SAP Note 27178 - oncheck -cc: "Unknown error message 0"

Symptom:

The database utility 'oncheck' returns the following error message when executing 'oncheck -cc' on an SAP database:
"Unknown error message 0."

Cause and prerequisites

'oncheck -cc' checks the consistency of the INFORMIX system catalog tables.
If one of these system tables is found to be in "Update" access mode during this consistency check, due to an application transaction, the 'oncheck -cc' utility terminates with the above error message. This message is WRONG. It should state "Lock has been denied" instead. This improper message is scheduled to be fixed in an upcoming release of Informix.

Solution
'oncheck -cc' can only be executed, if no system catalog tables are blocked by application transactions.
To ensure that the consistency check using 'oncheck -cc' does not terminate with the above error message, the R/3 work processes must be stopped (stopsap r3) so that no further change transactions can occur on the system catalog tables.
OR an alternative solution to this problem is to try running oncheck -cc repeatdely until no error is returned. This can be accomplished by running oncheck -cc thru a shell script and trapping for this error. However, pleae be aware that the probability of an errror being returned increases along with R3 activity. One should use this approach during slack time periods only. It should be noted that a few R3 sites are using this approach with success during slack periods.