Irazmus Posted July 6, 2006 Posted July 6, 2006 Since replacing our SIMS server back in March it's been running like a dream with only minor infrequent problems, until today. It seems the last SIMS update (or maybe the one before that) changed SIMS in a way that our current reports don't like so we need to import updated ones. While that isn't a problem, the process of importing them is. When trying to import Predefined_Reports_v776.RptDef SIMS freezes, if we limit to trying to import only 1 or 2 reports/templates we get a message of 'The underlying connection was closed: The remote name could not be resolved'. This seems to suggest a DNS issue, but my DNS server is reporting no errors or warnings, and is resolving names properly. I've been in contact with the local SIMS support, and following their advice we've tried: Stopping and restarting the Document Server Service Changing the Server location in Document Server Manager from the host name to the IP address (which actually made things worse as the 'Test server connection' fails when using the IP ? ) Importing Predefined_Reports_v774.RptDef incase 776 had become corrupted None of which has helped. We've tested this on multiple machines on both IP ranges (SIMS server sits on both curriculum and admin ranges) and even a couple of multihomed machines. Same result everywhere. I've got 2 more things to try, rebooting the server, and installing SIMS.Net locally on the server to see if it'll work from there, but I'll leave those until tomorrow so tonights backup can run undisturbed. This has both myself and the local SIMS support a little stumped (especially the IP failing the connection test while the machine name passes but still doesn't actually work) Except for this import problem, SIMS is working perfectly. Has anyone come accross anything similar before? If so, did you ever find out what caused it? Any ideas will be greatfully recieved.
Irazmus Posted July 10, 2006 Author Posted July 10, 2006 Well neither the server reboot nor running SIMS .Net locally helped at all. I've now tried setting the Document Server location (on server) to admin IP, curriculum IP, host name, localhost, 127.0.0.1. The server test shows OK, but the reports still fail to import with 'The underlying connection was closed: The remote name could not be resolved'. A quick Google shows that's normally caused by a proxy server, but there's no proxy between the SIMS server and the clients. To be safe I've disabled the proxy in IE hoping it was picking up settings from there, still nothing, so either it's geting settings from elsewhere, or I'm barking up the wrong tree again. As if that wasn't bad enough, i've just found out that no-one's tried importing updated reports since March (when the SIMS server was replaced), so it could be a fault with the initial server setup >_< Any ideas guys? This one's got me clueless.
ChrisC Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 I know this sounds random, but has the sql service been restarted at all? Most of sims just seems to be running sql queries, especially to create reports.... Chris
ChrisC Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 Sorry, just read you did a server reboot... Could be sql connection though? Chris
Irazmus Posted July 10, 2006 Author Posted July 10, 2006 Right now I'm ready to try pretty much anything, but I doubt it's the SQL connection as I have people working in SIMS .Net right now and the only problems we've got are: * Some reports don't work as they need updating to v7.76 * We can't update the reports as they always fail when we try If you still think it's worth restarting the SQL server, I can give it a try.
ChrisC Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 if other people are connected, I doubt it is. what happens when creating new reports? Chris
glensc Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 While that isn't a problem, the process of importing them is. When trying to import Predefined_Reports_v776.RptDef SIMS freezes, if we limit to trying to import only 1 or 2 reports/templates we get a message of 'The underlying connection was closed: The remote name could not be resolved'. This seems to suggest a DNS issue, but my DNS server is reporting no errors or warnings, and is resolving names properly. I'm wondering if an underlying SIMS module is using netbios and trying to resolve from a WINS server. You could try putting an entry in the LMHOST file of the workstation and see if it picks it up. If memory serves our loacl suport for SIMS had to put an entry in SIMS in to force SIMS to use DNS only.
Irazmus Posted July 10, 2006 Author Posted July 10, 2006 @ChrisC: New reports seem fine, I've just made a new one with no probs. @Glensc: That's a possibility as we don't have a WINS server (AFAIK), I'll give it a try. I've added 10.163.4.106 odin #SIMS Server to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam and rebooted and it's still not working. To confirm I've run nbtstat -a odin which returns Local Area Connection 5: Node IpAddress: [10.163.4.24] Scope Id: [] NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table Name Type Status --------------------------------------------- ODIN <00> UNIQUE Registered STOWMARKETM <00> GROUP Registered STOWMARKETM <1C> GROUP Registered ODIN <20> UNIQUE Registered STOWMARKETM <1E> GROUP Registered ODIN <03> UNIQUE Registered MAC Address = 00-13-72-F6-4A-69 Wireless Network Connection: Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: [] Host not found. I've never played with WINS before, does that look right?
glensc Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 @ChrisC: New reports seem fine, I've just made a new one with no probs. @Glensc: That's a possibility as we don't have a WINS server (AFAIK), I'll give it a try. I've added 10.163.4.106 odin #SIMS Server to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam and rebooted and it's still not working. To confirm I've run nbtstat -a odin which returns Local Area Connection 5: Node IpAddress: [10.163.4.24] Scope Id: [] NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table Name Type Status --------------------------------------------- ODIN <00> UNIQUE Registered STOWMARKETM <00> GROUP Registered STOWMARKETM <1C> GROUP Registered ODIN <20> UNIQUE Registered STOWMARKETM <1E> GROUP Registered ODIN <03> UNIQUE Registered MAC Address = 00-13-72-F6-4A-69 Wireless Network Connection: Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: [] Host not found. I've never played with WINS before, does that look right? The LMHOST.sam is a sample LMHOST file, make a copy of it, with the added entry, and save as LMHOST ( no extension ) Another thing that might be getting in the way is a local firewall eg if it's a XP SP2 box, for tracking the problem it might be easier to disable that temporarily, if things start to work you will know that you've need to find the correct ports to allow through. Probably not that though but worth eliminating from the list of possibilities. The nbtstat with the a switch lists the the remote machines nametable, in this case odin's, you probably want to check the local workstation one -n gives the local ones and -r the ones resolve by WINS or broadcast.
ChrisC Posted July 10, 2006 Posted July 10, 2006 Just seems strange that this error has kicked in since the last update, I have been hearing stories that it's been very tempermental since the june update. Chris
Irazmus Posted July 10, 2006 Author Posted July 10, 2006 Whoops ^^; OK, try again nbtstat -r gives NetBIOS Names Resolution and Registration Statistics ---------------------------------------------------- Resolved By Broadcast = 15 Resolved By Name Server = 0 Registered By Broadcast = 6 Registered By Name Server = 0 NetBIOS Names Resolved By Broadcast --------------------------------------------- ODIN <00> ODIN STOWMARKETM <1B> THOR <00> THOR ODIN THOR <00> THOR <00> and nbtstat -n gives Local Area Connection 5: Node IpAddress: [10.163.4.24] Scope Id: [] NetBIOS Local Name Table Name Type Status --------------------------------------------- ALICIA <00> UNIQUE Registered ALICIA <20> UNIQUE Registered STOWMARKETM <00> GROUP Registered Wireless Network Connection: Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: [] No names in cache I figured I'd also try nbtstat -c which returned Local Area Connection 5: Node IpAddress: [10.163.4.24] Scope Id: [] NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table Name Type Host Address Life [sec] ------------------------------------------------------------ ODIN <03> UNIQUE 10.163.4.106 -1 ODIN <00> UNIQUE 10.163.4.106 -1 ODIN <20> UNIQUE 10.163.4.106 -1 Wireless Network Connection: Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: [] No names in cache Which looks a little more promising, but seeing how wrong I got the last one, I'll let you answer that
Irazmus Posted July 13, 2006 Author Posted July 13, 2006 Well, we've just updated SIMS .Net to 7.79 without incident (apart from the fact that the new 'simple' interface is more confusing than the old). However as expected it hasn't done anything to solve our problem, and I suspect that some of the reports that did still work, were broken by this latest update >_<;
Irazmus Posted July 17, 2006 Author Posted July 17, 2006 I hate to resort to bumping, but this problem's driving me nuts. Does anyone have any more ideas, no matter how daft or drastic? I'm getting desperate enough to give damn near anything a try.
NetworkGeezer Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 It looks like you're tried mosts thing I would've. Your LSU should escalate it to Capita if they can't sort it out themselves. Also have you tried to posting to the SIMS.net forums on support.capitaes.co.uk
ChrisC Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 I can't remember if you've already tried it, but have you uninstalled and reinstalled on a client and tested it?? Chris
Irazmus Posted July 17, 2006 Author Posted July 17, 2006 I posted this to support.capitaes.co.uk a couple of days after posting here, I've had no response at all.
steve Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 A few things you might want to try: From >nslookup odin Check the dns record is correct (worth just checking) Download a packet monitoring program - Smartsniff is OK. Run the report import routine and monitor what its doing. Is it contacting your SIMS server? Try a couple of the sysinternals applications TCPView and TDIMon. I had a strange network problem the other day - couldn't get an smtp email to our exchange box - the antivirus was blocking port 25! These tools let me identify the packets weren't leaving the workstation.
Irazmus Posted July 17, 2006 Author Posted July 17, 2006 @ChrisC: I havn't tried uninstalling a client, but I have installed the client on a couple of spare machines that have never had it before, still no joy. @Steve: nslookup odin gives the expected IP. TCPView: When running SIMS .Net TCPView shows 6 connections from pulsar.exe (local ports 1324-1329) connecting to the server (port 1171). When opening the Import Report dialog, pulsar is also connecting to port 8080 on the server. Even though the error claims 'the underlying connection was closed', TCPView is displaying all connections as established until SIMS is closed. Smartsniff shows that the client is definately contacting the server as it's getting a response from the Document Server (specifically HTTP1.1 100 and HTTP1.1 200). It has however shown up a slight oddity, there's a UDP packet being sent to the DNS server on port 53 which is referencing the old SIMS/DC/DNS server that was scrapped back in March. I'm now even more confused as i'm running this on a newly rebuilt machine, with a static IP, using a logon with a local profile. There's no way this machine should even know the old server's name, let alone be trying to contact it. TDIMon hasn't helped a lot as I've no idea what I'm looking at there ^^;
glensc Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 Smartsniff shows that the client is definately contacting the server as it's getting a response from the Document Server (specifically HTTP1.1 100 and HTTP1.1 200). It has however shown up a slight oddity, there's a UDP packet being sent to the DNS server on port 53 which is referencing the old SIMS/DC/DNS server that was scrapped back in March. I'm now even more confused as i'm running this on a newly rebuilt machine, with a static IP, using a logon with a local profile. There's no way this machine should even know the old server's name, let alone be trying to contact it. Sorry it's taken a while to get back on this, for reasons best known to people who decided them, I found myself babysitting pupils for school sports days, not impressed by this and had a lot to catch up on because of it. However back to youy SIMS problem. Given the above I'd suggest trying a couple of searches ( on server and client ) Seach for files containing text and < old server name> . I'm wondering if there's a file that's been transeferred over that references it. Also worth checking your DNS zone file to see if there's still a reference to a server service being announced that's pointing to the decomissioned server and hasn't been updated/deleted. Though the text search should pick it up if there is. For completeness it's also worth a seach on the old IP address with the quads order reversed eg if it was 192.168.XX.YY search for YY.XX.168.192
steve Posted July 18, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 OK, so for some reason SIMS is polling your DNS server for the old sims server. Check the following files - this how they are configured on our system. C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net\connect.ini [sIMSConnection] Redirect=s:\sims s:\sims\connect.ini [sIMSConnection] ServerName=02admin DatabaseName=sims CommandTimeout=100000 C:\WINDOWS\Sims.ini [setup] SIMSSetupsDirectory=\\02ADMIN\SIMSROOT$\Sims\Setups SIMSDotNetDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net SIMSDirectory=S:\SIMS FinanceDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\Finance OfflineSQLAppsDirectory= SIMSSQLAppsDirectory= NovaSatellite=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SATS [installationLogs] SIMSInfrastructureSetup.exe=C:\DOCUME~1\{*username*}\LOCALS~1\Temp\SIMSInfrastructureSetup.log SIMSApplicationSetup.exe=C:\DOCUME~1\{*username*}\LOCALS~1\Temp\SIMSApplicationSetup.log [Machine] Infrastructure=1.00 [NOVA-MC] CurrAcadYear=2006 PulsarLocation=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net CurrentTip=2 RecentFile:0= RecentFile:1= RecentFile:2= RecentFile:3= The server name and share will obviously be different, just check if your old server is referenced in them.
bossman Posted July 18, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 Steve; you just read my mind was gonna say have you checked these files. ours are the same. These ini files are a nuisance some times i always carry a spare set on my usb drive for copying over always works a treat.
Irazmus Posted July 18, 2006 Author Posted July 18, 2006 I found myself babysitting pupils for school sports days, not impressed by this and had a lot to catch up on because of it. No problem, I've been there before myself. A few weeks back I found myself at a local themepark looking after half of year 8. I've just run a search for the old server name (pc-server), nothing found on a client, but on the SIMS server (Odin) it appears in some log files from March (during transfer), some logon scripts in the SYSVOL that havn't been touched since 2001, and S:\SIMS\system\STATION.04\SIMSMAN.BAT@echo off SET LANID=2J \\ cd \\PC-SERVER\F$\CAPITA\SIMS SIMSMAN.EXE %1 %2 which is a file I've never noticed before, but I'm guessing (Due to the Set Lanid) it's from when my predecessor was trying to get SIMS working over Terminal Services. The same search on the PDC (Thor) has returned log files from 2005 (when I believe Thor was installed) and the same logon scripts in the SYSVOL. I trawled the DNS when removing the old server to check it was removed properly, but I've gone to double check and I've spotted a reference in Reverse Lookup Zones/4.163.10.in-addr.arpa where it's listed as a Name Server (Odd as the pc-server wasn't in that subnet). I'll remove the reference and see if it helps. EDIT: Nope, no change. I'd search for the IP address too, but I've actually forgotten what it was ^^; @Steve & Bossman: I've checked the connect.ini and sims.ini files and there's no reference to the old server: C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net\connect.ini[sIMSConnection] Redirect=S:\SIMS S:\SIMS\connect.ini[sIMSConnection] ServerName=ODIN\SIMS DatabaseName=SIMS C:\Windows\Sims.ini[setup] SIMSSetupsDirectory=\\ODIN\SIMS\Setups SIMSDotNetDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net SIMSDirectory=S:\SIMS FinanceDirectory=C:\Program Files\SIMS\Finance OfflineSQLAppsDirectory= SIMSSQLAppsDirectory= Folder=SIMS Applications WorkStation=5.28 NeedIcons=FALSE [installationLogs] SIMSInfrastructureSetup.exe=C:\Users\{*username*}\AppData\Local\Temp\SIMSInfrastructureSetup.log SIMSApplicationSetup.exe=C:\Users\{*username*}\AppData\Local\Temp\SIMSApplicationSetup.log [Machine] Infrastructure=1.00 [bDE] BDEVersion=2.52 BDEPath=C:\IDAPI BDEConfigPath=C:\IDAPI\IDAPI.CFG [Fonts] SIMS Attendance Key 8pt (VGA res)=SIMSATT.FON SIMS Monospaced 6,8pt (VGA res)=SIMSMONO.FON SIMS Field Navigator 8pt (VGA res)=SIMSFNAV.FON SIMS Clear 'a' font 8,10,12,14,18,24pt (VGA res)=SIMSCLRA.FON [Alerts] AlertDirectory=S:\SIMS\ALERTS\
glensc Posted July 18, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 I've just run a search for the old server name (pc-server), nothing found on a client, but on the SIMS server (Odin) it appears in some log files from March (during transfer), some logon scripts in the SYSVOL that havn't been touched since 2001, and S:\SIMS\system\STATION.04\SIMSMAN.BAT@echo off SET LANID=2J \\ cd \\PC-SERVER\F$\CAPITA\SIMS SIMSMAN.EXE %1 %2 If that .BAT file is being run by a client it'll probably account for the unexpected DNS call you are getting, doubt it'll account for the original problem though, maybe if it's being run on more than one machine setting the LANID on both to the same thing might be confusing it, looking at the directory structure it looks like it was designed to run on one particular machine ( Station.04 ) to avoid that, though if it is the cause ( of the DNS query ) and you get that coming from more than one machine that would imply that the .BAT's being run by them both, in which case the LANID being duplicated might break something. I'm not actually sure that SIMS. NET still needs the LANID set, not being particularly involve with SIMS if I can help it though having duplicate LANIDs might still break things in interesting ways. If your predicessor was trying to follow something like this http://www.six.somerset.gov.uk/sixv3/do_download.asp?did=4727 ( probably 3 years old ) you may find they've left a few references to it lying around. seaching for files contain text station.04 and simsman.bat might throw up something interesting. Not being a SIMS expert I'd be tempted to ( at least temporarily ) rename SIMSMAN.BAT to SIMSMAN.BAT.OLD then reboot client, log on and see if things break/fix or it throws up any error info, just because it's a reasonable quick thing to do and change back again. S:\SIMS\connect.ini[sIMSConnection] ServerName=ODIN\SIMS DatabaseName=SIMS " ServerName=ODIN\SIMS" Now that looks wrong to me. why set a directory in a server name? Another quick test might be delete the directory part and see if it helps/hinders things. C:\Windows\Sims.ini[setup] WorkStation=5.28 [/quote] Anyone know what this entry is doing? [quote]Infrastructure=1.00 [/quote] or this?
NetworkGeezer Posted July 18, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 Good point Glen. Although it is possible to specify an SQL instance. That normally goes with the database name. The strange thing is though according Irazmus's description everything else works apart from the import of new reports into the DMS.
Irazmus Posted July 18, 2006 Author Posted July 18, 2006 It's set asServerName=ODIN\SIMSas the old one was ServerName=PC-SERVER\SIMS Having never even touched SIMS before doing the server replacement, it seemed safest to simply swap out the netbios names. I don't think the bat is being run by anything (I have no machine named station.04, and I suspect it was meant to be used as a TS logon script to get SIMS working on a Mac), but I'll try renaming it anyway. It could easily have been 3+ years ago as SIMS was running on the old server for 8 years. @NetworkGeezer: Yep, everything else works perfectly, we can put data in, it's just a pain to get it out again
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