File Repository Output Service is down

[pnad]

Hello,

When I login to CE 9.0 to view older instances of our reports, I get the 'File Repository Output Service' is down error.

So I go into the CCM on the server and restart the pageserver service. And then I am able to view older instances.

But 5 minutes later, I get the same error message again on CE 9.0.

There is no log of it in the event viewer except when I stop and start the service. This has never happened before and it is very baffling.

Any suggestions/ideas are welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I am surprised that restaring the Pageserver has any effect on the status of the Output File Server...

Is the Output server using a file system location on the same server it is running on, or is it using a remote file location..If remote, check for possible network errors/interruptions that are short and sporadic..







To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[pnad]

Thanks for responding.

Actually the entire error message is:

'File Repository Output Server is Down. [On Cache/Page Server: <servername>.pageserver]

Based on the error message, I went ahead and re-started the Page Server.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
The message indicated that when the Pageserver tied to find the instance requested, the Output File Server was not available ( Pageserver uses that server to locate the previously run instance of the desired report).







To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[pnad]

That is correct.

Any ideas on why it is failing randomly all of a sudden. It gives that message and then I restart the service on the CCM and it works. Then it fails again in 5 minutes.

 

[MJRBIM]

There is a communication error between your CE services.

Are you running on a stand-alone CE-9 box or a clustered environment...?

Check the application logs on the server for errors generated by your CE-9 servrices.

 

[pnad]

Thanks MJRBIM for responding.

It is a clustered environment installed across 3 servers.

The application logs under Event Viewer just say 'File Repository Server Output is down.' There is no other description.

The problem is totally sporadic. The users cannot retrieve past instances, they wait 5 minutes and then they are able to (without even me re-starting the service), and then 5 minutes later they get the same error again.

Also, the page server service on the CCM on all servers does not show as stopped.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
ask your network admins to monitor the transaction path between the servers - they should be able to spot any momentary drop-outs..

Since no action is needed to have it begin working again, I suspect a network issue.


BTW, you can set options on those services to have them restart if they fail ( even if they fail multiple times )..right click on the service in the Window's services applet ( not the CCM) and look at the Recovery Options tab




To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[MJRBIM]

I would agree with Turkbear, sounds like a network issue - perhaps a flakey network card on one of your servers.

How do you have the Page and FRS services installed in the cluster - what is installed on each of your 3 severs...?

are there multiple page server services in your cluster? Is the error always from a single service - or can it be from any of the page servers?

Is the physical file-repository a single-server directory or on an external network disk (eg. SAN)..?

 

[hilfy]

I'm not sure about CE 9, but with BO XI, even if you have multiple FRS servers running on different machines, only one of them is "active" at any time.

So, here's how I would determine which box is having the problem (our network folks are not always very responsive about checking this sort of thing...:-()

- If the error comes from the page server on only one box, that's where your problem is.

- Otherwise, if you have only one Input and Output FRS pair, the network problem is on the box where they're running.

- Otherwise, to determine which box might be having the problem, I would shut down the Input and Output FRS services on two of your boxes and run for a while to see if there are problems. If there are no problems after 24-48 hours, try turning the Input and Output FRS off on that server and on on another. Work your way through your servers until you find the problem so that you can identify which server is having issues then make sure that the Input and Output FRS is running on a different server while you wait for your network folks to resolve the issues.

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.