Cant get BOH to take over as file server.

[CDTECH71730]

I dont have much exp. with aloha but a lient my company does support for has problems with their aloha system.
Most of the probs we have solved but now i cant get the BOH to take over as the file server. Nor can i get the BOH to refresh the FOH Data. i can see each term (3 terms) from the server and server from terms. Need Help Please ASAP they start back serving thursday.

 

[posrescue]

First off try deleting c:\aloha\downtime.ini from each of the terminals then reboot the terminals. If the networking, sharing, naming and user rights is correct this will probably get them back online.

 

[RokStar]

also you could try restarting the ctlsvr service, or just rebooting the server, then bring terminals up one at a time.

It is hard to say with the info you provided. If it was working, what changed?


Or as my Dad used to say, "What did you do this time, you little... [hacker]?" (Dad used more colorful language. Hackers weren't even called hackers then.. they were still phreakers. Geesh I'm getting old...)

 

[CDTECH71730]

I havent had time to try anything yet on this system but to answer your question someone was downloading stuff on the server (what a DA) using KAZA "the worlds worst port to he-ll" which usually and did let in a hole bunch of stuff. We cleanned the server and got it working well again and all was well with the Aloha system there after. Only the video driver on the server didnt work anymore win just used its own driver which is not realy a problem but the bar owner likes to make flyers with the server, (whyyyyyyyy????) So we tried many drivers and much trouble shooting and eventually we had no video. Go Figure. Anyway we had to recover the OS "Win 2000" And Everting was ok except we couldnt get it to take over as the file server or update the terms. While the server was down we had to use one of the terms as the server. This place im doing this for has old equiptment and its pretty crappy also everyone has had their hands on it. We build our own POS systems but I have never built one for a food or bar service so we have never use Aloha. We were called in on this only as a last resort after everons brother, mother, cousin, grandmother, ect. had worked on their stuff. Nice Huh. Weve given support on this bars other equiptment before but not the pos system this is a first all the way around (Heeeeeelllllllpppp) Sorry for the book but you asked. Thanks for any input.

 

[RokStar]

Sounds like the best way to fix this system is to turn it all off. These users don't meet the minimum intelligence level to operate a restaurant, let alone a computer!

Yeah, you've got some troubles.


All of the environment variables have to match. -- look on the terminals for a batch file that runs out of startup. It will have in it the variables that the application needs to set everytime it starts up.
It will give you hints to what to name the server, and what variables to load on the server also. On the terminal, where it says SET SERVER=x
x is the name that the BOH server needs to be. (They also must be in the same workgroup)
TERMSTR must also match, as well as IBERDIR.
Iberdir is the home directory that aloha is installed in. You didn't change any disk partitions, did you? Did the permissions change? The user account used for the terminals must have full access to the IBERDIR(ectory), which is usually a seperate partition, and also usually D:, which is also usually shared as BOOTDRV.

So make sure that you can map a drive(Z from terminal 1 to the IBERDIR, (ie. z = \\server\bootdrv )
Make sure that the ctlsvr service is registered and started. (sometimes you have to stop and restart for terminals to recognize server)
If ctlsvr starts without errors, and your permissions are all correct, and your environment variables all match, then you should be pretty close.
In Aloha Manager, under Utilities, there is a button for "Fileserver Recovery" that will fix the downtime ini's that were mentioned, and is meant to get the terminals out of redundancy mode, which they are in now.

You may need to reinstall from the CD. It won't overwrite the data, but it will reinstall the HASP drivers, the services and all the dll's that could be missing.

Otherwise you may have to do all this manually, which is not easy if you haven't done it before.

There are logs called "debouts" in the ALOHA\TMP folders on the terminals and the server that should also give you some clues.

Re-post here any error messages that you get.

 

[RadAlohaQE]

verify that the lana number for the NIC card being used is set to 0

If it is not, FOH will not communicate with the BOH and vice versa, you stated you had to recover the OS, I am wondering if it reset to a last know good configuration, which may have been when it was taken out of the box.

 

[renokp]

I have had the same problem before. Sometimes in Aloha, if you have both netbui and tcp/ip running, the server wont take over the front of house. What I ended up doing is deleting netbui from the terminals and the boh, and everything worked fine.

hope this helps.