[background]
Delphi 6, Windows 2003 Server, Firebird 2.1.3, dbexpida.dll 2.50.0.20
We started working with the dbexpida.dll driver in March. Our first release using this driver was successful, with the minor issue of some of our services issuing error messages and event log entries when the server was rebooted. We traced this to some data modules not being explicitly closed during the Windows shutdown process.
We learned that having an open data model when a program or service closes causes an Unknown Application Error to be displayed before the program finally exits.
In our second release we moved all cleanup activity to the FormClose event and made sure each services' FormClose event was called.
Every night (or whatever time the customer selects) we tell our services to stop processing, shutdown (stop) Firebird for about 5 minutes, backup the databases, start Firebird and then stop and restart each or our services one at a time with a brief delay between each.
[the problem]
We installed the release at a couple of live sites after we did a complete system test and our customer's IT department did a complete system test.
Everything was great for about 2 weeks. Then one of the sites reported that after the backup, the services failed to start with Range Check errors. Our services write log entries as they start up and stop. The logs showed that the error is occurring during the service load because they never enter the FormCreate logic.
All of our services failed to start with the same range check error.
When the service was restarted, everything loaded fine. After about 3 more weeks, the same problem occurred again.
Our other test site also experienced the same problem, only it took longer than 2 weeks for the problem to surface.
Neither the company's IT or us can reproduce the problem on our test servers. Very frustrating.
Has anyone else experienced range check errors using this DLL?
[Windows Application Log Entries]
The following information is part of the event: Server Shutdown: "C:\Program Files\EngineFB2_1\Bin\fbserver.exe": normal shutdown 8388608 256 268435456 O
The following information is part of the event: Server Started: Guardian starting: "C:\Program Files\EngineFB2_1\Bin\fbserver.exe"08 256 268435456 768 p
The following information is part of the event: Range check error.
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John C. Noland
Talon Computer Associates