Al 376 -TIP Incident Status Report 16/09/99
TIP No.
Type/Outlet
s
Week
PINICL(s)
Helpdesk
Status
4
821
8
1
26258
25878
Root cause was deletion of stock unit, following stock unit
rollover, with outstanding transactions carried out since the
last EOD marker, which were lost. This is the subject of
PINICLs 25876/8. Fix to prevent SU deletion in such
circumstances.
Fix (PWY_WP_5138 CSR) distributed to live estate 15/8
27193
Root cause was Stock Unit TM (the ATM stock at the outlet)
being rolled forward more than one CAP. The system error
that allowed this was corrected in the LT1 offices and
incorporated into LT2.
27321
27871
This problem is associated with a missing mode on an outlet
transaction, in this case a reversal of a previous cash
settlement transaction, which then failed to harvest . The fix
for this was made under root cause PiniICL number 27871
which is fixed within WP 5406 and which was distributed to
live on 23/8.
27322
9906300196
This problem related to the incorrect handling of a “correction”
SU where the cash account snapshot and cash account report
were run on different days on different nodes; the result was a
doubling of the brought forward total. This was fixed in the LT2
software and call closed on 5/7.
27319
This was caused by the use of a stock unit name starting with
a space (““). The problem was alleviated at the outlet by
deleting and recreating the SU without the leading space. To
prevent any possible re-occurrence a fix to the software has
been produced to prevent SU names commencing with space
character. The fix is included within WP5406 which was
distributed to live on 23/8.
27320
25211
Root cause was 2 transactions recorded without timestamp
during a session suspend/transfer operation and therefore not
harvested. A harvester fix was issued to cover this situation
and authorisation for the root cause fix (PINICL 25211) has
been made. This has not re-occurred since mid-June. Fix will
be distributed to outlets by 24"" September.
A separate investigation (PINICL 27514) into the relationship
between cash account line 0099 exceeding value on line 1049
identified the root cause as user input error when dealing with
Lottery cheque prize. This situation has not reoccurred in LT2.
859
nla
No E- reference was supplied and a search of Powerhelp calls
between 30/6 and 10/7 failed to identify the call details against
likely outlets (reported FAD 0105112 is invalid). Probable
cause null mode or deleted stock unit problem.
865
15
27747
25878
Deleted stock unit problem resulted in TIP not being passed
transactions. Earlier occurrence in 26258 (TIP 821) Underlying
PINICLs 25876/8, with fix distributed to live estate 15/8.
866
28746
This was the subject of Al410, concerning the change of
products from “core” to “non-core”. Changes have been made
to clarify Operational Business Change procedures in this area
which should prevent this problem recurring. The problem
arises only for Voucher transaction values, not for Value
Stock. At Stock Unit Balance time the system requires to
access the item records to obtain the description of the item
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for inclusion on the balance report. If the item is not found the
balance report prints ‘spaces’ for the description but then fails
to create the balance summary record for the product. This
will be corrected to behave exactly as for Stock Items.
Pathway delivered the fix to 95% of counters on 14"
September.
868
15:
27835
Deleted stock unit problem resulted in TIP not being passed
transactions. Earlier occurrence in 26258 (TIP 821) Underlying
PINICLs 25876/8, with fix distributed to live estate 15/8.
869
27837
In OBCS token administration suspend session then allowed a
foil to be scanned and the transaction committed to the stack
with no current mode set, resulting in a non-harvested
transaction. This is actually a duplicate of PINICL 26181 and
was fixed in WP4927, applied as part of the LT2 baseline on
10/11 July. Its occurrence in TIP869 was during CA week 15,
prior to the weekend LT2 fix.
870
16
27884
This call relates to several cash account discrepancies (5
outlets), all due to transactions not being harvested because of
missing mode attribute on reversal transactions. Analysis of
underlying root cause is covered within TIP 855 (underlying
PINICL 27871; fix released 23/8)
873
27904
This related to a mismatch between electronic and TIP derived
cash accounts at 4 offices. This resulted from a one-off
corruption of a .dll file (code for settlement) during the LT1 to
LT2 upgrade at outlets 166328, 390329 and 008523.
FAD 27153 was the subject of non harvested transactions due
to missing transaction mode on the original counter
transaction. This is the same underlying cause as TIP 874
(PINICL 27903)
27903
28167
This related to a mismatch between electronic and TIP derived
cash accounts at 5 offices.
Detailed analysis of FADs 270329 and 203329 indicated that
this was caused by scales transactions (stamp sales) recorded
with a missing mode attribute. Analysis at the other sites
(without a full message store being available) indicated a
similar root cause. 27903 fixed in WP5447, which has
completed test. Delivered to outlets 29/8.
28167 covers the agent avoidance to reconstruct missing “SC”
mode on transaction harvesting (all scales transactions are
“SC” mode), applied to live estate 3/8. This substitution will be
ceased when TIP requests that we do so.
885
17
28185
9908020071
All the incidents summarised on this call are the scales
missing mode problem
889
10 37
28218
9908030066
This call is “Acceptance Incident” 411, which is being dealt
with separately. Due to a massive replication backlog as the
correspondence servers synchronised after a failure the
harvester started work before full message sets had been
replicated for some outlets. The harvester has been enhanced
(11.8) such that it positively checks that the message store is
complete before harvesting an outlet. The missing
transactions have been sent to TIP.
28264
9908040145
This incident arose because transactions that were carried out
in Stock Unit ZZ were not harvested because the stock unit
was deleted before the End of Day marker was inserted on 29"
July, therefore the transactions were not sent to TIP.
28272
9908040196
Null mode scales transaction not harvested for week 18, which
was before both the harvester substitution work-around and
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the root cause fix were released.
28263
9908040139
Following the provision by TIP of further information on this
incident the causes have been identified as:
FAD Codes 230511, 101114 and 013523 — transactions with
null modes
FAD Code 278523, this imbalance was caused by the deletion
of Stock Unit ZZ before the EOD marker was set for the day,
causing one transaction for £155 not to be harvested and
therefore not sent to TIP.
900
28480
9908110215
Null mode (resulting from ‘Scales’ transactions) not harvested
for week 19, which was before both the harvester substitution
work-around and the root cause fix were released.
28530
9908120207
Null mode transactions (resulting from ‘Scales’ transactions)
not harvested for week 19, which was before both the
harvester substitution work-around and the root cause fix were
teleased
28527
9908120208
The root cause of this is that prior to migration, within the
ECCO system, stock of Vodaphone cards was transferred
from the manager's SU to another. Unfortunately the
manager transferred out one £15 card, and the receiving unit
transferred in three £5 cards. No fault in Pathway solution.
28531
9908120216
Null mode transaction (resulting from ‘Scales’ transaction) not
harvested for week 19 (on July 30"), which was before both
the harvester substitution work-around and the root cause fix
were released.
3
e)
fo
28528
9908120206
Null mode transactions not harvested for week 19, which was
before both the harvester substitution work-around and the
root cause fix were released.
Further information received from TIP, Pathway to analyse
remaining incident.
Based on the further information provided by TIP it has been
identified that the last of the incidents arose from a Null Mode
on a cash transaction.
28529
9908120210
Compensating differences between cash and cheque lines,.
Analysis shows CA balances with cash values as declared by
user. TIP opening balances are incorrect. Suspected to have
been caused by circumstances similar to 902, but unable to
investigate further as the transaction data has now been
archived from the message store.
909
41
20
28635
9908160161
This was caused by a failure to harvest a transaction created
to correct a fee migration problem, due to a null user field.
Harvester incidents of this nature are reported to TIP via RED
reports.
910/921
13
20
4
28630
9908160158
This is a manifestation of the double roll over at Olympia
caused by multiple presses of the SU rollover button. The fix
both displays a message to inform the user that the process has
started and also ensures any subsequent button presses are ignored
while the balance process is running.
Fix delivered to over 95% of counters on 14" September.
912
aR
21
28840
9908200140
A long and detailed explanation of this incident has been
provided. In summary, this is a reference data associated
error in the way TIP produce their cash account. No fault in
Pathway solution. Incident closed by TIP.
913
15
21
28847
9908200185
This incident was caused by the host being unable to correctly
interpret the settlement of an existing reversal of the
settlement of a stock adjustment transaction. This is because
the reversal settlement is not itself a reversal of a transaction
and therefore carries no indication of the ‘original mode’ of the
transaction being reversed. In the absence of an ‘original
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mode’ attribute, the harvester assigns a mode of ‘Serve
Customer’ (1) with the reversal indicator set.
The fix will be to amend the counter software to add the
original transaction mode to any ‘existing reversal’ settlement
transaction, the host software will then use this information (no
change required) to put the correct mode on the transaction
sent to TIP. Fix expected to live by 24"" September.
9909030095
Different manifestation of as 914, 915 below. P & A invalid
ITM. Fixed by withdrawal of fault on 29.8
29473
9909100199
This is a duplicate of TIP 913.
29476
9909100204
These discrepancies were the result of OBCS transactions
recorded as remittances. (see also TIP incidents 914 and 915
against Al359). Fix delivered to offices on 28" August.
29500
9909130005
This set of discrepancies arose at the Olympia office due to
the problems at that office with a ‘double rollover’ of the stock
unit and the subsequent corruption of the Cash Account for
CAP 21. The corrective action resulted in the production of a
Cash Account for CAP 22 at the office which includes all
transactions since the start of CAP 21 up to (and including)
transactions undertaken to the end of the calendar period of
CAP 23. The CAP 23 Cash Account was then produced on
the same day and contained only stock holding records.
The fix for the double rollover problem was released to live on
14 September.
AI 359 22
914
29891
9908250142
The transactions rejected in this incident all relate to P&A
transactions which have been recorded with a ‘Remittance’
mode. An error in the system at this time (which was
corrected 29.8) caused the application variable holding the
current desktop ‘Mode’ to be incorrectly cleared, allowing
OBCS to conduct a P&A transaction. When the transactions
were passed to Riposte to commit them to the message store,
the Riposte Desktop mode at the time (in all cases one of the
Remittance modes, indicating that the user was within the
Remittance part of the menu hierarchy) was added into the
transaction data.
915
29024
9908260149
As for TIP Incident 914 above (but with additional cases where
the user was in the ‘Housekeeping’ mode at the time the
transaction took place).
920
9909010010
927
23
29476
9909100204
Known issue with migration, not a Pathway fault. ECCO.
records suspense account transactions as Serve Customer,
but TIP expects Horizon to record them as Housekeeping.
This incident was caused by the recording of P&A transactions
with Remittance or Housekeeping mode. This is a duplicate of
TIP 914, 915 and 919 under AI359.
A fix for this problem was delivered on 28" August (part way
through CAP 23).
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Incident Types
1. Deleted SU
2. SU double roll
3. Missing mode - reversal
4. New SU
5. SU name with blank first character
6. Missing time stamp
7. Deleted Item ref data
8. Missing mode — OBCS suspend
9. Missing mode - scales
10. __I Replication recovery
11. Fee migration correction error
12. Corrupted software file
13. Multiple simultaneous SU roll over
14. I OBCS swipe permitted in invalid mode by faulty fix.
15 _I Signage issue on interface.
nm_I Null Mode, unassigned cause
* Not Pathway error
*E I ECCO transfer problem
*R__I Reference Data missmatch
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