Question Progress 9.1e + Datadirect 4.10 Freezes Whole System

[Alex Villalta]

Hi all,
We've had a problem for almost a year now which we have not been able to put the finger on it.
We have software made by an external Company that uses Progress v9.1E and in that same Server we also have a MySQL DB that are used by some in-house made software coded with VB.
These are the current server specs where we have Progress installed

• Progress v9.1E that uses the ODBC driver Datadirect 4.10
  
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bits.
• 16GB RAM

This issue, makes the Server to use all CPU and DISK I/O to be extremely that at some point everyone who is using an application from this Server is unable to work. For now each this happens we restart the Server.
It happens as often as once a week.
Any of you might have an idea or pointer how can this happen , what can make the CPU and DISK to be that high?
How would you isolate this problem ?
Hope I'm clear enough.
Thanks!

 

[TheMadDBA]

What evidence do you have that Progress or DataDirect is the issue and not MySQL or another process?

Meaning what kind of tracking/monitoring do you have in place for the Windows Server to show which processes are using which percentages of memory, CPU and disk resources. That should be your starting point. Knowing which processes are to blame will help you refine your search and also allow others to help you look for common issues.

BTW - Progress 9.1E is ancient and unsupported... what does your vendor say about upgrading?

 

[TomBascom]

As the TheMadDBA asks -- how do you know that it is Progress or Datadirect and not something else?

For that matter -- how do you know that you are using "all CPU and DISK I/O"?

Those may seem like foolish questions but they are important. Understanding what you are looking at that tells you that there is a problem will go a long way towards suggesting solutions.

Is the server a real server or a VM?

How many CPUs are there?

What sort of disk subsystem do you have?

 

[TomBascom]

Is there anything particular that users do to trigger these "freeze" events? Some unusual process that they run? Maybe a special report or a data extract or a reconciliation process or ...