly named by the sparse official text.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Check the accompanying ISAM error code, per the official guidance — this is the only documented path to the specific underlying cause.
  2. Confirm the target column is TEXT/BYTE first (ruling out the -631 condition), since a type mismatch would be reported as -631 specifically, not -632.
  3. Check the Optical Subsystem's storage availability (media, jukebox/library status) as a plausible concrete cause to rule out, given the ISAM error alone may point toward a storage-level condition.
Examples
Checking the accompanying ISAM error
-- Review the ISAM error code reported alongside -632 for the specific
-- underlying reason the optical cluster couldn't be created.
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check the accompanying ISAM error code first, per the official guidance.
  2. Confirm the target column is TEXT/BYTE, ruling out -631's specific condition.
  3. Check Optical Subsystem storage availability as a plausible contributor.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -631 — "Cannot create optical cluster on column that is not TEXT or BYTE." A more specific optical-cluster-creation failure, for the particular case of a wrong column type.
  • -633 — "Cannot drop optical cluster." The corresponding drop-side failure.

A general creation-failure indicator — the accompanying ISAM error carries the specific reason, per the official guidance.