TIps and Tricks for Debugging Package Delivery ZIP Failures?

[ScottMorris]

Does anyone have good tips and tricks for debugging a Package Delivery ZIP failure? There's not enough information in the background method server's log file to pinpoint a specific object or problem to investigate. 

I have a package and related delivery I cannot ZIP in Windchill 10.1 M050. The background method server log file shows: "Nested exception is: wt.util.WTException: Delivery ZIP file could not be created. Contact your administrator if the problem persists."

I can create Packages and Deliveries w/o error, but I am encountering this ZIP failure frequently for one product context. I can successfully ZIP other deliveries in other contexts, so I'm sure the problem is related to this particular set of objects.

This particular package pulls content from multiple containers and includes CAD, Drawings, Documents, ECAD and Parts. I tried excluding items by object type, source container, special characters in the name, long names, etc. but nothing cured the problem.

I have a call open with PTC Techincal Support, but they have not found a solution or a work-around for me yet. Hoping someone here might have some suggestions for me.

[ScottMorris · Accepted solution]

Coming back to this old post now that PTC TS helped identify the root cause to share the short version of what fixed the problem.

1. Enabled verbose logging for IXB "How to troubleshoot error prompted by "Import/Export" in Windchill PDMLink" on test server
2. Reproduced ZIP failure and sent log files to PTC TS for evaluation
3. PTC TS identified a build history failure with one assembly in the package
4. Updated wt.part structure for problematic CAD assembly with the Build Associated Part action
• This process removed all the manually added wt.parts and required adding them back to restore it to it's previous structure
5. Zipped the Delivery and everything worked successfully

I tried lots of other debugging methods and none of them helped. The best thing to do was continuously narrow the scope of the package to identify the problematic item(s). Its a tedious process to dial in on the right assembly, but once it was narrowed down to <50 items vs. 1,400 items, it was much easier to find.