Network or Disk Error

[Damien McBain]

Hi Y'all,

I have a multi-user (20-30 at a time) who access my db. The mdb and be.mdb
are located on a network share on our WAN (a large corporate network). The
mdw is in a different dir in the same share. All users access the mdb via
Citrix (the Citrix server is connected to the file server via LAN).

In the last couple of days it has developed a fault where users (including
me) get an Access error message stating "Network or Disk Error" when trying
to open the db, before the Access login dialog. There is nothing apparrently
wrong with the file server or the citrix server. The first time the error
occurred, it was the mdw file that was causing the issue (I could open the
mdb using a backup of the mdw). Today it was the mdb, I couldn't open it at
all but I could open the back end db.

Anyone seen this before? What's flaky here, Citrix, Access, the file server,
(my Database!)?. I found a couple of similar issues by Googling but nothing
that replicates my set of circumstances. Any pointers appreciated.

In my situation would I be better served developing a front-end with asp.net
rather than using a thin client? I am reluctant to run the front end on all
the client's machines since it's still very new and I upgrade it almost
every night (and the b/e is in another location).

Damo

 

[Tony Toews]

I have a multi-user (20-30 at a time) who access my db. The mdb and be.mdb
are located on a network share on our WAN (a large corporate network). The
mdw is in a different dir in the same share. All users access the mdb via
Citrix (the Citrix server is connected to the file server via LAN).

In the last couple of days it has developed a fault where users (including
me) get an Access error message stating "Network or Disk Error" when trying
to open the db, before the Access login dialog. There is nothing apparrently
wrong with the file server or the citrix server. The first time the error
occurred, it was the mdw file that was causing the issue (I could open the
mdb using a backup of the mdw). Today it was the mdb, I couldn't open it at
all but I could open the back end db.

Anyone seen this before? What's flaky here, Citrix, Access, the file server,
(my Database!)?. I found a couple of similar issues by Googling but nothing
that replicates my set of circumstances. Any pointers appreciated.

Given that this is happening before the Access login dialog it's very
likely a network problem of some sort and not Access. Possibly
there's some kind of timeout on the network connection on the shared
drives and Access pukes while the network connection is being
re-established. But I don't know too much about these kinds of things
and where any such settings reside.

In my situation would I be better served developing a front-end with asp.net
rather than using a thin client? I am reluctant to run the front end on all
the client's machines since it's still very new and I upgrade it almost
every night (and the b/e is in another location).

But are the FEs running on the Citrix server and the BEs on the file
server on the same 100 mpbs or better LAN?

Hmm, are your users sharing the FE? That might be the problem but I
kind of doubt it.

However you really want to put the FE on each machine or place in a
user specific directory on the server. This will help avoid some
weird error messages when users are changing the same forms record
source, filters and such as well as corruptions.

I specifically created the Auto FE Updater utility so that I could
make changes to the FE MDE as often as I wanted and be quite confident
that the next time someone went to run the app that it would pull in
the latest version. For more info on the errors or the Auto FE
Updater utility see the free Auto FE Updater utility at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm at my website to keep the
FE on each PC up to date.

In a Terminal Server or Citrix environment the Auto FE Updater now
supports creating a directory named after the user on a server. Given
a choice put the FE on the Citrix server to reduce network traffic and
to avoid having to load objects over the network which can be somewhat
sluggish.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

 

[Damien McBain]

Given that this is happening before the Access login dialog it's very
likely a network problem of some sort and not Access. Possibly
there's some kind of timeout on the network connection on the shared
drives and Access pukes while the network connection is being
re-established. But I don't know too much about these kinds of things
and where any such settings reside.


But are the FEs running on the Citrix server and the BEs on the file
server on the same 100 mpbs or better LAN?

Hmm, are your users sharing the FE? That might be the problem but I
kind of doubt it.

However you really want to put the FE on each machine or place in a
user specific directory on the server. This will help avoid some
weird error messages when users are changing the same forms record
source, filters and such as well as corruptions.

I specifically created the Auto FE Updater utility so that I could
make changes to the FE MDE as often as I wanted and be quite confident
that the next time someone went to run the app that it would pull in
the latest version. For more info on the errors or the Auto FE
Updater utility see the free Auto FE Updater utility at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm at my website to keep the
FE on each PC up to date.

In a Terminal Server or Citrix environment the Auto FE Updater now
supports creating a directory named after the user on a server. Given
a choice put the FE on the Citrix server to reduce network traffic and
to avoid having to load objects over the network which can be somewhat
sluggish.

Tony

Thanks for the reply post Tony.

I realise now that I have a number of options. The common thread (from your
post and that of others responding to my repost) seems to be that each fe
should only be used once at any one time.

In response to your question: "But are the FEs running on the Citrix server
and the BEs on the file server on the same 100 mpbs or better LAN?"

The fe and be are both on the file server. The file server and the citrix
server are on the same 1000 mb/s LAN (it's our main server farm).

In the short term I'll create a separate fe for each user and work out how I
can make the citrix NFuse published ap still work. After I've done that I'm
going to go get ASP.NET and learn it - I think I'm using the wrong tool for
my application.
Poor ole trustworthy Access has finally outlived it's usefulness in a world
of WAN's and internet.

I'll try your updater too. Luv all the hints about donations on the ws, lets
make sure it works in our environment first ))

cheers

Damo

 

[Tony Toews]

In the short term I'll create a separate fe for each user and work out how I
can make the citrix NFuse published ap still work.

All you need to do is create a one line .cmd file which calls either
msaccess.exe and passes it your MDB path and file name. Or a similar
..cmd file for the Auto FE Updater.

After I've done that I'm
going to go get ASP.NET and learn it - I think I'm using the wrong tool for
my application.
Poor ole trustworthy Access has finally outlived it's usefulness in a world
of WAN's and internet.

Yes and no. It takes a lot longer to create an app in ASP.NET.

I'll try your updater too. Luv all the hints about donations on the ws, lets
make sure it works in our environment first ))

<smile> I've put in many hours on that app. It may look simple but
it's got thousands of lines of code in it.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

 

[Daniel]

I've had similar issue in the past and as far as I could determine, it was
caused by a slow server. Basically I believe that the database timed-out
because the network was so congested at that specific time and as such gave
me a network error.

Maybe so of the others have other explanations but this is what I've found.

Daniel