mlehman

We are a small golf club with 400 members. We have a Windows 2003 server running using a domain controller. The main application for the club runs on the server. The server is protected via Trend Micro's Office Scan server.

Up until Monday night, everything was working. Two food & beverage terminals, two proshop terminals and 6 others. On Tuesday morning, the application would not operate on the network.

The vendor of the application is a large company and has remote access to our server. They have been unable to resolve the issue.

Symptoms of the problem are:

1. We can load the application locally. ie - zip the files from the server, log into the workstation rather than the domain controller - no problems.
2. While connected to the domain controller, launching the application on the first workstation is successful until you start to use it. It then hangs. The task bar shows two instances of it running - both of which cannot be terminated.
3. No two terminals can launch the application at once.
4. Everything else functions on the network - file sharing, printing, email, and internet.

The club opens today.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

johnhook

mlehman,

Is the application running on the local PC's or are you connecting to the Server using Terminal Services (i.e. running multiple virtual PC sessions on the server)?

Does this program use a back-end database engine running on the Server (i.e. Oracle, SQL Server, etc)? Have you made any administrative changes to your Domain (user accounts, computer accounts, policies, etc)? Have you recently changed the Administrator password or other passwords?

Have you recently installed any service packs or updates on the Server?

There are many things that could cause the problem you describe. Knowing more about your environment (i.e. terminal services v/s application running locally on a Domain PC, database used by your application, any software or OS updates, service packs, etc. recently installed).

- John

mlehman

The application runs on the server, but is accessed via a shortcut on the desktop - There is a config file that is modified to give the data path. We have a very simple PC environment - small Cisco router, 24 port Linksys switch, CAT 6 drops to XP Pro workstations. All are virus and malware free based on running Trend Micro's OfficeScan 7.3

The program does not use a back-end database. It is a flat file database application. No administrative changes were made prior to the application crash.

No Windows updates have been made. Windows is not set to do automatic updates, but Trend Micro OfficeScan is.


The bizarre part of this is that the application has been running in our club for 24 months. We updated our systems from XP Home to XP Pro and our server from Windows 2003 SBE to Windows 2003 Standard Edition November of 2007 - at the request of the application supplier. At this time we went from a peer-to-peer network to a domain controller environment.

Following our support calls to the app supplier, they zipped up our entire data environment and put it on a server at their location. Of course it ran perfectly, so we know that something happened on our network to cause the problem, but the problem is not the network, if you know what I mean.

Mike

johnhook

mlehman,

If the software vendor was able to successfully migrate a copy of your application's data to their environment and use it without issues - all this says is that the problem is NOT with any corruption with your data.

You mentioned that you upgraded to your server OS and switched to a domain environment back in 2007. How long were things working after that upgrade?

The shortcut on the workstation PC's that launches the applications - does this point to files on the Server or local files installed on each workstation? I guess I can't determine from your reply WHERE the application files LIVE or on what system they're running. In a Terminal Services environment - the client PC's basically act as "dumb" terminals - allowing remote control of applications running on the server.

The fact that you can't run multiple copies of the application while logged into the domain would indicate a file sharing or file-locking issue on the server. Another possibility might be a licensing issue - either with your application or with your Windows 2003 Server. Windows 2003 server requires CALs (client access license) for each computer or user connecting to the server. If this hasn't been an issue in the past - then I can't see why it would be an issue now.

Have you tried checking the Event Logs on your Server? Generally - if something is going wrong with your OS, security, devices, applications, etc. on the server - such problems will be logged in the server's event logs. I would hope that your application software techs would have had the sense to check the Server's event log.

If there's a physical problem with your network hardware/environment - you should be seeing collisions or link errors on your router or switch. The behavior you describe doesn't sound like a hardware issue - but rather - something going wrong on the server with filesharing or file-locking.

More detail - i.e. the application you're running, version, etc. would be helpful. Send me a PM if you're not comfortable posting that information in an open public forum.

- John

mlehman

over 3 months.

The shortcut points to files on the server. A .cfg file on the server has a PATH section in it that shows where the files are.

We have 5 CALs that came with the system and purchased an extra 5. We have 9 devices plus the server.

Yes, the event logs are clear.

I agree that it is a file lock, or file share issue. I did get a corrupted file lock in an obscure part of the application area that I brought up to the application provider's support tech. He said it was not an issue.

We were able to port the application to one machine at the club yesterday and successfully run it in stand-alone-mode (ie. without hanging). I ported the entire app over and modified the .cfg file to point to data on this machine. So I thought that perhaps we could go back to a workgroup - away from the domain controller on selected machines, just to get the club working (there's a lot of pressure on me right now). Things seemed to go better, in that the application froze, but there wasn't the same degree of repulsion by the workstation. The double entry of the application in the task bar for instance.

This was when I kind of stumbled on the answer (I think). I said that we are running OfficeScan 7.3 from Trend Micro as our antivirus solution. As part of the troubleshooting of the main problem, I disabled the anti-virus engine, by shutting down the services. Then I disabled the agent running on the workstation. This caused no difference in the behaviour of the application.

So this time, I uninstalled the Trend Micro OfficeScan client from the workstation and presto - I was able to connect and run the application from the new server machine. I was able to get a third machine running - and the club working by sharing printers and so on.

So... It would appear that the problem is in the anti-virus agents somehow, although no footprint (at least in the areas I'm used to looking) was left by the perp. I then added AVG Free to the workstation because I didn't want it left exposed and the app still worked.

I then tested this theory on a machine connected to the domain controller. I removed the antivirus program using Add/Remove and then installed AVG Free. It worked!

Knock on wood, my problems could be solved - well this one. I still have a big problem with an application that can be knocked out by an antivirus program doing standard pattern updates.

Thank you for your help, John. I really appreciate it.

Mike

metech

Hi...

We also have encounter the same problem. We using the Accounting & Stock Inventory software for the last three years with Trend Micro Office Scan 6.
Suddenly earlier on this month, the system cannot be used anymore. It hang when user try to do any process.

After we unloaded the anti virus agent, it only can work as usual.
Until now we still haven't found the root cause for this problem.
Anyone knows the solution? Please help.

johnhook

metech,

I'm thinking that some automatic update or auto-fix feature in the Trend Micro Security product invoked some feature or setting which prevented your application from working.

I'm a Comcast Cable ISP customer and run a network in a medical practice. We use McAfee Security Suite as it is free to Comcast subscribers. A couple of weeks ago, McAfee automatically updated itself on all of my workstations such that it re-enabled the keyword scanning parental control feature. This blocked all of the medical websites that my users need to access. I had to manually disable this feature in McAfee.

I suspect that something similar is happening with Trend Micro in your environment. There should be a way to disable automatic updates and/or "fixes" when the product detects a problem.

- John

mlehman

It is possible that a feature was reset if the entire package was updated. That is a very poor way to update of course as normally all config files are left alone. I didn't check to see if this was the case since with Trend Micro, the product was working with every application except our golf course system made by Jencess. Internet access, email, file/print sharing - were all great. I didn't have the time to figure out what was wrong. It was just was easier to unload the software and move to AVG for the time being. Golf season is in full swing and we'll worry about this problem after closing.

Mike

metech

Hi Mlehman,

Our situation is same.
I already lodge a report to Trend Micro and just received their reply.
They said, the problem is caused by the scan engine updated in April
and they ask me to download and install the latest scan engine released in this month to prevent the problem.

You can try to look into this link : http://www.trendmicro.com/download/engine.asp#prod_40

I'm not sure what type of Trend Micro application you're using but mine one after I installed the new scan engine..so far looks fine.

mlehman

Thank you, Metech for your info.

At this point, I cannot afford to go with Trend Micro or any company that puts out the type of product that does this type of damage to our golf administration system. Perhaps after the season is over, we'll reevaluate our license with Trend Micro. I've got to admit that I'll be leaning towards AVG's server product.

Mike Lehman