DB Connect Loss

Oh, and BTW, the event logs do not show anything at the time of these DB Connect Loss errors...

Thanks!!

"Oaxaca" wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if anyone out there has run into this issue. My site is running RMS 1.2 and has been for the past year. The server is a Wndows 2003 server and POS stations are running Windows XP SP2.

We have been getting DB Connect Loss messages just about everyday for the past 8 or 9 months. These errors occur randomly throughout the day and evening. Initially we believed they could be due to networking issues, but could not find any networking issues to be present. I hard coded duplex/speed setting on the server/workstations and the switch/router, replaced router/switch with backup router/switch, disabled windows firewall (is still disabled), gave POS logins ADMIN access, etc, etc... Many many things have been done within the past 8 months to try to find the source of this issue, but we are still gettng them. We re-installed RMS w/ no luck in fixing the issue and I am running out of options. When we discussed this with Microsoft reps they basically said that it sounds like a problem on the network... That was that... We have replaced all networkng devices and hard coded everything on the network with no success in getting rid of the problem.

I was able to reduce the frequency of the DB Connect Loss errors by uninstalling some network monitoring software that was monitoring the network, but we have failed in totally ridding ourselves of the errors...

Has anyone on here heard of or experienced this issue before? If so, any suggestions would be much appreciated. We are upgrading to 1.3 R within the next couple weeks, so I am hoping that this will solve the issue..

Frustrated....

Jason

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the quick response! It is very much appreciated! I have pretty much done everything that you mentioned w/ the exception of checking the BIOS NIC power saving properties. I know that I have disabled the power saving features through the software, but not through the BIOS yet. I will definitely try that tomorrow.

We are located in Cedar Rapids Iowa, so yeah we do have very seasonal weather, but all network cables have been replaced.

Hopefully by disabling the power savings for the NIC in the BIOS we will see some positive results. I also do like your idea about NetBeui... The unfortunate thing is that the issue happens so randomly that I could sit there for hours and not have a DB Connect Loss and then all of a sudden we would get one or two.

Well, we will see if it has any positive effects tomorrow!!

Thanks again!!

Jason

"Jeff @ Check Po> Jason,

by the IP address instead of by name.

enabled and check Enable Shared memory on the General tab, add the server name to the Alias tab and on the DB Library Options tab, make sure a file name is listed (ntwdblib.dll) on each machine.

If this is happening to all machines, its either a route/firewall/switch, a NIC or cable in the server issue. If its a particular machine, its a cable or a port (workstation NIC or switch/router/firewall) problem. Double check that you have the latest drivers installed for each machine's NIC. Also make sure that you don't have the NIC going to sleep. Look at both the BIOS and within the NIC's properties for these options.

electrical user (refers, a/c units, neon or fluorescent light ballasts, etc), make sure there are no kinks in the network cables, make sure that any excess network cable is not wrapped in a coil, but in a figure 8 style. Any bends in the cable must have at least with a 1/2" radius.

issues. Humidity and dirty connections will cause intermittent failures. Get yourself some electrical contact cleaner or TV Tuner cleaner from any electronics store (Distributor cleaner from an auto parts store will work too) and spray on all network connections

NetBeui on each machine. Yeah, its chatty, but that's the point, to keep the network connection alive.

by the IP address instead of by name.

enabled and check Enable Shared memory on the General tab, add the server name to the Alias tab and on the DB Library Options tab, make sure a file name is listed (ntwdblib.dll) on each machine.

If this is happening to all machines, its either a route/firewall/switch, a NIC or cable in the server issue. If its a particular machine, its a cable or a port (workstation NIC or switch/router/firewall) problem. Double check that you have the latest drivers installed for each machine's NIC. Also make sure that you don't have the NIC going to sleep. Look at both the BIOS and within the NIC's properties for these options.

electrical user (refers, a/c units, neon or fluorescent light ballasts, etc), make sure there are no kinks in the network cables, make sure that any excess network cable is not wrapped in a coil, but in a figure 8 style. Any bends in the cable must have at least with a 1/2" radius.

issues. Humidity and dirty connections will cause intermittent failures. Get yourself some electrical contact cleaner or TV Tuner cleaner from any electronics store (Distributor cleaner from an auto parts store will work too) and spray on all network connections

NetBeui on each machine. Yeah, its chatty, but that's the point, to keep the network connection alive.

I am the Engineer that has taken over this project and just wanted to drop a note here saying that this issue is still very much alive. There were a ton of input/output/crc errors ocurring on the router at this location and even after resolving those issues we are still seeing DB Connection Losses from the RMS POS units.

If there is anyone that provide any additional troubleshooting tips that would be greatly appreicated. I am curious as to whether or not this could have something to do with the database server itself. I am not much of a SQL server admin myself but I am attempting to learn very quickly. I'll post more as time goes on.

Thanks Zach Petersen

"Oaxaca" wrote:

== "Zach Petersen" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com... I am the Engineer that has taken over this project and just wanted to drop a note here saying that this issue is still very much alive. There were a ton of input/output/crc errors ocurring on the router at this location and even after resolving those issues we are still seeing DB Connection Losses from the RMS POS units.

If there is anyone that provide any additional troubleshooting tips that would be greatly appreicated. I am curious as to whether or not this could have something to do with the database server itself. I am not much of a SQL server admin myself but I am attempting to learn very quickly. I'll post more as time goes on.

Thanks Zach Petersen

"Oaxaca" wrote:

Jeff,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunatly I do not have access to Customer Source so I cant look at that link. I have to be honest in that I am not 100% positive what version of SQL they are running. I was under the impression that it was a full blown SQL server. I will verify which version and post another response.

I will also verify the NIC settings on the server and the workstations. I have been capturing network traffic for a couple of days and also tracking the times that the error occurred in hopes that I can track down some kinds of hint.

Thanks aga> Zach,

Hello Everyone,

I was running a sniffer on the network in question and I believe that I may have captured the cause of the DB Connection Loss errors. I am not very well versed in the art of reading network captures but there is certainly something odd going on as you look through the logs.

If anyone would like to take a look at the information I have gathered you may access it @

filter.txt 56 bytes wireshark/ethereal packet filter for use on ntowne.pcap ntowne.pcap 89 Kb wireshark/ethereal network capture file ntowne.txt 103 Kb capture file (filtered) exported to text format ntowne_err.csv 21 Kb capture file (filtered) exported to csv format

I am going to keep trying to decipher the information as well as capture more network traffic in hopes of the error duplicating itself. If anyone has time to take a look at this I would be very greatful.

Thank you! Zach Petersen