Symptom:
Files Dates (and sized) do not change anymore.
Even closure to the timestamped filenames fails (NO "self-healing" over time).
Restarting the Service engine does NOT help.
Diagnose:
Sort the files in the "Data folder" (default: COMPUTERNAME\PROJECTNAME) by change date:
Typically, timestamps of base archives (xx.ARX), CEL.BIN, ALARM.BIN,... update with every change, while starting up the Service Engine...
> Focus on files which do not follow this expectation.
Issue:
In the reported case, the virtual machines file system failed to fulfil the applications write requests. The files were still readable.
Solution:
Shutting down the service engine, copy/pasting the entire folder to cerate accessible duplicates (-> renaming the folders to continue with the copies) solved the reported case.
In more difficult cases, renaming the "Data folder" (so that a new, blank, folder is created during startup), may be the first step:
Data rescue, by identifying good files and moving them into the new folder, could still be possible.
Precaution:
Set up Server redundancy. In a redundant system, shutting down the Service Engine on the corrupted server and deleting the affected files, would be the simple remedy:
While restarting the Service Engine, the good files from the other server are copied automatically - assuring seamless records.
This mechanism generally allows one Service Engine to be shut down for installation of updates and the creation of backups or snapshots.
This article addresses permanent file system issues.
In regard to temporary file system issues (which are typically caused by backup and snapshot mechanisms), the following system behaviour is documented in the "Data folder" parameters context help:
Attention: If the defined path does not exist (network problems, removable media not available), no more data are written from Service Engine. That means: 100% data loss! The Service Engine remains operable but must be restarted. The availability of the folder can be checked via the Service Engine folder not available system driver variable.
Hint: Never set the data folder to a removable device such as an USB stick or a network device. It is best to record data locally and save them externally