CDONTS

[disord3r]

I'm having a problem with CDONTS, and this is going to require some 'splaining.

My web server setup involves 4 servers, we'll call them 10.0.0.1 through 10.0.0.4. The .1 server is the server we publish to, which runs Site Server, which pushes changes out to .2 through .4. The servers that receive those changes from Site Server also use Windows Load Balancing Service on 10.0.0.5. When I ping any of the the websites that are hosted on this Load Balanced group of .2-.4, the replies come back from the load-balanced IP of .5. If you put "dev." in front of any of those domains however, the replies come back from 10.0.0.1, the server that runs Site Server.

Software:
.1 - Win2k, IIS5
.2 - NT4, IIS4
.3 - Win2k, IIS5
.4 - Win2k, IIS5
(.5 - WLBS)

Okay, now for the problem. I have a script running on the load-balanced servers that merely sends email out using CDONTS. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. When I run the script through IE on each server individually (so that it uses the copy on localhost), it fails on .3 and .4, saying "ActiveX component couldn't create object CDONTS.NewMail".

The thing that bugs me is that it doesn't do it on .1, which is also Win2k/IIS5, so I don't know what could be causing the problem. Aside from Site Server on .1, the Win2k servers aren't terribly different. Web searches haven't turned up anything helpful.

Where should I look first?

 

[dilettante]

Is it possible your Win2K machines don't have CDONTS? CDONTS is going away - a vestige of NT 4, being replaced by CDO which is a different animal.

XP Pro for example doesn't even have CDONTS, and the .Net Server beta I have lacks CDONTS too.

I was pretty sure that Win2K kept CDONTS around for people migrating from NT4, but perhaps it needs to be explicitly installed? And if not, what Service Pack are your non-working Win2K boxes at? I wonder if SP3 removes CDONTS?

Are you implying that your .1 box is running IIS 5 and the CDONTS code works? Again, is it the explicit install issue or a service pack issue?

I tried a quick search at TechNet and found nothing, and a Google search resulted in... well let's just say a lot of funny stuff!

You might have to dig on this one, unless somebody else has tripped over this and can give you a fast response.

 

[disord3r]

It does work on .1 (I receive the email it sends out), and all the Win2k servers (.1, .3, .4) are on SP3. I can't think of what would be so different about the servers, unless it has something to do with Site Server, which I doubt. A couple articles I came across mentioned that CDONTS.DLL may be missing, not registered, or registered from the wrong location. CDONTS.DLL is on all the servers, so I'm assuming they all have 'it'.

I'm working with a temporary fix right now. I've told the people who need to access the script to run it from the dev box instead of the web cluster. Thanks for the reply though. If I find an actual fix for this, I'll post it here.

 

[Tarwn]

Check in the IIS settings for the two non-working sites and make sure you have an address specified for mail forwarding (smtp server), this is a common cause for CDONTS not working that is sometimes overlooked (I won't tell you how many times I did it, it would be embarassing).

The setting is located at:
Rt click on web server in Internet Services Manager> Properties > Server Extensions Tab > Options Panel (center)

A cheap and dirty way to do this is to register a default outgoing account in outlook or outlook express.

Just a thought,
-Tarwn --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

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