this is really two questions in one I guess.
We've developed a .Net app that accesses an Oracle database, and have noticed that after changing the user's Oracle password, the app continues to work for a short time with the old password in the connection string. Presumably this is something to do with the way existing connections are pooled?
When first investigating this we tried turning off pooling in the connection string, however the app wouldn't work, throwing the error "Unable to enlist in a distributed transaction" at the point it tries to open a connection. While we probably wouldn't want to turn off connection pooling in a production app, I'm curious as to why MSDTC seems to need it?
We are using Oracle 11g (11.1.2) and latest ODP.Net (11.2 I think).
Thanks in advance
Andy
Please see some of the finding below:
For Question One: (application still connected with old DB password)
If we connect the database with connection pooling option, connection pool manager would create and maintain the number of connection sessions when first calling the open or close of OracleConnection object. (number of this connection sessions depend on "min" & "max" pool size in connection string). In Oracle, I think you could check active session like:
SELECT s.inst_id,
s.sid,
s.serial#,
p.spid,
s.username,
s.program
FROM gv$session s
JOIN gv$process p ON p.addr = s.paddr AND p.inst_id = s.inst_id
WHERE s.type != 'BACKGROUND';
And according to Oracle doc, this connection pooling service will close the connection sessions after 3 minutes of in-active state. [ http://docs.oracle.com/html/E10927_01/featConnecting.htm ]
So the most possible reason could be, your application still
connected to the database by using this Pool and still connected for
a short time, even after you changed the database password.
There could be also one possibility of "Oracle Client Cache"
feature in ODP.net. But not quite sure, you can check at, [
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2008/08-jul/o48odpnet-098170.html ]
For Question Two: (why MSDTC needed)
If you are using nested Database connection in your code, it will be promoted to DTC. [ http://petermeinl.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/avoiding-unwanted-escalation-to-distributed-transactions/ ] Actually there was Oracle Service for Microsoft Transaction Server (OraMTS) act as among ODP.net, DTC, and Oracle Database.
But you didn't happend this problem (MSDTC) before disabled the connection pooling. It seems like your code is reusing the same connection out of undelining connection pool, and it might eliminate the need to promote DTC. There was similar question on StaffOverflow. [ Why isn't my transaction escalating to DTC? ]
Related
I have created an Amazon RDS DB instance. I can connect to it and perform operations with SSMS. I can also bind to it using Entity Framework DB-first and generate my model. However, when I run my app, using the same connection string that was generated in the data access project, I get a "the network path was not found" error while trying to establish a connection to the DB.
Let me be clear: the db exists, the right ports are open, and the connection string is correct. I am the only one connecting to the database and the status is "available".
So what's going on? Has anyone experienced something like this?
Let me also further mention that I have already checked the usual things like internet connectivity, firewall rules, state of the database, etc.
well it started working all of a sudden. So I guess this problem will only pop up again in production or something.
We've got a mirrored SQL server 2012 database setup on Azure VM's - two servers plus a witness, all using client certificates, with SQL logins with the same SID set.
When testing our app from a different VM, everything works as expected when we manually failover the database, there's a one second wait and then it continues to operate quite happily.
If we then do another manual failover, ie moving the principal back to the original server, the app errors and throws a 'no such host in known' error. Recycling the app pool fixes the issue, but this clearly isn't workable in production when one of the servers is updated followed by the other at some later point (both are in an availability set).
The host not known error is somewhat baffling as it was communicating with it happily before the initial failover, and will again after the app pool recycle.
Here's the connection string as it is right now, after a lot of faffing around:
"Data Source=server1,1433;Failover Partner=server2,1433;Initial
Catalog=;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;User Id=user;
Password=password; Network=dbmssocn;Connect Timeout=60; async = true;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
The app is running on .net 4.5.2, so should be up to date with hotfixes, and we're out of ideas after much Googling with Bing.
I've just solved a problem that I had that looks very similar to your problem. I'd get the host not known error whenever the database switched from the first one listed in the web.config file to the failover one. It was fine switching from the failover to the primary.
The problem that I had was that I set up the database mirroring using server names but my web server did not know the database servers by name. Once I fixed this, I was able to get the failover working smoothly both ways.
This is what I think was happening:
I set up the mirroring using the names SQL1 and SQL2 as the principal and mirror servers
I have their ip addresses in my connection string: 10.1.1.5 and 10.1.1.6
The application tries to get to the first server 10.1.1.5 and succeeds and is then told that the mirror server is SQL2
SQL1 goes down and the database is successfully switched to the mirror server.
The web application attempts to connect, fails and determines that it should try the second server.
It tries to connect to SQL2, which it doesn't know, and fails with the message that the host is unknown.
This answer would only apply to your situation if you actually put ip addresses in your web.config and that server1,1433 and server2,1433 were actually masking place-holders for the ip addresses that you actually used.
I haven't really solved the naming issue though. I just added the two database server names to the HOSTS file which isn't an acceptable situation but does prove my theory on what my problem was.
I am researching a setup just like you have and upon reading this and the response by Steve Kaye, I'm wondering if you have SQL browser running. Take a look at this article for how SQL browser comes into play:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/spike/archive/2010/12/15/running-a-database-mirror-setup-with-the-sqlbrowser-service-off-may-produce-unexpected-results.aspx
I'm using Powershell v2.0, question is in the title. I'm having to use the old school ADOB.Connection (not the OLEDB provider) to open a Jet DB file (.mdb). The reason is simple, the ADODB.Connection exposes properties I need access to that the OLEDB provider doesn't.
I'm opening the DB via ADOB.Connection to query for some information, and then I'm trying to compact the DB using JRO.JetEngine. The issue is that I keep getting an error about the Jet DB being locked.
I'm explicitly calling Close on it, and setting the variable to $null, and still experiencing that issue. My best guess is that ADODB.Connection is using connection pooling, and so is not releasing the resources the way it should be.
According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/191572, the call to close() should be enough, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Is there a way for me to explicitly specify no connection pooling when creating ADODB.Connection objects?
In the link you provided, it is said that calling to close returns the connection to the pool:
2.What statement returns the connection to the pool?
2.Conn.Close
You might need to destroy/dispose the ADODB.Connection object, so that it is removed from the pool, or, if you are using OLE DB as the provider, configure the OLEDB Services, as explained here:
Enabling OLE DB Resource.
Pooling Resource pooling can be enabled in
several ways:
For an ADO-based consumer, by keeping one open instance of a
Connection object for each unique user and using the OLEDB_SERVICES
connection string attribute to enable or disable pooling. By default,
ADO attempts to use pooling, but if you do not keep at least one
instance of a Connection object open for each user, there will not be
a persistent pool available to your application. (However, Microsoft
Transaction Server keeps pools persistent as long as the connections
in them have not been released and have not eventually timed out.)
There is a delphi application in which I am trying to connect to Oracle database Using provider MSDAORA.1 but problem is coming in connecting. Oracle error message which is coming is "Oracle error occurred, but error message could not be retrieved from Oracle"
I am able to connect to database with Oracle10g client.
Connection String: Provider=MSDAORA.1;
User ID=murat;
Password = murat;
Data Source=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp) (HOST= INGPSP)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=INGPSP)));
Persist Security Info=False;
Please provide your expert opinion what can be the reason of this?
The service name seems to be lacking in your address.
Set a tnsnames.ora file, and use the entry as data source instead of the data_source parameter you set. Follow the steps available on the faq.
Or use use connection strings like '//host[:port]/[service_name]' for your data source: //INGPSP:1521/ServiceName
For Oracle, both Microsoft and Oracle OleDB providers are known to have issue with BLOBs. If you can, use another mean of connection.
What I see that is strange is that your HOST and SID are the same. The HOST is the name of the machine on your network and the SID is the database instance on that machine. I created the following ConnectionString for the PRD3 database on machine DB19 (there are multiple databases on DB19) on our network. I was able to connect to the database successfully with real User ID and Password.
Provider=MSDAORA.1;
Password=123456;
User ID=abc;
Data Source="(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=db19)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=prd3)))";
Persist Security Info=True
Normally the Data Source I use is the database name as defined in TNSNAMES.ORA. It is a lot less to type (fewer potential errors) and can be changed to another database without recompiling the program (such as switching between a development database and production database).
We use stateful DataSnap servers for some business logic tasks and also to provide clientdataset data.
If we have to update the server to modify a business rule, we copy the new version into a new empty folder and register it (depending on the Delphi version, just by launching or by running the TRegSvr utility).
We can do this even while the old server instance is running. However, after registering the new version, all new client connections will still use the currently running (old) server instance. All clients have to disconnect first, then the new server will be used for the next clients.
Is there a way to direct all new client connections to the new server, immediately after registering?
(I know that new or changed method signatures will also require a change and restart of the clients but this question is about internal modifications which do not affect the interface)
We are using Socket connections, and all clients share the same server application (only one application window is open). In the early days we have used a different configuration of the remote datamodule which resulted in one app window per client. Maybe this could be a solution? (because every new client will launch the currently registered executable)
Update: does Delphi XE offer some support for 'hot deployment' (of updated servers)? We use Delphi 2009 at the moment but would upgrade to XE if it offers easier implementation of 'hot deployment'.
you could separate your appserver into 2 new servers, one being a simple proxy object redirecting all methods (and optionally containing state info if any) to the second one actually implementing your business logic. you also need to implement "silent reconnect" feature within your proxy server in order not to disturb connected clients if you decide to replace business appserver any time you want. never did such design myself before but hope the idea is clear
Have you tried renaming the current server and placing the new in the same location with the correct name (versus changing the registry location). I have done this for COM libraries before with success. I am not sure if it would apply to remote launch rules through as it may look for an existing instance to attach to instead of a completely fresh server.
It may be a bit hackish but you would have the client call a method on the server indicating that a newer version is available. This would allow it to perform any necessary cleanup so it doesn't end up talking to both the existing server instance and new server instance at the same time.
There is probably not a simple answer to this question, and I suspect that you will have to modify the client. The simplest solution I can think of is to have a flag (a property or an out parameter on some commonly called method) on the server that the client checks periodically that tells the client to disconnect and reconnect (called something like ImBeingRetired).
It's also possible to write callbacks under certain circumstances for datasnap (although I've never done this). This would allow the server to inform the client that it should restart or reconnect.
The last option I can think of (that hasn't already been mentioned) would be to make the client/server stateless, so that every time the client wants something it connects, gets what it wants then disconnects.
Unfortunately none of these options are the answer you want to your question, but might give you some ideas.
(optional) set up vmware vSphere, ESX, or find a hosting service that already has one.
Store the session variables in db.
Prepare 2 web boxes with 2 distinct IP address and deploy your stuff.
Set up DNS, firewall, load balancer, or BSD vm so name "example.com" resolves to web box 1.
Deploy new version to web box 2.
Switch over to web box 2 using whatever routing method you chose.
Deploy new version to web box 1 if things look ok.
Using DNS is probably easiest, but it takes time for the mapping to propagate to the client (if the client is outside your LAN) and also two clients may see different results. Some firewalls have IP address mapping feature that you can map public IP address and internal IP address. The ideal way is to use load balancer and configure it to 50:50 and change it to 100:0 when you want to do upgrade, but it costs money. A cheaper alternative is to run software load balancer on BSD vm, but it probably requires some work.
Edit: What I meant to say is session variables, not session. You said the server is stateful. If it contains some business logic that uses session variable, it needs to get stored externally to be preserved across reconnection during switch over. Actual DataSnap session will be lost, so when you shutdown web box 1 during upgrade, the client will get "Session {some-uuid} is not found" error by web box 1, and it will reconnect to web box 2.
Also you could use 3 IP addresses (1 public and 2 private) so the client always sees 1 address , which is better method.
I have done something similar by having a specific table which held my "data version". Each time I would update the server or change a system wide global setting, I would increment this field. When a client starts it always checks this value, and will check again before any transactions/queries. If the value was ever different from when I first started, then I needed to go through my re-initialization logic, which could easily include a re-login to an updated server.
I was using IIS to publish my app servers, so the data that would change would be the path to the app server. I kept the old ones available, to respond to any existing transactions that were in play. Eventually these would be removed once I knew there were no more client connections to that version.
You could easily handle knowing what versions to keep around if you log what server the client last connected too (and therefore would know about).
For newer versions (Delphi 2010 and up), there is an interesting solution
for systems using the HTTP transport:
Implementing Failover and Load Balancing in DataSnap 2010 by Andreano Lanusse
and a related question for the TCP/IP transport:
How to direct DataSnap client connections to various DS Servers?