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Semaphore Time Out Period Error

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    #1

    Semaphore Time Out Period Error

    I've been getting a "Semaphore Timeout Period has expired" error consistently (we run a collection of operations every night) for the past couple weeks.
    It happens randomly on operations to two tables - not always to the same table, and not always the same operation - posts, updates, and recalc field rules have all failed.
    It can happen regardless of who runs the operations (we are network optimized).
    It happens at various times of night/morning - we thought maybe it was network utilization vs. backup jobs, so I've even killed those before attempting.
    An operation will fail with the error once, and then if run again, it will succeed.
    The only commonality I see is that the number in the lower left part of the screen when I get the fail message is always in the 47000's.
    I've compacted the database, deleted temp files, and tried inserting Wait periods between the operations in the script. Maybe this is not an Alpha issue, but I wanted to check here before I rule it out, as I haven't gotten the error with any other applications.
    Last, we're running Windows 10 and are patched up through our most recent version (12.3 / build 2399). No changes to our environment that I can think of (other than a possible Windows update).
    Any ideas? Need any other info, let me know.
    Thanks very much. I'm going bonkers.
    Last edited by Briddba; 08-16-2016, 07:12 PM.
    Tags: semaphore
    #2
    Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

    Googling says it is a network timeout message. This link is for Win 7 but yours is likely similar.

    http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help...s-expired.html
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

      I'll check the fragmentation. Thanks Stan. Here's hoping.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

        The only commonality I see is that the number in the lower left part of the screen when I get the fail message is always in the 47000's.
        I wouldn't rely on the status bar record count too much. Alpha spends more time doing what you tell it to do than it does reporting to you that it is still doing it. That count can "freeze" for a variety of reasons unrelated to the actual process.
        There can be only one.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

          Good to know about the red herring, thanks!
          The drive in question is 11% fragmented (it's 1TB), so I'll post results after I've had a chance to defragment it and run the operations.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

            I am not an Alpha Desktop guy, and in that spirit this advice is not Alpha advice. Have you looked at any of the error logs in windows? If I had to guess, and this is a wild guess, I would check for either bad ram or a failing drive. For me a failing drive was causing some write issues, then it was a failing/overheating video card that was causing a display issue. All fixed now, that failing drive caused a windows issue randomly for a few years. My drives are in a Raid array and although I knew it was related I couldn't figure out which one in the array had the problem. Luckily, I am using an IBM server machine and it basically self diagnosed.
            A fragmented drive, could have the exact info your having an issue with in a bad sector - that could be solved by moving the fragments elsewhere.
            Is your database on the same drive as the application? If so maybe you could move it to an external drive...I don't know your setup so I am just throwing ideas out there...hope you solve it!
            NWCOPRO: Nuisance Wildlife Control Software My Application: http://www.nwcopro.com "Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all...now what was I saying?"

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              #7
              Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

              Thanks a lot for the reply, Charles. I did defragment the drive successfully, but I'm still getting the semaphore error. Even if it's not specifically an Alpha problem, it's happening to me while using Alpha (and so far nothing else), so I'm hoping this thread will still be useful to someone sometime. I've passed your post along to our LAN admin guy, so we'll see what he can do with the event logs. Now the only similarities I'm seeing are that operations only fail when running against our two largest tables. Our application is on the same drive as the database, so I'll check into separating. Again, thanks!

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

                I would scour the values in the tables for irregularities before committing to a move though. Just do a quick SORT on each of the not null columns and then the numeric columns. Look for values that do not belong and do not make sense, anything that would throw a flag when you have a known accepted value, like it should be numeric and there's a dollar sign in there, or it should be a Char and you see a blank value and its a NOT NULL field or there's a space in the column name (last name VS last_name)

                If this application has been running smooth for quite some time and is only recently hiccuping, it may be invalid data that is being encountered - whether it is at the hardware level or the software it's worth a look at both ends!

                Again, good luck!
                NWCOPRO: Nuisance Wildlife Control Software My Application: http://www.nwcopro.com "Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all...now what was I saying?"

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Semaphore Time Out Period Error

                  I appreciate the additional troubleshooting ideas and will take a look for anomalous values in the suspect tables.

                  And for documentation's sake, I misspoke when I said we had the app and the data on the same drive. We're using the client-side network optimized app to access the tables on our server.

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