none of the crystal services will start 1

[denacho]

i have a Windows Server 2003 SP2 server that is running Crystal Enterprise 10 and Reports 10. it's a reports server for a surgical application. this server has been up and running for about 2 years. out of the blue last week, my app admin reported that she was getting an error message when trying to run a report from the web-based surgical app. her error was:
Communication Error
Communication failed with all configured Web Component Servers because they are disabled or not currently running. If this problem continues, please contact the system administrator

remember this is from the web-based surgical app. so of course we checked the Report server and found all the Crystal services "stopped" in the Services window as well as the CCM. we are not able to start them in either location. if we try from the Services window, we get the error:
Could not start the <name of service here> on Local Computer
Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion
if we try to start any of the servers from CCM, the error is:
SvcMgr - The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion
and in Event Viewer there are TONS of Application Warnings and Errors for Cystal_WebConnector of Event ID 34400 regarding "necessary registry information or message DLL".

i've looked at articles in this group and searched other resources like crazy and cannot figure out (1) what caused them to stop out of nowhere and (2) how to get them started again. and i want to reiterate, it's all of the Crystal services (Cache , Event, Input File Repository, Management, Output File Repository, ....) not just the Web Component server

to make matters worse, i know NOTHING about Crystal. i was barely able to get this installed 2 years ago and that's extent of my experience with Crystal = clicking Install, Next and Finish. so ANY help that anyone can give me would be HUGELY appreciated.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Someone may have used a Registry Cleaner unwisely or somehow things got removed.

Try a repair/reinstall of CE on the server and be sure to specify the same CMS database and FRS locations...





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

 

[denacho]

can't find any trace of any cleaner that was run on this server. this morning, after reading notes from our app/software vendor, i re-ran CE SP5 and nothing change. services still won't start. so i re-ran CR SP5 and CE SP5 just in case they both need to be run (i'm certain that's what the app vendor would say). nothing fixed. so i removed both CR and CE using Add/Remove programs, rebooted the server, checked the registry and Exported the CrystalDecisions key and subkeys from the Software listing in case i need to re-import them, then deleted the existing set so i could really start clean.

i re-ran CR 10 install choosing Typical and that went fine. re-ran the CE 10 install, selecting NEW and entering my crystal sa password. it stalls at the end when it tries to start Crystal Cache Server. i get an Error 1920. i left this up on the server for the app vendor in case they can do anything with this but i doubt it. i've seen it before and eventually you get it for each and every service (9 of them i believe). the last time this happened to me, i wound up having to build an entirely new server and start from scratch. unfortunately, i don't have that luxury this time.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
See if this info about DEP helps:

http://www.exforsys.com/forum/microsoft-crm/68414-error-1920-during-crm.html

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

 

[denacho]

OMG Turkbear! that worked...with one exception. i cannot get the CMS to start. i tried starting it in the CCM and it just sat there. so i went into the Properties of the CMS and noticed on the Configuration tab, that there was nothing in the CMS Data Source field (compared it to a Test server that showed CE10 there). so i checked my odbc connection for that System DSN and it's still there and a Test Connectivity tested successful. so i figured i'd just walk through and configure that using the Specify button on the Configuration tab. but i could never connect to the data source. i then went back and simply clicked the Start button in the CCM for the CMS and it did start, but the CMS Data Source field is still blank. is that going to be a problem? i even tested bouncing the CMS service in the Services window and it came back up fine. i'm just concerned that the Data Source filed on the Config tab is blank.

I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR HELP!!! as i mentioned, this happened 2 years ago and the app vendor was no help at all and i had to build a new server but never knew why this happened or how to fix it. i still don't know why, but this certainly gets me further than before and i didn't have to rebuild the server.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
be sure the CMS process is running under an account with full access to both the file system and database being used.
( To see what database is active, try the event viewer.)

Which database are you usimg for the CMS?





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

 

[denacho]

well, i'm running it under the System account as i was before. looking in the Application Event log, i'm not finding anything about what Db it's using. i see lots of starts and stops for the CMS and several messages about "port already in use". i'm sure the port already in use is when i've tried to uncheck "use default" and typed in 6401 because whenever i'd do that, the service would not start. but it was definitely using 6401 before my issue started and i did at least save the command line syntax before i did my uninstall of CR and CE and it had the switch at the end for port 6401.

 

[denacho]

forgot to mention, i'm using CE10. that's what's supposed to show in the CMS Data Source field (as it did before) but is not showing now. that is what my ODBC connection points to and it tested successful for connectvity in odbcad.32 and then again when i used the Specify option on the Configuation tab. it's just not displaying in the field like it did before and like it does on my other Test server.

 

[denacho]

i did a netstat -b and found the following info on ports:
TCP SVRNAME:2410 [inputfileserver.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:2412 [outputfileserver.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:2432 [WebCompServer.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:2526 [pageserver.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:2527 [pageserver.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:3470 [CrystalMS.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:3554 [CrystalMS.exe]
TCP SVRNAME:3556 [pageserver.exe]

there are a couple others that are connections to my pc since i'm remoted into the server and one to our NetApp appliance but that's it. i don't really know anything about netstat, but i expected to see a connection for port 6401 since my App Event logs are telling me the port is in use. am i misunderstanding this concept?

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Port usage in CE can be odd...By default,it 'listens' on 6401 but after relaying the request to one of the other servers it will use a random port for further communications, so netstat may not show 6401 in use.

What does your ODBC connection connect to? SqlServer or some other database.





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

 

[denacho]

the System DSN name is CE10 and it's SQL Server driver. the server doesn't have SQL installed on it, i believe it's just MSDE since this Train server didn't have a SQL Server engine installed on it. i just let the CE setup install MSDE way back when. and in the odbc info for the System DSN CE10, it's connecting Local, not to some other Db server in my domain.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I would try running the CMS ( and all the other services ) under an account with administrator rights on that server, as that will eliminate permissions as an issue.





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

 

[denacho]

but i'm not having issues running the services now. it was just the CMS. it runs if i check the default port of 6400, but if i uncheck default and try to use 6401, it won't start. the secondary issue is that the CE10 is not displaying in the CMS Data Source field on the Config tab. my odbc connects locally fine and if i go into the Specify (button) on the Config tab, it "walks" through that fine, it just doesn't display in the Data Source field. that's just different from my other, Test, server so i wanted to make sure it's working okay since it doesn't look like it did before my uninstall/reinstall. my app Admin will be back tomorrow so i'll start the report app and have her test and we'll know for sure then.

thanks again Turkbear for all your help on this. it really has been helpful!

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I just made it a practice in any CE and/or BOE system I administered to run the services under an admin-level account on the server(s) hosting those services. That you can connect is different from the services connecting under their own identity.

The CMS config info really should be there, but, if it is working that is probably OK..

( If I were you, however, I would create a new CMS database and migrate the existing one over to it - the CMS is the single most important part of the CE system and any oddity with it should be explored and eliminated.)





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

 

[denacho]

Turkbear, if you're still out there.....even though the Services started, i'm getting the same error message reported in this posting:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1066456&page=10

i've forwarded the posting to my software vendor to have them look into this as i have no Crystal experience so i don't even know where to go to look for Concurrent vs Named Licenses. can you offer me any help on this while i wait for them to never call me back?

 

[denacho]

i did at least find the URL for the CMC. but i have no idea what the login is or what to use for the different Authentication Types. i'll keep fishing!

 

[denacho]

ok, now i've found the defaul Admin login info and have edited that to use a password. now on to figuring out licensing.

 

[denacho]

wow! i think i figured it out. after getting into the CMC and finding the Concurrent vs Named User settings, i was not able to edit/change the setting for Guest. i went to the Licensing section and didnt' see my key entered on this page, so i Added it. this then showed me the "stats" for my license and i had 0 for Named, so that explains why i cannot change it. no worries cuz i compared this server to another one and it also had 0 for Named. so Concurrent/Named was not my issue.

but after Adding the licensing info in the CMC i got a different error when i went to run a report. It stated "The Page Server you are trying to connect to is not accessible. Please contact your system administrator." some googling around led me to this posting:

http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?p=566507&sid=52e8999e4424e8abff4c3c03807b3c54

i had noticed in the CMC under Servers that several of the servers had the red dash icon. i thought this meant they were not started. but since the Services window and the CCM showed them started, i figured this was just a "blip" of sorts. after reading the posting, i realize it was because they were not Enabled. i selected all the ones with the red minus icon and Enabled them and reports ran fine.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Starting and then enabling is not clearly spelled out in the docs and has caused some confusion for users/admins.

You can enable them, as you discovered, from the CMC and also from the CCM after starting them manually.
Glad you got things up and working.





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