CE 8.5 Pageserver nightmares...

[synapsevampire]

Again my pageserver is starting to flake on me.

Does anyone know why after 2 months of running it would suddenly start to fail more and more often?

This is the second time with this server, so it seems to be a setting or some cleanup required.

-k

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If running on a windows box, memory problems can accumulate ( it does not always clean up after itself) - we reboot our windows servers ( W2K Advanced) once every 2 weeks tp help prevent that...
W2K was supposed to be better than NT in that regard and XP Pro is supposed to have fixed it...

Hope it helps...

 

[synapsevampire]

It's dying every day now...

It will keep increasing in frequency over the next few weeks.

-k

 

[Turkbear]

HI,
Anything interesting in the Event Log on the server or in the pageserver's metrics panel?

 

[synapsevampire]

Not really...

The server is a hotrod - 8 CPU's, 4 gigs ram, and is getting almost no activity...

I get the usual nebulous warnings:

Crystal_WebComponentServer: Log message: Unable to release the token.

The description for Event ID ( 34400 ) in Source ( Crystal_WebConnector ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: assert failure in file (Y:\backend\WebAppServer\wsconnector\src\isapi\workerpool.cpp) at line 71. (false : Request failed with code 7 and error message )..

Pageserver:
Communication with client fails. Continue with other requests

It's running small reports, with very short running queries (usual time less than 5 seconds).

Any thoughts appreciated. Mine are that something is getting full since it takes about 2 months for the server to start hanging.

-k

 

[Turkbear]

HI,
I really love Crystal's error messages ( NOT!) --

Perhaps this knowledge base article would give a clue:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/library/kbase/articles/c2012177.asp

( as a side note, my version 8 pageserver used to fail with a 'unable to open file UNKNOWN.RPT' - I spoke to Crystal support ( when it was still Seagate)and was informed that that was the message returned when the pageserver could not find the file!! - I, of course, had sort of figured that out beforehand, but they had no answer for why it was looking for a file called UNKNOWN.RPT!)

Does rebooting the server extend the period between failures?

 

[synapsevampire]

I'd already applied the registry settings in the article you referenced, but I appreciate the thought.

Rebooting the server is a requirement, but no, the system just slowly degrades.

I've heard so many horror stories about the pageserver, yet I've never heard an answer, just a bunch of stabs in the dark...pretty annoying...

I'd think that it must have something to do with files being written, or the database. All integrity tests of the SQL Server database come out fine, so the likely culprit is CE file writing, temp or otherwise.

-k

 

[synapsevampire]

BTW, this is the most promising:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/library/kbase/articles/c2012397.asp

-k

 

[midearth]

Can I jump in this conversation? What do you do if your Crystal ASP just won't open - period? Rebooting and clearing temp files hasn't helped.

 

[synapsevampire]

Meaning that it just won't start?

I'm not sure, but definitely apply the patches, though I think that the product is just very flakey and the support weak.

-k

 

[midearth]

Yep. It wouldn't start at all - no error messages; no nothing. We eventually dropped 10; punted and reloaded the software and it's back to normal for now. Thanks.