topic Error: An I/O error has occurred on file in SAS Programming

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

Saugata — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:10:14 GMT

Hi All,

When I am trying to read a sas dataset, I am getting an weird error "Error: An I/O error has occurred on file". This is a recent problem I'm facing and doesn't occur always.

When I started investigating I found the following link http://support.sas.com/kb/12/135.html

According to the link this error appears while the drive which contain sas temporary/work datasets have low disk space. But my E: drive (which contain SAS temporary files) have more than 1 TB space !

So, now I am confused. Could anybody please help me through.

Thanks in advance for your efforts.

Thanks & Regards,

Saugata Mukherjee.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

SASKiwi — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:23:51 GMT

It would be helpful if you could post the code that is generating the problem along with the error itself. This error can be caused by a variety of issues of which the low disk space is just one.

For example disk hardware problems can cause this. Also be aware that some SAS processes, for example PROC SORT, use at least double the space of the SAS dataset being sorted to complete a sort.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

twocanbazza — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:32:52 GMT

Also include what OS you are on, size of the dataset, does it have an index etc

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

Saugata — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:29:29 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for taking interest in solving the problem. Please find below the details you have asked for:

The code and error:

131 data temp;
132 set database.pvweek_1_12;
133 where view_date='01sep2011'd;
134 run;

ERROR: An I/O error has occurred on file DATABASE.PVWEEK_1_12.DATA.

NOTE: The data step has been abnormally terminated.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

WARNING: The data set WORK.TEMP may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0

observations and 8 variables.

WARNING: Data set WORK.TEMP was not replaced because this step was stopped.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.43 seconds

cpu time 0.40 seconds

As you can see it is just a reading a file. And the weirdest thing is not always we are getting this problem. Just now i have executed the same code and got desired result!!!!

159 data temp;
160 set database.pvweek_1_12;
161 where view_date='01dec2011'd;
162 run;

NOTE: There were 308593 observations read from the data set DATABASE.PVWEEK_1_12.
      WHERE view_date='01DEC2011'D;
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEMP has 308593 observations and 8 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           3.62 seconds
      cpu time            0.79 seconds

I am really baffled now.

Other information you have asked for:

The size of the dataset: 650 Mb

We are not using Index in this file.

Os: Microsoft windows server 2003, Enterprise edition, Service pack 2

Free Disk space on the driver 1.2 TB.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

Saugata — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:30:23 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for taking interest in solving the problem. Please find below the details you have asked for:

The code and error:

131 data temp;
132 set database.pvweek_1_12;
133 where view_date='01sep2011'd;
134 run;

ERROR: An I/O error has occurred on file DATABASE.PVWEEK_1_12.DATA.

NOTE: The data step has been abnormally terminated.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

WARNING: The data set WORK.TEMP may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0

observations and 8 variables.

WARNING: Data set WORK.TEMP was not replaced because this step was stopped.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.43 seconds

cpu time 0.40 seconds

As you can see it is just a reading a file. And the weirdest thing is not always we are getting this problem just now i have executed the same code and got desired result!!!!

159 data temp;
160 set database.pvweek_1_12;
161 where view_date='01dec2011'd;
162 run;

I am really baffled now.

Other information you have asked for:

The size of the dataset: 650 Mb

We are not using Index in this file.

Os: Microsoft windows server 2003, Enterprise edition, Service pack 2

Free Disk space on the driver 1.2 TB.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

DouglasMartin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:15:49 GMT

Just a thought - have you checked into the possibility that the error message needs to be taken literally? i.e. Is there a problem with the disk itself? I would have thought drive problems would result in error messages from Windows itself, but one never knows.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

art297 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:53:25 GMT

I have run into similar problems trying to analyze data of that size, on a Windows 2003 server, when the file was on a different machine than the one on which SAS was located. I found that the only way we could totally avoid such errors was to first copy the file onto the same server that was running SAS.

Error: An I/O error has occurred on file

SASKiwi — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:42:17 GMT

Where is the DATABASE SAS library located? Is it on a locally attached drive on the server? Also I suggest you check out the Windows Event Log which you can access from the Windows Control Panel. Are there any errors being recorded about the time you got your I/O error? If there are then it is possible your server has an intermittent hardware fault. You will need to involve your IT server support people to investigate server faults further.