Hi Andy,
It happened on our server as well. The problem occurs when a zip file is updated. If a zip file is removed and another one (e.g. an updated version) is attached immediately (within the same editing session without leaving the editing page), then an XCOPY process will be created and it will not kill itself. When there are enough XCOPY processes on the system, Bb service will halt. One way to avoid this is to remove the zip file first and then attach the updated version in a separate editing session. However once a zip file has caused such a problem, simply removing it will also create XCOPY. As I understand from discussions on a US list, this is a Bb problem, but Bb support seems not being able to understand the real cause of the problem. No one knows if this problem will be corrected in version 6 either. I just check our server regularly and kill any XCOPY processes.
Jie
-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Dorman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 October 2002 11:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Processes failing to close on the server
Hi Folks,
We're having some trouble removing attachments from course items on our
blackboard server. Basically, *sometimes* when we try to remove existing
files our blackboard server hangs.
Our system administrator is most concerned with the fact that instances of
the xcopy.exe and cmd.exe processes are failing to close when removing items
from the course documents area of a course.
From a users point of view, the problem manifests by hanging the browser.
When the page is refreshed the file has actually been been removed but, from
what our system administrator has seen, it looks like the programs
xcopy.exe and cmd.exe fail close at this point. If this happens enough times
we think the resulting memory leak (or something?!) is causing the server to
go down.
Another fact to mention is that this does not happen all the time. For
example, this morning I removed and updated six zip files - the first three
caused this problem while the second three did not. This may suggest that
the problem builds up over time and then finally the server falls over.
We have only noticed this behaviour with zip files attached to course items
which have the special action set to "unpack this file". We have not tried
to recreate this problem under any other circumstance.
I have seen a couple of posts where network issues have been cited as a
possible cause, others point to the temp files that are created being the
problem. Has anyone had any experiences that sound even remotely like this?
We can't tell if this is a bb issue or our own technical problem or a
combination of the two!
Hope this makes some kind of sense to someone! Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
All the best,
Andy.
--
Andy Dorman TITLE Unit, Computing Services
Web Developer +44 (0)1227 767700 ext 2016
Canterbury Christ Church University College [log in to unmask]
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