Microsoft KB Archive/263095

= SMS: Using &quot;Delete Special&quot; Command to Remove Many Machine History Records Generates an Error Message =

Article ID: 263095

Article Last Modified on 10/27/2006

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.2 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q263095



SYMPTOMS
If you use the Delete Special command to delete many machine history records, you may receive the following error message:

There has been an error. Couldn't complete the specified action.



CAUSE
Systems Management Server (SMS) uses synchronous query execution. This problem can occur if the process times out before Microsoft SQL Server can finish the query. This time-out can occur if the database contains many records, either because of large hierarchies or because periodic database cleanup has not been performed.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem and delete a lot of data, use the Delete Special command on small ranges of machine history records. For example, to delete all machine history records that are older than 30 days:
 * 1) Use the Delete Special command to delete all machine history records that are older than 360 days.
 * 2) Use the Delete Special command to delete all machine history records that are older than 330 days.
 * 3) Use the Delete Special command to delete all machine history records that are older than 300 days.
 * 4) Continue to use the Delete Special command to delete groups of machine history records and reduce the date criterion of the group by 30 days each time, until you reach the interval that you want (in this case, all machine history records that are older than 30 days).

NOTE: Each time that you use the Delete Special command, you must use the Delete Unused/Common Specific Records command afterward (on the Tools menu, click Delete Unused Common/Specific Records) to run SMS Database Manager (Dbclean.exe).



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: prodsms There has been an error. Couldn t complete the specified action. large chunks small remove

Keywords: kbbug kberrmsg kbnofix kbserver kbsmsadmin kbsmsutil KB263095

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.