offline database cannot synchronize with BCM server.

[Piotr Kierklo]

Hello

I run into this trouble again in 2 months.
Without any known reasons, some of my laptop users, who were using
offline BCM databases and synchronizing when at the office, lost the
connection to the database. Although it is the same as before, and some
users can connect without problems.

One of the users was working without offline database (he was working
directly on the server database using the network connection. He also
had problems with connectivity. What helped was to reconfigure BCM
connection to the same paramaters (IP address of a host and the same
database name).

But what was acceptable in case of that user without offline database
(no changes made waiting to be synchronized) is unacceptable for users,
who made some changes in their local databases and are waiting to
synchronize with the server. We cannot loose the data.

The previous approach, with exporting the offline database, then droping
it, then reconnecting, then importing the export file and synchronizing
resulted in double or triple entries in Accounts and Contacts. Without
easy method of differenting which of them were duplicated and deleting
them. Aftef many trials still leading to inconsistencies in database, I
gave up and restored from backup. I do not want to repeat that again.

Is there a way to resynchronize the changes without loosing the data,
without duplicating the entries? Are there any connection-session
identifiers in that local database or what? Why can't I connect to the
same database, which didn't change its location?

I was trying to restart both clients and server, none of them helped.

I would appreciate any solution to this one, as there are production
data in that database and they need careful handling.

Thanks in advantage

 

[Luther]

Hello

I run into this trouble again in 2 months.
Without any known reasons, some of my laptop users, who were using
offline BCM databases and synchronizing when at the office, lost the
connection to the database. Although it is the same as before, and some
users can connect without problems.

One of the users was working without offline database (he was working
directly on the server database using the network connection. He also
had problems with connectivity. What helped was to reconfigure BCM
connection to the same paramaters (IP address of a host and the same
database name).

But what was acceptable in case of that user without offline database
(no changes made waiting to be synchronized) is unacceptable for users,
who made some changes in their local databases and are waiting to
synchronize with the server. We cannot loose the data.

The previous approach, with exporting the offline database, then droping
it, then reconnecting, then importing the export file and synchronizing
resulted in double or triple entries in Accounts and Contacts. Without
easy method of differenting which of them were duplicated and deleting
them. Aftef many trials still leading to inconsistencies in database, I
gave up and restored from backup. I do not want to repeat that again.

Is there a way to resynchronize the changes without loosing the data,
without duplicating the entries? Are there any connection-session
identifiers in that local database or what? Why can't I connect to the
same database, which didn't change its location?

I was trying to restart both clients and server, none of them helped.

I would appreciate any solution to this one, as there are production
data in that database and they need careful handling.

Thanks in advantage

The first to figure out is why the clients can't see the database on
the server. Since this only happens to some clients, something must
have changed around those clients.

Can the client machines ping the server?
Can the users logon to the server database using another tool; e.g.
osql? If not, did they change their Windows credentials (e.g.
password)? Did the database owner remove those users from the
database?

 

[Piotr Kierklo]

The first to figure out is why the clients can't see the database on

the server. Since this only happens to some clients, something must
have changed around those clients.

After few days everything goes back to no-problem state. But I was
trying to figure out the solution for future.

Can the client machines ping the server?

Yes, they can and they can telnet to port 5356.

Can the users logon to the server database using another tool; e.g.
osql?

Is there a way to install osql without installing the whole SQL Server
on the client?

If not, did they change their Windows credentials (e.g.
password)?

No, they did not.

Did the database owner remove those users from the
database?

No, he (in fact, that would be me did not.

Are there any BCM-specific diagnostic tools available?