Mixed 4.11/5.0 tree possible problem

[philwhite]

Can anybody please help with this problem?

I have spent hours looking on various web sites for a solution, but I have found very little that helps.

This is the scenario

Mixed NW4.11/5.0 tree with DS v6.11 +v7.55

19 NW4.11 servers & 9 NW 5.0 servers

ZEN 2.0 starter pack


This is the problem

About a week ago a NW5 server went down and crashed due to a hardware failure with the power supply. The server is on a remote site across a WAN link and serves about 20 users for file and print. Whilst it was down we were getting problems with many users at our main site and remote sites. The problem was as follows: -

NT workstations running client v4.70 were running the login script ok, but when the NAL application launcher started it would run for anything up to 30 minutes. The spinning “radar “ icon was visible in the system tray, but was spinning for up to 30 minutes. Application icons were not appearing on the desktop and the Start menu was not available until the NAL application explorer had finished.

The symptoms are very similar to those described in TID 10050790.

We got the server back up after about two hours, during this time many of our users were affected with the above problem.

Once the server was up I let the DS settle and ran a few SET DSTRACE =*H commands to force synchronisation. All was then fine with users logging in ok.

Later that same day, the server crashed again and the same symptoms reappeared. We managed to get the server back up and working the next morning and logged a hardware call to replace the PSU.

After doing some investigation of my own this is what I have found: -


Those users affected were loading NAL applications from one common container that is partitioned off in our NDS – called Applications.users

The replica ring for this is as follows

1 x Master - NW4.11 – Derby main-site
2 x R/W - 4.11 – Derby main site
1 x R/W - NW4.11 - Ashford – remote site –slow WAN link
1 x R/W - NW4.11 – Crewe remote site – slow WAN link
1 x R/W – NW4.11 – Plymouth remote site – slow WAN link
1 x R/W - problem NW5.0 server at Ramsgate remote site – slow WAN link

Can anybody suggest why this problem may be occurring when the NW5.0 server goes down? I am concerned that this server could fail again in future and cause more problems.


Any help would be much appreciated


Phil White – CNE
ITnet plc

 

[TheLad]

I have noticed that when our NDS runs slow, ZENworks does take an age to run NAL and distribute applications. I would assume that since your problem NetWare 5 server contains a RW of the container where your ZEN applications are stored, a similar sort of senario is happening to you.

Basically, if your NDS cannot synchronise all replicas within a ring, it does cause problems. These cause slowness in the NDS and (as you have seen) are more evident when distributing applications using ZENworks.

As to what to do, I would say that the best thing you can do is to get the NetWare 5 server stable. You obviously do not want to remove the RW partition off the server unless you have another server you can put it on because it could take even longer reading over the slow WAN link. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[ihiepler]

If you want to independ in every location you have to create a partition in every location and do NOT span partitions over wan links. In this case you should have 2 replica servers in each location.

Yours

Ingo Hiepler