Server Reliability - How to find out why I'm having big problems?

[Stu]

Hi Folks.

Nettalk 5.13, Clarion 7.3, GPF Reporter, MSSQL 2005, Self Service.

* The system has long forms with a lot of custom embed "update child files" code.
* The system has GPF Reporter.
* The system runs as a service.

My biggest problem at the moment is that the server is going down at least once, twice a day.

- When I run the server as an exe, often times it will just freeze. No errors, no gpfs, nothing. Sometimes I get an ASSERT message from the file.clw file.

Results:
- Users are in a form, adding a child record through a child browse on the form, come back to the form and it white screens (cannot find page).
- Users are able to get some pages served, but others will wait until white-screening.
- Users can see the login page but cannot log in.

MY QUESTION IS:
- What methods/tools can be used to find out why this is breaking?

p.s. I've used jMeter, which seems really good, but can't get it to "log in" properly. So maybe I need to work out how to do that so I can run through a battery of page requests.

[Bruce]

run the Exe under CsBreakIn, then when it hangs you can "pause" it to see where the code is at that moment.

cheers
Bruce

[Stu]

Thanks Bruce, I'll give that a crack.

[kevin plummer]

Check SQL Enterprise Manager Process's to see if you have any file locks. This will give you the results you are seeing if it locks a file.

[Stu]

Kevin,

Thanks for the info!

Do you "check it's processes" inside the Management Studio, or do you use a different tool?

[kevin plummer]

Management Studio. Although you can kill the process of the locks via management studio the most effective way is to kill the web app and restart but at least you will be able to confirm if this is what is freezing you app or not.

[Stu]

Thanks Kevin! Will give it a shot next time it happens.