Page Server crashing and MSM / KB-SQL ODBC Driver

[ImNotTheKing]

I have been maintaining a CE 8 system (on NT4 sp6a) with unmanaged reports for about a year. We have had many problems with the Page Server crashing - as often as every other day. I have tried all of the available patches, which may have produced a reduction, but no fix.

One of my suspicions is that the ODBC driver is partially to blame. We are reporting against an MSM database (InterSystems) which uses KB Systems software for the ODBC driver / server components. I frequently notice abandoned connections on the server side which never close. At some point this will fill up the available MSM/SQL licenses. That's potentially a seperate problem, but I wonder if it doesn't have the same source in the ODBC drivers.

Management is pushing me for a solution - they just want to buy more licenses (seems foolish if we don't know where the problem comes from).

I'm very interested in opinions on whether dropped or refused connections could cause this page server crashing. Also, would switching to Windows 2000 or increasing server resources have any affect? Have you demonstrated such a benefit?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RoughingIT]

Definitely. I am a bit fuzzy on this but the Page server treats connections not as separate processes - they are all part of the same and serviced in round-robin fashion. An open connection will still require resources from the page server, so if you have enough open threads, it can be brought down.