Hi,
basing on SQL Server 2000 we implemented some Jobs which make an
intensive use of DTS technology; after a refining activity we
succeeded, this is our conviction, in clearing Jobs from problematics
due to errors related to our development activity; unfortunately there
are still some runtime exceptions recurring in a non-deterministic way
and for which we cannot find a valid explanation.

Before proceeding with error analysis I' ll give you some technical
data concerning the state-of-art:.

We have designed a considerable number of DTS packages using
Enterprise Manager (SQL Server 2000) aiming to schedule them through
a few number of SQL Jobs.

In every package, besides default DTS Tasks proposed by Enterprise
Manager ( DataPump tasks in particular), we make a large use of
Custom Tasks designed ad-hoc by ourselves and developed in C#.

Single jobs could require a nesting level for packages with a maximum
of 6-7 levels of depth and a parallelism degree that can involve more
than 4 packages concurrently.

All packages are kept on Structured File Storage on single machine (
the same machine that hosts SQL Server)

The machine hosting SQL Server and chosen for submitting all Jobs
involving DTS packages, has the following specifics:

OS: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
DBMS: SQL Server 2000 (Service Pack 3)
(for further details and technical data look at the attachment
generated with reporting tool MPS Report)




Errors/exception encountered:

In a non-deterministic way, and so involving different packages with a
non-predictable frequency, the following exception has been raised (
this is a log generated from SQL):

Step Error Source: Microsoft Data Transformation Services (DTS)
Package
Step Error Description: Code execution exception:
EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION Need to run the object to perform this
operation
Code execution exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION
Step Error code: 80040005
Step Error Help File:sqldts80.hlp
Step Error Help Context ID:0

Consider that same packages responsible for exception, if launched
separately or from parent packages provided interactively (DTSRun
command or Console), often did succeed.