Can't build cubes as cubes are locked - series 7

[GaryC]

Hi guys - Using transformer and powerplay series 7 (no web or anything).

I have batchfiles that build cubes overnight but fail as users leave Pplay open over night and have a lock on the cube files.

Ppl will ask me to build into a build directory first but that doesn't get around the problem of the production cubes still being locked.

What have others done to get cubes into their proper place on schedule?

[almeids]

   You should build to a build directory first, just to minimize the downtime, but either way you need to disable cube access before overwriting.
   It's been a long time since I've dealt with this but there's a command line PowerPlay Administration tool (ppadmtool.exe?) which lets you disable access beforehand and reenable it afterward.
   If I'm recalling correctly there are 2 disable options, similar to the interactive admin interface, one for "immediate" and one for "after requests are complete".  Use the immediate option to be sure all users are disconnected before you replace the cube. 

[prikala]

ppadmtool is of no help if there is no PP EnterpriseServer.

Are the cubes on a windows server accessed via windows share?
If yes, you could be able to kill sessions from the server using "net file" command ("net file" to get listing of open files and "net file XXX /close" to kill session, XXX being the id of file).

Of course this is really ugly from the client side, who knows what happens when cube is changed and powerplay does not know it.... To be safe, users should schedule automatic closing of PowerPlay.exe (pskill?).

[GaryC]

Thanks for that.

The cubes are on a Windows server network share.

I'm currently getting IT to kill any locks on those files so I can update them (I don't know what tool they use).  It is already a very ungraceful solution so I'll investigate ANY alternative so then at least I have those tools available to myself and I won't have to contact the IT department.