Intermittent Problems Logging into the Database

[Dauphy]

Hello.. Help! We have a company wide SQL server database application that we have been using for years - it was written in VB6. It's never required any maintenance. All of a sudden, the users are unable to connect the first time of the day; they get the login box and may or may not be able to get in. Sometimes they have to try 5 times. Once they get in for the first time during the day it is usually fine for a period of time... ie. they can try again an hour later and still get in. I logged in this a.m. and had problems... have been trying a few times this a.m. with no problems and now this p.m. I can't connect again after a few times. But am able to ping the server. It seems to work better if I choose the Server name from the drop down .There are other databases on the same SQL Server with no issues; therefore I don't suspect a connectivity issue to the server itself. We have made no changes to the server.

I touch the SQL Server only when I need to.. very infrequently - so basically am a newbie. Therefore, please be explicit with any instructions.. Oh yeah, version is SQL Enterprise Manager 8.0. Thank you...

 

[macleod1021]

That's not a lot of information to go on, but here's a couple things to try.

1. Reboot the workstation (never hurts)
2. Reboot the SQL Server (you may have connections tied up)
3. Contact the vendor that sold you the app. They will know a lot more about the application and how it works.

It'll be really difficult to diagnose a problem unless you can give us a lot more information. Hopefully, the application provides either an error message or has a log somewhere. If there is, let us know the error message.

 

[Dauphy]

Hello Macleod1021:

We rebooted the server yesterday to rule that out. Workstations get rebooted daily. We wrote the application so there is no vendor. ..

Is there any other information you or anyone else requires? It's on a Windows Server 2003 platform. I looked on the server's event logs and really didn't see anything amiss. Are there any troubleshooting tools to test connectivity?