I have VisualCron running on three servers. The copy of VisualCron on my production SQL server stopped working apparently on 12/15. The other two are still running as usual.

When I launch the VisualCron client on my production SQL server, the client application disables virtually every menu option and toolbar button. On the Server tab, I see "Server [Off]"; it is disabled (but the VisualCron service said it was running). I cannot check license infromation, credentials, User permissions, etc. All my jobs have also disappeared (probably because the client thinks the server is off).

I thought restarting the service might help; Now the service is stuck in the stopping phase.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi jackw3,

Ik the Visualcron application folder there is a log folder.
In here there is a file called 'log_server{date}.txt'.
Please look in here and check if there are any errors and post them here in this thread.

Regards,
Erik

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If you see "Server [Off]" there is probably no license problem. Someone has probably, by mistake, turned the Server Off. Just click on it again to start it.

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Hi jackw3,

Ik the Visualcron application folder there is a log folder.
In here there is a file called 'log_server{date}.txt'.
Please look in here and check if there are any errors and post them here in this thread.

Regards,
Erik

Erik,

Thanks for the log file tip.

The log_server{date}.txt file stopped generating on 12/16/2011. There are no errors in this file but the process of Job Started: {Job Name} began for the last time at 1:35:38 PM and didn't complete. Here's the last successful job execution and the beginning of the next execution that did not complete:

log_server20111216.txt -------------
12/16/2011 1:05:31 PM Info Job started: Run Transaction
12/16/2011 1:05:31 PM Info Task started: Run Transactions
12/16/2011 1:05:33 PM Info Task completed: Run Transactions
12/16/2011 1:05:33 PM Info Job completed: Run Transaction
12/16/2011 1:05:43 PM Debug Saving Jobs
12/16/2011 1:10:00 PM Info Job started: Monitoring
12/16/2011 1:10:00 PM Info Task started: RunMonitor
12/16/2011 1:10:02 PM Debug Process status - About to raise TaskCompleted (1925)
12/16/2011 1:10:02 PM Info Task completed: RunMonitor
12/16/2011 1:10:02 PM Info Job completed: Monitoring
12/16/2011 1:10:48 PM Debug Saving Jobs
12/16/2011 1:35:31 PM Info Job started: Run Transaction
12/16/2011 1:35:38 PM Info Task started: Run Transactions
[EOF]

Looking at the log_api20111216.txt file I'm seeing errors that may tell us what occured (these entries are made shortly after the log above stops):

log_api20111216.txt -----------
12/16/2011 1:36:04 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 1:36:05 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 1:36:16 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 1:36:21 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 1:36:32 AM IN: PROTOCOL
12/16/2011 1:36:32 AM License status: Activated
12/16/2011 1:36:32 AM IN: PROTOCOL
12/16/2011 1:36:32 AM License status: Activated
12/16/2011 5:35:38 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 5:35:41 AM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 5:36:18 AM IN: PROTOCOL
12/16/2011 5:36:21 AM License status: Activated
12/16/2011 1:36:03 PM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

12/16/2011 1:36:10 PM IPC send failed, ex: Port is Busy: All pipe instances are busy.

Finally, the log_trayclient2011216.txt begins logging errors at the same time with the following entries:

log_trayclient20111216.txt -----
12/16/2011 1:36:33 PM Connecting to VisualCron Server
12/16/2011 1:36:38 PM Ping failed, ex: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at iuGyVgfk.dxrHI2c3NarEJ.dxrHI2c3NarEJ() in C:\sourcefiles\code\VCTray\Connection\ConnectionAPI.vb:line 73
12/16/2011 1:36:38 PM Error in PingCheck, err: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at iuGyVgfk.dxrHI2c3NarEJ.dG1XEbUvgf(Object ) in C:\sourcefiles\code\VCTray\Connection\ConnectionAPI.vb:line 120


The last two entries above are repeated in the log every 30 seconds for the rest of the day and for every day since.

Judging from the log_api{date}.txt, it looks like I've exhausted all pipes. I'm not sure how I've done that in VisualCron's context.

I have reviewed the system log. There were no updated applied at this time. What is suspicious is a System log entry at 1:35:59pm on 12/16 that says:

"A worker process with process id of '2884' serving application pool 'ReportServer$TRI' has requested a recycle because the worker process reached is allowed processing time limit."

Perhaps what I need is a good old fashioned reboot though I'm not comfortable with a reboot remedy. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Jack
<><>

If you see "Server [Off]" there is probably no license problem. Someone has probably, by mistake, turned the Server Off. Just click on it again to start it.

Unfortunately, the "Server [off]" button is disabled. Pressing it does nothing.

Thanks for the tip though, Henrik!

Jack
<><>

If it is disabled you are simply not connected to the Server. The log file also explains connection problems. The errors are normal - if the VisualCron service is not running or not responding.

Is the VisualCron service running in Services window?

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The VisualCron service appeared to be running, by that, looking at Services, VisualCron's status was "running". Thinking that retarting the service might help, I selected the "Restart" option for the VisualCron service. Its status changed to "Stopping". It is still "Stopping" even though it has been several hours.

Obviously it has a problem.

Our next maintenance window is early tomorrow morning. I'll restart the server then and I'm presuming that will restart the VisualCron service.

The looming question is why did it hang? I haven't seen it do this before. Are there any suggestions regarding what to look for that can cause VisualCron to hang?

Thanks!

Jack

The main problem here is that 4.9.x is at least 3 years old now and the amount of logging that was added to the application at that time does not help us to debug the issue. There are too many internal events that we do not log. Also, a lot of bugs have been fixed over these 3 years.

If you are able to stop the VisualCron service by, last resort, kill the VisualCronService.exe process you should be able to start it again. But I do not think we will ever know the reason if not any specific information has been added to the event log.

We strongly suggest that you use the window to update to the latest version, which also has a lot of performance improvements compared to 4.9.x.

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Rebooting the server restored the VisualCron service back to a running state.

Thanks for the help!

Jack
<><>

Thanks for the feedback!

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