Exclusive pain

[jadd]

Hi all, long time no post.

I've inherited three databases, all of which were converted from 97 to 2000 without any apparent problems. All three are of the usual FE BE design.

Here's where it gets interesting. All three FEs reside on five computers which are used by five users. Two FEs pointed to the same workgroup file for login. The third FE didn't point anywhere for a workgroup. Apparently this setup worked without a hitch for several years until the Network gurus wiped out the server that the workgroup file was on, as well as "upgrade" four of the five machines from Win 98 to WinXP. (Also, this is a Novell network.)

Needless to say, things went to hell fast. I've been reading the posts which have been great. I've been able to set up a workgroup file and have had all the users join. I've doubled checked and made sure in the Options/Advance tab that the DBs are shared and no locks. I've changed the Admin permission for Open Exclusive to myself and one other (By the way that was a good tip.) I've also doubled checked with the Network guys to make sure that all five users have the same network permission, which they do.

So, here is the deal. Three of the five users are able to open any and all of the three DBs to do their dataentry work. (No one changes objects, but me Pat.) The other two users, 99% of the time get that nasty " table xyz is opened exclusively by another user..." The other 1% of the time, the DB opens but only some of the tables on the BE will populate the FE forms. In any case, if the two users close the DB and try to reopen, their WinXP computers says it cannot find the workgroup file.

Any ideas.

Thanks,

Jadd

 

[The_Doc_Man]

This is a shot in the dark (or maybe two...)

First, the workgroup file should be in the same directory as the db, and should NOT be named system.mdw.

Second, ask your network guys if they have seen signs of instability in your network, even if only brief. Anything that could cause a network connection to time out. Ask your USERS if they ever just turn off their machines when they leave for the day. (That is, just turn it off rather than first cleanly closing everything they opened.)

 

[jadd]

Hi Doc Man,

Well, I'm looking good in regards to not naming the workgroup file System.mdw, as well as shot #2 - well, at least as far as the network guys know. I was wondering though, should I be placing the workgroup file in the directories containing the FE or the BE or both? Currently the shortcuts point to a directory where one of the BEs is located. Also, I noticed that even though all the machines are connected to the same workgroup file, the permissions differed from DB to DB. Is this a result of not having the .mdw file in each directory, perhaps? Please let me know in regards to the placement of the .mdw file.

As always thanks for your help,

Jadd

 

[The_Doc_Man]

should I be placing the workgroup file in the directories containing the FE or the BE or both?

BE only.

Also, I noticed that even though all the machines are connected to the same workgroup file, the permissions differed from DB to DB.

If they are in different user groups, this is normal. If they are in different workgroup files, this would be bad. The question is, when you say they are in the same workgroup file, do you mean a copy of the same .mdw on each system (i.e. SAME as in COPIED) or the .mdw is on the shared directory (i.e. SAME as in ONE FILE FOR ALL)? Should always/only be the latter.

Seems to me that there is an option under the Tools >> Security >> Users and Groups dialog to dump the users and groups defined in your workgroup. I would do that on each of your machines and sight-compare them to see if they are different. If they are different, you have a serious problem and need to get rid of duplicate workgroup files.

 

[jadd]

Hi Doc Man,

Thanks for the heads up. You could be onto something there. While the shortcuts for all three DBs point to the same directory on the server where one of the BEs is being shared, I did notice that there were was an old workgroup file (different name) located in one of the other DB's shared directory, and then, of course the last shared directory doesn't have a workgroup file at all.

I'll place the current .mdw file in the other two shared directories and do a little clean up too.

Thanks again for the help,

Jadd

 

[The_Doc_Man]

look into the option of making the shortcut specify the workgroup. look under command line options for access under the Help files to find it. then distribute the shortcut. you have to use the \\host-system-name\path\file format rather than the shared-drive-letter:\path\file format to make it work right, but it removes ambiguities.

 

[jadd]

Hi Doc I'm back,

Thanks for all of your help. This is what is happening now.

I've cleaned up the shortcuts so that they are all the same and specify the workgroup. Also, the SDHD.mdw file is now only located in the shared directories where the BE's are located, i.e. I:\project, I:\CFD, I:\DevFee.

The result, is that of the five users, two users are able to access a database at the same time without a hitch, the third user is able to access a database with the same two users only if she is able to log into the workgroup file first, and the last two users or computers are very strange..... The last two users can only access a database when they are the only ones and should another user log in, they will get locked out b/c the computer will say the database is opened exclusively by another user. Should they then exit the database and then return, the computer will say that it can not find the workgroup file. Lastly, one of two "strange" computers only wants to update all of the tables, but one on the front end irregardless of the database, i.e. the Project database has five tables, it will update only four, the CFD database has six tables, it will update only five.

Also, I've talked with the network admin and he says everyone in the dept has the same rights and hasn't seen a problem with the network that would cause a user to timeout.

Any suggestions?

Thanks again,

Jadd

 

[Crilen007]

Recreate the FE's and workgroup files from a fresh DB.


import all the forms and such, setup the workgroup file and then see if that helps.

(MAKE BACKUPS).

 

[jadd]

Thanks. I was afraid someone would say that.

I just got done again with one of the network gurus, too. He believes it could be a problem with the scripting.

I'll let you know how it works out next week.

Have a good weekend. Cheers!

Jadd

 

[jadd]

Hi all,

Thanks for all of the help. Turns out the problem was two of the five computers were installed with an older version of the Novell client software. This was causing the two computers to lock themselves out of the workgroup file. Basically, the computers were not releasing the workgroup file after exiting the db and after the second or third attempt would deem the db as opened exclusive and/or would blind itself to the location of the workgroup file. As well, the old client software was causing one of the computers to lock itself out of random BE tables in the databases.

Wacky stuff....

Thanks again for all of the advice. At worst, I got the directories and shortcuts cleaned up in the process.

Jadd