Identifying Access Problems

[Steven Zallen]

Hi!

I have a number of Access MDBs running on a Win 2003 SP1 Server. This is a
web server running IIS and Coldfusion, Win XP Office (Ie Access 2002). I
mostly develop on a W2K with Office 2K (ie Access 2000) and use Access 2000
format MDBs, but do sometimes now work on a WXP system w/ Office 2003.

I am having frequent crash/hang problems, and as best I can tell it is
Access and/or the DBs, not Cold fusion or IIS, as I can still serve up HTML.
The errors indicate database connectivity. All databases appear to fail at
the same time. I generaly reboot when this happens. The server is remote,
and I connect via RDP.

I am looking for suggestions in how to troubleshoot and repair this problem.

Thanks

Steven

 

[Wayne Morgan]

Are you opening the databases directly or with remote control software? If
you're opening them directly and they all fail at the same time, I would
suspect an intermittent network connection problem. The fact that you state
it is a remote server makes that all the more likely.

 

[Steven Zallen]

Thanks for your reply

I manage the MDB on a local machine, and it rarly gets "opened" on the
server. It is accessed on the server by by Web pages runnig SQL querries on
the same server.

That said:
What am I doing to the DB if I open it remotely?
How can I find the date and time access stops working?
Is this a particular "event", and is it logged anywhere?
Can I tell the last MDB that was hit before the crash, and ideally the table?
Is rebooting causing me more issues?
Can I recover access with out rebooting?

Thanks

Steven

 

[Wayne Morgan]

If you are opening the files on the server using web pages on the server,
then Access isn't involved. Access is a user interface for working with Jet
database files. Other applications are also capable of opening Jet files
(MDBs). Right off-hand, this sounds as if there is a problem with the web
server on the server computer or a problem with one of the files. Have you
done a Compact and Repair of the files lately? The logs for the web server
may have the information to tell you when things crashed. If not, there may
be more logging that you can turn on. You'll need to go to a newsgroup for
the type of web server and ask there.

As far as opening the mdb file remotely using Access on your computer, the
amount of data passed back and forth usually makes this impractical (very,
very slow). Also, if there is a problem with the connection, you risk
corrupting the file. If you're going to open it remotely, it is usually
better to use remote control software. This actually isn't opening the file
remotely, instead the server computer runs Access and opens the file for
you, just sending you the screen shots you need to see what is happening.

Whether or not rebooting is causing more issues or whether you can recover
without rebooting will depend on whether you can determine why this is
happening in the first place. If you're using IIS as the web server on the
server, you may be able to run the command "iisreset" on the server to
restart the web services. Again, this is something that would be better to
take up with folks who help with the type of web server you have.

 

[Steven Zallen]

Great Info, Thanks!

Could you suggest some specific forums to look in?

I am running IIS. I see some logs under Windows\system32\logfiles\w3svc1\.
Are these what you are refering to?

The only way I access the MDB remotly is by "Remote Desktop". Otherwise I
use explorer to FTP the file back and forth. All other connections to the MDB
are web page calls.

I would think that IIS is not the problem as I can still generate HTML. So
this sounds like I want to look at JET. Do you ageree? I think I have all
the latest versions. Any logs or diagnostics here? How can I trouble shoot
jet?

I have done a compact and repair (from within Access), and have had no
problems since. In general this has been an issue, as one on the macros has
an AUTOEXEC in it, and I prefer to do this function locally. I download the
file, C&R, then upload. When I run compact and repair locally, I get an
error because of the pathing in the macro. I just created a work around by
temporarily renameing the AUTOEXEC macro when I C&R. I will review the
requirement for the Autoexec. I inherited this MDB.

Not sure that this is worth noting, but nightly I import a number of text
files to my largest database, referenced above, hence the Macro. I use a
macro to clear out the old stuff, and then add the new stuff. I also have a
dozen or so smaller databases, which I have not (yet) compacted. I have not
a clue which one is causing the issue. None of these get extensive traffic.
I'm talking hundreds per day for all I think.

When I open up this MDB on XP, I get a dialog box about "Unsafe expressions
are not blocked". I answer no, but really do not understand this. I was
getting another box about Jet, though I can not seem to reproduce this at the
moment.

I noticed that there is a "check and repair" feature for Access itself,
however I could not run this as it wants the Office install disks, and I do
not have the MSI loaded on the server. Is this of any help, assuming there
is a JET issue. I can do this during the week.

Best regards

Steven

 

[Wayne Morgan]

microsoft.public.inetserver.iis may be a good newsgroup to start in.