OpLocks corruption on WIN98 Server??

  • Thread starter Thread starter DigitalVinyl
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DigitalVinyl

I've been reading all the pages I can find on OpLocks corruptions.

We have
1 - Win98SE server with backend MDB (access 2002-2003 format)
8 - WinXP clients (latest patches) with Access 2003 and MDE front End

I'm gettin multiple crashes per week. 3 in the last two days.

THe Oplocks fixes all refer to fixing the NT/2K/XP SERVER because the
OpLocks only matters on servers. But we only have updated clients. I
found one page that said if it is a WIn9x server don't apply SP3 cause
that causes corruptions...I don't think there was an "sp3" for
Win98...or which SP3 he actually meant.

Anyody deal with OpLocks corruptions with a Win9X server and what the
solution is. I've applied the OpLocksDisable=1 on XP clients. DId not
help.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)
 
Windows 98SE is NOT a server product. It can be used as a peer-to-peer
server in a small network, but you cannot set OpLocks on it because it
doesn't have the setting. That would be reserved for a real 32 bit server
operating system like Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003.

Here are the places I would look:

1. Check every NIC card in the system, even 1 bad one in the system can and
usually will corrupt a database.
2. Do you have a new user who is improperly shutting down?
3. Check the Video drivers and then Video cards.

Unless, it's your "server" you can test fairly easily by isolating the
machines 1 at a time. Leave each machine turned off, one at a time, until
you find the one causing the problem. Then start replacing drivers and
components with known good ones until you've found the one that fixes it.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
Arvin Meyer said:
Windows 98SE is NOT a server product. It can be used as a peer-to-peer
server in a small network, but you cannot set OpLocks on it because it
doesn't have the setting. That would be reserved for a real 32 bit server
operating system like Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003.
Click to expand...

First, thanks for the reply.
Sorry, yes I know it is not a Server, but it is performing the
"function" of a file server for about 5 years now. Here's the exact
history.

Origianlly I converted a single PC from Win98SE->WinXP. It continued
to run Office 97SR2 for a month. This was our test to proven that the
average machine would run well under our hardware upgrade plan and to
suss out any problems with misc software. No problems existed. BTW
we've corrupted the db about 2-3 times in 4 years before this current
problem and usually due to power failures. Now we converted everyone
to WinXP & Office 2003. In addition we installed a brand new PC-same
software. And my life turned to hell as I have to repair the db
multiple times a week.


I did find an interesting change in the DB since converting from
97->2003. The main table, CLIENTS, is the one that has been damaged
and lost a few records. CLIENTS no longer had a primary key, no
indexes were assigned and 6 relationship to other tables were missing.
Now this may be a symptom of the damage. I couldn't reimplement
referential integrity because clientIDs are missing and other tables
refer to those missing clientIDs. I rebuilt everything I could except
the RI. Maybe because the TBL was damaged the key,indices &
relationaships were broken.

Here are the places I would look:

1. Check every NIC card in the system, even 1 bad one in the system can and
usually will corrupt a database.
Click to expand...
This is a bit frightening that network corruptions are passed so
easily into the DB structure. I would hope the network transport would
attempt to recover from any intermittent error. Net outages don't
occur, but a few PCs complain the network isn't up when they are first
booting-then their fine.

We have a dumb old 10baseT hub with no management. So I can't get
reliable info about errors during the day. I am replacing the hub
mon/tues with a newer managed switch. This will improve performance
and help ID net issues.
2. Do you have a new user who is improperly shutting down? No. Just one new PC.
3. Check the Video drivers and then Video cards.
Click to expand...
That's one I haven't heard suggested before.
Unless, it's your "server" you can test fairly easily by isolating the
machines 1 at a time. Leave each machine turned off, one at a time, until
you find the one causing the problem. Then start replacing drivers and
components with known good ones until you've found the one that fixes it.
Click to expand...
We've not been able to duplicate the error when we want to. It seems
to be either a multi-user issue or a pc/network causing it.
Unfortunately 6-7 users rely on it all day long, so I really can't
remove people without stopping their work.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)
 
DigitalVinyl said:
I've been reading all the pages I can find on OpLocks corruptions.
We have
1 - Win98SE server with backend MDB (access 2002-2003 format)
8 - WinXP clients (latest patches) with Access 2003 and MDE front End
Click to expand...

The problem is that Win 95/98/ME servers with Win NT 4/2000/XP clients
are specifically discouraged by Microsoft.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
DigitalVinyl said:
I did find an interesting change in the DB since converting from
97->2003. The main table, CLIENTS, is the one that has been damaged
and lost a few records. CLIENTS no longer had a primary key, no
indexes were assigned and 6 relationship to other tables were missing.
Now this may be a symptom of the damage. I couldn't reimplement
referential integrity because clientIDs are missing and other tables
refer to those missing clientIDs. I rebuilt everything I could except
the RI. Maybe because the TBL was damaged the key,indices &
relationaships were broken.
Click to expand...

This is typical behaviour when corruption happens. I suspect that
when repairing, compacting or importing Access/Jet realizes that
relational integrity is all screwed up so it then deletes the
relationships.

Tony

--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
Tony Toews said:
The problem is that Win 95/98/ME servers with Win NT 4/2000/XP clients
are specifically discouraged by Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Well lots of things are discouraged officially by MS, but too often
the motivation is corporate profits. MS discouraged using Win 3.1/9X
as servers but many small companies survived the last decade with
simple 3.1/9X file and print servers. Customers are left to wonder on
their own what is a bad choice and what is just cost-effective.
However, by end of year a new Server 2003 system will be implemented.


DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)
 
Any computer can act as a file server, but true servers control access to
files and provide many administrative advantages. I have seen numerous Win
98 "servers" run with 3 to 15 client machines, all of which were also Win 98
machines. Because of the totally different OS architecture, it is not very
wise to run . XP clients with 9x "servers". From an administrative point of
view, it is a nightmare to deal with a peer-to-peer network in all but the
smallest of configurations. I run a server with even my own home network
which only has 4 nodes.

In any case, make sure you are making good (and frequent) backups. You'll
need them.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
DigitalVinyl said:
Well lots of things are discouraged officially by MS, but too often
the motivation is corporate profits. MS discouraged using Win 3.1/9X
as servers but many small companies survived the last decade with
simple 3.1/9X file and print servers. Customers are left to wonder on
their own what is a bad choice and what is just cost-effective.
However, by end of year a new Server 2003 system will be implemented.
Click to expand...

I can appreciate what you are saying here.

However MS doesn't have a problem with Win95/98/ME clients against NT
4/2000/2003 servers. Now does MS make more money from clients or
from servers?

In this scenario I feel it is relevant as MS has technical reasons for
discouraging the above scenario.

I've also seen this same scenario a number of times in the newsgroups
as being the cause of corruptions.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
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