SQL1042C may be received on all db2 commands run on Windows operating system

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We have recently seen a couple of cases where user's were unable to run any db2 commands on Microsoft Windows operating system.
They either got :

"SQL1042C An unexpected system error occurred. SQLSTATE=58004" error in db2 or

"DB21018E A system error occurred. The command line processor could not continue processing." error in application.

First place to check for more information on the error we get is db2diag.log. In db2diag.log, we see an error as follows :

2017-10-02-17.10.45.742003+420 E628778F498 LEVEL: Error (OS)
PID : 2008 TID : 5148 PROC : db2syscs.exe
INSTANCE: DB2INST NODE : 000
APPHDL : 0-45
EDUID : 5234 EDUNAME: db2agent ()
FUNCTION: DB2 UDB, oper system services, sqloReadFileInterrupt, probe:3
MESSAGE : ZRC=0x830005AA=-2097150550
CALLED : OS, -, unspecified_system_function
OSERR : 1450 "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service."

The above error  - OSERR : 1450 "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.", is returned from the operating system. It is a Microsoft error number 1450 which translates into an Insufficient system resources message.

This is a Windows API error code, not DB2 error code, and it was returned by a Windows API function ReadFile(). The meaning of the error is ERROR_NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES - insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.

Error 1450 is specifically related to Paged Pool memory. Paged Pool is one of Windows NT's internal heaps and it depends on the amount of physical memory available on the box.

Solution :

Microsoft also confirms that this is a limitation of Windows 32-bit operating system design. Please search for error "OSERR : 1450" in Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles and correct it the problem accordingly.

As an immediate relief, if the circumstances permit, users can try to reboot the system to free up memory that hasn't been released. But if that doesn't work, please refer the Microsoft articles above and follow Microsoft .

Retry db2 commands once you fix the OS errors.