strange "single user" error

[stanley]

I wasn't here to witness this, so my facts are a little sketchy. We've got a dozen FMP clients hooked up to FM Server. It has all been working reasonably well. This morning at 11, suddenly (apparently, according to the hysterical shop owner) the machines stopped connecting to the server - the error they were getting was that the DB they were looking for was single-user and was being used. But the files are all multi-user, and anyway Server is set to serve single-user files.

On the telephone I told the owner to reboot the server, and by the time I got to the site, everything was working fine. I've been looking at the server log, and nothing really stands out. The database backs up every hour, and that was working, and people were (according to the log) gaining access to the DB all along...

The only odd thing that happened (I'm really searching for an answer here) is that the scheduled power-cycle at 5 am didn't happen this morning because another application was open on the server, and the Quit command didn't get through it's dense skull. So I had manually quit & restarted FM Server at 9. But how would that make a difference?

Any clues, hints or derisory comments are welcome.

thanks

Stanley

[LiveOak]

1) What platform, machine, OS, and version of FM Server?

2) What "other application" was running?

3) Is the machine on a UPS?

4) Is the owner prone to go it on his own before he calls?

-bd

[stanley]

LiveOak:

1. Server 5.5, Mac OS9.1, Beige G3 tower

2. Other application: Toast 5.0

3. The Server is on a UPS; power was not interrupted

4. The owner wouldn't go it alone - he's scared of the server room.

As I wrote, I've been looking through the logs and it all looks fine. Would the log indicate errors? If so, then no errors appear to have occured.

thanks

Stanley

[Anatoli]

Never ever run any other application on Mac OS machine running FM server and do always make sure, the FM is frontmost application!

[IdealData]

Try these:

1. Get rid of Toast. When it runs it will suspend all other processes.

2. If you've got file sharing "ON" on the server then it's posssible for users to attempt to open the DBs through file access rather than through "host" access via FMP. If the file is already open by the host, then file access methods will yield the "single user error" (which, I think, also indicates the file may already be open).

3. Dedicate FMServer to foreground.

[LiveOak]

I'd start by running the usual diagnostics (Norton Utilities and DiskWarrior, if you have them). Make sure to check disk fragmentation. I've not used 9.1 (we are mostly on 9.0.4) for servers. Also strip the extensions down to the bare minimum. For controlling foreground/background, we use Peek-a-Boo from Clarkwood Software. We also run Kick-Off's from Sophisticated Circuits for watchdog/restart and error logging. You could also try the 9.2.2 (via 9.2.1 first) updates. OS 9.2.2 is supposed to be more stable than 9.1.

My best guess is that Norton will turn up something.

-bd