shared database - losing connection intermitently

[alongi]

We have a small SBS 2003 network running SBS premium with 5 clients
PC's.
I created a shared bcm database on my machine, I have admin privileges.
I am sharing the database, two other users access it.
One is a power user one is a standard user.

The standard user intermittenly is unable to connect to the shared bcm
database.
I noticed that MSDE Sql server engine is stopped on her machine when
this occurs,
I am unable to restart it successfully (access denied) I don't
understand why sometimes
the engine start fine and other times is does not, this occurs on a
regular basis constantly.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[alongi]

I forgot to add a couple of things, all machines are running Windows XP
Prof,
and even from the machine that loses the connection I can
successfully connect using OSQL
OSQL -E -S ipaddress\microsoftsoftsmlbiz,56183 -d
msbusinesscontactmanager

 

[Luther]

If the shared user is connected exclusively to the db on your machine,
don't bother trying to turn on the sql server on her machine. It'll
only suck up her cpu for no purpose.

Only an admin can start and stop a service like sqlserver.

If her profile does use a local database, you can start diagnosing the
sql service by looking for errors on that machine's event logs. The
service should be set to automatically start up with the machine, and
not depend on the first BCM user starting it.

 

[alongi]

As you mentioned I looked into the event logs and found a series of
errors as follows:

-Source: SQLServerProfiler
Executable: C:\MSSQL7\bin\sqlservr.exe
DEsc: Unable_To_Set_RegKey_Val

-Source:MSSQLServer
Desc: 17207: udopen: Operating system error 5(Access is denied) during
the creation/opening of physical device C:\MSSQL7\data\master.mdf

- Source:MSSQLServer
Desc: 17204:FCB:Open failed:Could not open device
C:\MSSQL7\data\master.mdf for virtual device number (VDN) 1

- Source:MSSQLServer
Desc: 18052: Error 5101, Severity 16, State 4

As I mentioned this only occurs on machine that shares the dbase, this
user is a standard user.

Any help is appreciated.
Thank You

 

[Luther]

It's a bit confusing trying to untangle what's going on the SBS server,
your machine (with the shared db, presumably not the SBS server), and
the shared user's machine.

There's a few strange things about the SQL server configuration.

The sql service runs as a local admin, so it shouldn't ever run into
access denied errors trying
to read or write files.

The MSDE package installed by BCM usually goes into C:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ. The sql server trying
to access C:\MSSQL7 is probably an earlier version of sql installed on
this machine.

In the Services applet, you should see MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ running.
That's the MSDE instance BCM uses. The Properties|Log On for that
service shold show "Local System account".

If you don't use any other sql server based applications, you should
shutdown any other sql server instances you find running, and uninstall
any other versions of sql server on the machine.

 

[alongi]

Hi, thanks for the response, apologize for the confusion.

Under services I do see the mentioned smlbiz process running and it
does show
local system account.
However I also see a MSSQL7 process running only on the desktop machine
where I am having this problem. It looks like it wasn't started but to
be safe I disabled it.

I also see a MSQL7 directory off of C:\ that looks pretty old.

LEt me know if this is the problem but I just noticed that
c:\ProgramFile\MicrosoftSqlServer\MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ is not
accessible by that user permissions wise.

 

[Luther]

The shared user doesn't need to have permission to
c:\ProgramFile\MicrosoftSqlServer\MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ

If that user wants to create a private bcm database, bcm should be able
to connect to the running MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ service, and create a
private database for that user.

If that user is only going to use the shared database on another
machine, an admin can shutdown the MSSQL$MICROSOFTSMLBIZ service on
that user's machine. If no one is using it, might as well free up the
memory and cpu on that machine.

If the user's Outlook/bcm can connect to the shared bcm db on the other
machine, but then intermitently looses connectivity it can be several
things. The obvious ones are: lost network connectivity, machine or sql
server was too busy to respond to the connection requests, another user
is locking things.

 

[alongi]

The user only needs to connect to a shared bcm database.
When I said intermittenly connectivity I should've been clearer.
Basically the bcm worked on the client machine for 2 days, then has
stopped working
ever since.
They can see the address contacts in bcm, but they cannot add any new
contacts, as they receive an error saying
business contact manager was unable to initialize this form,
they receive the same error when they try open an existing contact.

 

[alongi]

I found the problem, I had to go into Help->About Microsoft
Outlook->Disabled Items

Somehow, the business contact manager addin dll was disabled, I had to
re-enable
and re-start outlook and now it is working fine.

I appreciate all your feedback and time.

Thank You.