MICROS 9700 & IP PRINTERS

[FrankMar]

Hi All,

im experiencing system terminal restarts. Terminals would just freeze, then resume after about two minutes. There wasn't any major system changes other than implementing a few ip printers My question is, would downed IP printers be a cause of these properyt wide crashes? The epson tm-220b printers all have static ips configured, but would work 80% of the time, otherwise it would go down and fall to their backup printers.. which would be the one of the other IP printers. dip switches sw1 are all down and sw2: only 2 and 4 up. and its a MICROS 9700 using ws4 terminals. Thanks all.

 

[hosehead78]

Whats the 8700d.log show? Do you see any odd errors in there? Can you upload the log from one of the times this happens?

Are the Terminals and Printers on the same switch?
What is being processed when the workstation are freezing?
Is you Cal service still turned on, on the server? It can be shut off and turned to Manual, it is not necessary to run it unless you are configuring Workstations for the first time on your system.

And no, The IP printers wouldn't cause the Workstations to go down, at least not that I have had experience with.

 

[FrankMar]

 

[FrankMar]

thank you for your reply! Terminals and printers are on the same switch. it randomly freezes when they're in the middle of a transaction or looking up things.. its random.
and cal service is turned on/ automatic.. i can switch to manual. here is the log from the other day when it restarted 3 times. attachment is excerpt from the log, around the first occurrence (9:53am). Thanks again for replying!

 

[hosehead78]

Got the log, looking through it.

It's very strange to see them go down like that. It is always at the same time of day or week day?

Does it seem to happen when the printers are sent a print job.

When's the last time you brought the server down and back up (including restarting the Micros server(s))?

 

[FrankMar]

hose, not sure if its the same time.. ill look back at the past archives.. but i see it doing around 6,7,9am. sometimes in the evening. No, it doesnt happen when the printers are used. i was thinking, those ip printers just being on the network, would freeze the system.. trying to relate it somehow. we restarted the server last week.. and a few days since, there was no restarts. We just rebooted the server this morning, and will see how that goes. we did notice the log partition was close to full.. had an issue with one of our maintenance plans. system still froze, but we never rebooted afterwards.. just to top it off.

on a side note, i dont understand why he have to restart our server, every month (as what micros recommends to us each time we call)

 

[hosehead78]

The restarts help out with SQL, it releases memory and processes, cleans up any locked files, or files that need to be cleared up but can't because they are in use. Do you have 2 servers (Micros Application and Micros Database)?

Make sure you have enough disk space for your logs, as this CAN and WILL cause problems with Micros and could be a part of the issue, especially if you are running on a single server.

 

[FrankMar]

I understand. no we only have one server. is there another way of restarting the server, reducing downtime? Right now, we just simply reboot the server. Probably 2-3 minutes tops to be up and running.. but is there another option of refreshing the system? just wondering. Thanks

 

[hosehead78]

Proper Micros 9700 maintenance should be shutting the services down first then rebooting the server.

Do you have cygwin installed? (I believe you should).
If not you can do the following in a cmd prompt as well.

NOTE: This should NOT be done while your server is running End of Day. Restating your micros server during end of day will cause problems with your reports and daily operations.

Either in cygwin window or cmd prompt window type the following when shutting down the server. The line below the command is only for information and is not displayed. [enter] means press enter to execute the command.

type: micros ops down y [enter]
      this command shuts down app Micros Workstations (hence, OPS)

type: micros dbs down y [enter]
      this command shuts down the database connection between Micros Application and Database, so there is no further writing to the db.

type: micros stop y [enter]
      this command stops the remaining Micros services

type: micros ps
      this command shows all currently running Micros processes, you shouldn't see any at this point.

Once the above commands are done, Restart the server.
When the server comes back up and you log into it again, open cygwin or cmd prompt again and enter the following to bring Micros back up.

type: micros ps
      this command shows all currently running Micros processes. Depending on what you see will depend on what you enter.
      if you see about 6 or 7 services running, skip micros start.
            The services are: 8700d, logmgr, microsmux, plumber, pos87svc, rdbtracker, syncd
            If you only see a few of the listed services above run the service.

type: micros start [enter]
      this command starts the main Micros services

type: micros dbs up [enter]
      this command shuts down the database connection between Micros Application and Database, so there is no further writing to the db.

type: micros ops up [enter]
      this command shuts down app Micros Workstations (hence, OPS)

type: micros ps
      this command shows all currently running Micros processes, make sure they are all up.

 

[FrankMar]

nice. ok ill try these steps next time. so it says above, to bring down the database when I'm starting up micros services. is that correct?

 

[hosehead78]

No, Sorry about that, I had copy and pasted and rearranged, but missed that one. I have corrected it.

 

[FrankMar]

hose, dumb question but what benefits or would I notice anything different if I disabled cal service, as you suggested?

 

[hosehead78]

You shouldn't see any issues, unless you are trying to bring a new workstation online. I have Cal service set to Manual at the site I am at. Also, sometimes I've seen it where, when the CAL service is on, the Not connected (Grey) Box pops up for 2 seconds and goes away, this could be part of it.

 

[FrankMar]

so two days ago, we restarted the server, and I've noticed that everytime we restarted the server.. we go one full day without any restarts. Then today (2nd day) we just had one. So right now I've stopped/manual the Cal Service.. and will see how that goes.

Hose, what about the Cal client service? should I stop that service too? Thanks

 

[hosehead78]

Yea, stop the service and leave it in the Manual mode. So if you need to setup new or replace a workstation you can start it as needed and stop it once you have finished.