没有详细信息的SQL Server OLEDB错误

Question

I have a SQL Server Agent job running, which uses a stored procedure to do several operations, then exports some data to an xls spreadsheet and emails that spreadsheet. Most of the time it works, but several times a month the job fails with the error:

OLE DB provider 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 7399). The step failed.

Thanks, Microsoft, for the detailed error message. Anyway, the short term fix is usually to simply re-run the job. Usually this works, but in rarer cases it does not, and I must restart the SQL Server instance.

Here is how my code interacts with OLEDB:

    Insert into OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 'Excel 5.0;Database=\\Excel\POStatus\POStatus.xls;', 
   'SELECT * FROM [POStatus$]')  

Select --Tons of columns with tons of math and functions
FROM --5 tables joined together (left joins)
WHERE -- Tons of where conditions
Order by --Case statement for custom sorting

Set @vCommand =  'copy \\Excel\POStatus\POStatus.xls \\Excel\POStatus\POStatus_' + @vDate + '.xls'

EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @vCommand , NO_OUTPUT

... omitted for brevity...

  Set @nvSubject = ' POStatus ' + @vDate
  Set @nvMessage = ' This is an automated message, please respond to the IS department,  thank you ' 
  Set @nvMessage = @nvMessage + char(13) + char(10)

      Set @nvAttachments = '\\Excel\POStatus\POStatus_' + @vDate + '.xls'

      Exec master..xp_sendmail 
           @recipients = @nvRecipients , @copy_recipients = @nvCopy_recipients ,
           @subject = @nvSubject , @message = @nvMessage ,  
           @query = @nvQuery , @width = @iWidth , @attachments = @nvAttachments

So, what is the cause of this, and how can I prevent it?

Answer 1

When you call OPENROWSET, it load the DLL for OLEDB provider for Excel. These operations happens inside the SQL Server Stack memory. When a lot of call to older DLL (ActiveX/COM) are made, it's not impossible that your stack might get full. You can resolve this in 2 ways:

1) You make these operations outside a TSQL code. You can use a SSIS package for example but you have to change your code not to use OPENROWSET. You can use the DTS Wizard to do most of the job. This is my personnal recommandation !

2) You can also set SQL Server to have a bigger memory Stack by using the -g command parameter. I think 256 MB is the default and you can set it to 512. To do that you need to open the SQL Server Configuration Manager. Depending on your version, you should have a place to change the "Startup Parameters"