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DBADave
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
366 Posts |
 Posted - 2006-01-17 : 12:47:00
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| Let me start by saying I plan on moving to SMTP mail later this year. For many months our SQL Servers (only Standard Edition) periodically experience problems with email hanging. I've read numerous forum posts and Microsoft articles about email problems, but none have corrected our problem. I decided to put up with the problem until I can convert to SMTP mail later in the year, but today I came in and found 9 servers that require SQL Server to be restarted in order to fix email. (Restarting only SQL Server Agent service does not correct the problem). I also found out that our Domain Controllers were restarted during the night. I have read where loss of a network connection can cause MAPI problems, although I'm not sure why only 9 of 45+ servers were impacted. The impacted servers do not all share the same DC.One of the servers could not authenticate with the network today so we rebooted its domain controller. After rebooting the DC, the network communication issue was resolved, but another SQL Server, which uses an entirely different DC, suddenly experienced email failure. Has anyone encountered anything like this? I'm starting to wonder if the email problems are more DC related then MAPI related, but my DC knowledge is very basic. I've never experienced problems with SQL Server 2000 EE, only SE.Dave |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-17 : 14:06:40
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| "my DC knowledge is very basic"Me too!Isn't there a command line command that can flush the DNS cache (i.e. on the member servers) - could it be something like that?Kristen |
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DBADave
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
366 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-17 : 14:49:35
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| NBTSTAT -R, but I think at that point it's too late. I believe MAPI uses a single thread for all email communications on SQL Server. If there was a way to identify and disconnect the thread then I believe that may correct the problem. Not sure if that's possible.Dave |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-18 : 01:38:18
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My MAPI knowledge is very basic  Is there some MAPI service you could stop-start in such circumstances?Kristen |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-18 : 08:49:14
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| MAPI depends on a consistent connection to the MAPI source, which in your case is probably the exchange server. If you lose connection to that server, whether from a general network error, bad device, or a DC going blink on you, you will have trouble. You might try forcing an xp_stopmail followed by xp_startmail.I would have a diagnostic completed on your switches and the NIC card in the server itself. In addition, look through all the system error logs to see if there have been any issues. In addition, look at your app/client servers or machines to see if there are any hints of network problems such as periodic authentication issues or lost distributed transactions. MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-18 : 08:50:19
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| One other thought, make sure you have the latest service packs and patch levels for both the OS and SQL Server. There have been multiple MAPI related issues fixed with previous service packs.MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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DBADave
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
366 Posts |
Posted - 2006-01-18 : 09:49:15
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| I've tried the xp_stopmail / xp_startmail approach. 9 out of 10 times it doesn't work for me. I'll take a closer look at the Event Logs to see if there is anything network related appearing on other servers. The server impacted yesterday after the planned DC reboot contains a message about the "time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources, however none of the sources are currently accessible.". I'm not sure if this would cause a MAPI problem, but I know if server times are out of sync by just a couple of minutes there could be other problems.I started reapplying SP3a, a hot-fix and a patch for the hot-fix yesterday on a few of the servers. We'll see if that helps.Thanks, Dave |
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SQL Mail hangs after DC reboots - Why??