Networking and Crashing

[MikeTurner22]

Hi

I have a customer running a Visual Fox pro application, when ever they run a particular process the whole network grinds to a halt. They have tried running the process from the server and this does not cause any problems.

Does any one have any ideas what could cause this? I have noticed that they are running the .exe file form a network location(the server) would this cause an issue?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[jimoo]

The more information on this one the better.

What type of network and OS version?

What type of process are they running each time to make it slow down (i.e. is it retrieving a lot of data)?

Does it happen on other workstations?

This probem can be caused by several things including an outdated server software, memory, bandwidth (if bringing back lots of data), etc.

Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[MikeTurner22]

They are running a cat 5 network at 100mbs they are running a windows 2000 sbs server with a gig of RAM. They process is basicly a merge of all the cusomter records to an excel spreadsheet ( so yes a lot of data). I have just asked the customer to try another machine as it does seem strange it does not hang on the server.

How can I check the version of the server software version? What should it be?

 

[jimoo]

It could be something to do with the amount of data and the merge into Excel. I am not sure how you are doing that merge.

You could look at the merge routine and try to make it less IO intensive. For example, automation is very memory IO intensive. It may be best to append the data into the worksheet and then use automation just to format the sheet at the end.

Also, if you're on the latest version of Office you may try XML, which is greatly improved with the latest office version.

Another option would be to bring the data down locally to the user and create the worksheet on their station.

I am not sure if any of these are great suggestions - more just brainstorming ideas. Others may have some other suggestions.



Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[aclamagna]

Make sure there is no screen saver running on the server!

 

[foxwizard]

MikeTurner22,

As far as I know, converting data to an excel has some limitations in the number of records. I think you can only convert approximately up to a maximum of 16,000 records to an excel format. It will create an error if it exceeds to 16,000 records. We have encounter this problem before and what we did is we partially convert those records several times until all the records have been converted.

Hope this may help you.

Bren
VFP - Philippines

 

[Mike Gagnon]

FoxWizard


It will create an error if it exceeds to 16,000 records.

Take a look at faq184-2617 or simply use :
select myTable
copy to myExcel TYPE csv && Opens with Excel and permits over 65,000 record.

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[MikeTurner22]

Sorry made a mistake, I have just been informed that it is actually when they are reindexing, that they get this problem. i dont understand why it would work on the server, and not on the clients.

Mike.

 

[jimoo]

Mike,

I assume the exe is running on the server? If so, can you make a small exe that does just the reindexing, but have it run on the user's workstation? This is just to test whether that will help.

If so, you may wish to move the app down to the user's station. There are advantages to doing this. The disadvantage is versioning, but there are a number of ways to handle that and I believe some code in the FAQ section.



Jim Osieczonek
Delta Business Group, LLC

http://www.deltabg.com

 

[robsuttonjr]

Of course you could use MS Sql server then the indexing is handled automatically by the server.

The more I learn the more I find I know nothing.

Rob