Really Strange Aloha issue..

[alohaakamai3]

I've never seen this one before in MANY years with Aloha... I think it may be related to a previous installed 3rd party interface used with ALoha ver 5.3x.

Sometimes after a refresh or end of day, the FOH computers will read "Waiting for multi server sync to continue" or some such nonsense.

Anyone know what this is about?

I think this is somehow related too, but sometimes items will end up in two sales categories after the manager at the location has put it in a single category. An error will pop up generated by VERIFY that shows that same item being in a few sales categories.

Anyway, any help is appreciated.

 

[alliancecomputers]

I have seen that only a few times, and cannot recall the fix. There is a marker file in tmp (named multi?) like exiting that causes the message, but I cant remember what causes the marker file. Deleting the marker is a temp fix, and a batch file may be a good bandaid. Do the debouts give any more info?

I agree that it could be related to the category problem, though. Deleting index files and running dbconfig could clean up database corruption.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks Alliance, the funny thing is, I just saw it a week ago at the same location, and I don't remember what I did to fix it either

I will check for the flag file and the debout and report back.

The old owner of this location had multiple stores and used a program that would push menu changes from one location to the other store locations (they all had Aloha). The server has since been reloaded, but I am left wondering if there is a setting in Aloha that's still checked, that's causing this to happen.

Having never seen this error message is already pretty strange. But then seeing this category thing is even weird still.

 

[alohaakamai3]

The debouts did not say much- the only interesting thing I saw was that it failed to open Aloha\sql\sql.ini.

The folder exists, the file doesn't, but this site doesn't need or to my knowledge use SQL. And I am not sure that it's related to this, though it is related to database stuff and this almost does appear to be a database issue of sorts.

Deleting the file MSYNC in data did resolve the error message immediately, and when I went to CUT it out of DATA and onto the Desktop, there was already an MSYNC file there, so I guess I now remember how I fixed it last time

I put a batch file on the desktop to delete MSYNC in the event it happens again as a temporary work around, but obviously I'd like to find out why it's doing it- and more importantly, what's causing some added items to be placed in multiple sales categories when no one appears to be doing this (this is not even easy thing to screw up, to my knowledge you'd have to change a NON SALES category to a SALES Category with that item already in both, for an item to even be able to BE in two sales categories simultaneously). The big assumption here is that both problems are related.

 

[alliancecomputers]

I had to RTFM. The msync is placed when the master term is sync'ing with the boh. If there are config problems like wrong termstr or server lines on the terminals, or corrupt database files that won't sync, the flag doesnt clear.

The sql.ini is only for relational dbase setups with Microsoft SQL. Hardly anyone ever uses it, even places large enough to need it. This is probably an erroneous error.

The sync problem is likely tied to corrupt database files in this case. I would start by deleting *.cdx and *.tdx from newdata, then run dbconfig.exe from aloha/bin with default settings and refresh.

If that doesnt work, get a copy of cat.dbf from a clean install and recreate your categories.

 

[alohaakamai3]

This was on the master terminal debout, but doesn't say much other than that the file was created:

Jul 29, 04:01:21 Determining Master And Fileserver
Jul 29, 04:01:21 Local DOB is 7/28/2009 in C:\Aloha\DATA\ALOHA.INI (07 28 2009)
Jul 29, 04:01:37 Local terminal was last master, no one disagrees
Jul 29, 04:01:37 Create MultiSync flag 'C:\Aloha\DATA\MSYNC'
Jul 29, 04:01:37 Master terminal is 1. Now determining fileserver...

It looks like this is a routine flag file though, because when I got the system working in redundant mode, I saw this.


Jul 30, 00:30:55 Create MultiSync flag 'C:\Aloha\DATA\MSYNC'
Jul 30, 00:30:55 Master terminal is 1. Now determining fileserver...
Jul 30, 00:31:26 Enable make fileserver 1
Jul 30, 00:31:26 EnableMakeFileserver: enabled 1 automake 0
Jul 30, 00:31:46 Manager invoked Make Fileserver...
Jul 30, 00:31:46 Attempting to connect to server 'TERM1'...
Jul 30, 00:31:46 Found fileserver. Updating DOWNTIME.INI...
Jul 30, 00:31:46 Delete MultiSync flag 'C:\Aloha\DATA\MSYNC'

I am starting to wonder if is some type of connection issue with the server, but thats strange because I the server and station could communicate back and forth via network shares in windows when this was going on.

 

[alliancecomputers]

Yes, it could be a connectivity issue also. You can set mastercapable to false on term1 to start pinning it down.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks Alliance, I was posting my findings at the same time you looked it up for me.

I agree, it's starting to look more like a corrupt database or connectivity issue.

Oddly enough, we recently did go back a few weeks in terms of data a day or two before this started, but ITS because we getting the category issue. But at that point, I suspected it could have been a user error.

Having said that, I am not crazy about the idea of going back even FURTHER to try it again, and I am going to give your suggestion with the DBCONFIG a try, since I am also leaning in that direction.