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#12114 - 2001-09-05 10:57 PM RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


I work in a large computing environment where Kix is used heavily for all sorts of different tasks. Many of the scripts that are called from within the "main" kix logon script are fairly lengthy and are copied to the local drive before they are called. Lately, I've been seeing some strange issues with Windows 9x clients. After a call to one of the larger logon scripts, most Windows 95 systems appear to be unable to make use of the @LDRIVE macro. Any call to a script that utilizes the macro in a path subsequently fails (get error..Error! Failed to open/find script). I've checked every script thoroughly to ensure that no other process is mapping over the logon drive. Windows NT systems experience no issue whatsoever. We're running 3.62 on all our domain controllers, which all run the KxRPC service. Additionally, a large number of Win 9x systems also log RPC errors to the Kix log file. I'm wondering if anyone out there has experienced this phenomenon and if they were able to determine the cause.
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#12115 - 2001-09-06 03:58 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
NTDOC Administrator Offline
Administrator
*****

Registered: 2000-07-28
Posts: 11631
Loc: CA
Hello Ron and welcome to the board.

The problem you describe is caused by the KXRPC service not running properly on one or more of your logon servers.

Please check the PDC and all BDCs and stop and restart the KXRPC service on all of them if you have to.

ps. I would not recommend copying the script to the clients. The KiXtart executables okay, but not the scripts. Your looking for syncronization problems that will drive you crazy.

Make sure the PDC and all BDCs are running the same version of the KXRPC service also.


Please post an update on your findings.

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#12116 - 2001-09-06 04:31 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


The problem appears to be intermittent... My thoughts were exactly the same as yours, but I've done these things time and time again to no avail. Since our domain controllers are also are Kix RPC servers, I've verified that the service is running on all of these servers is the appropriate version, and the service account tied to the RPC service is the same (it's is a domain admin account.) Additionally, I also set an environment variable called %LOGONSERVER% (with WINSET.EXE) on my 9x systems to see what DC/Kix RPC server authenticated that particular system. Every DC/Kix RPC server that has been stored in this environment variable, on a problem system, is running the Kix RPC service correctly. Regarding synchronization...I never have had any synchronization issues before with our current methods. My belief is that RPC requests made by Windows 9x systems are failing to reach the RPC server due to physical network issues. Many of the Kix errors I'm seeing in the Kixtart.log file appear to be timeout related. I'm wondering if anyone can cite specific examples of this in a switched network, where the physical network affected the Win 9x RPC faculties.
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#12117 - 2001-09-06 06:28 PM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
bleonard Offline
Seasoned Scripter
*****

Registered: 2001-01-19
Posts: 581
Loc: Chicago, IL
Ron -
It may also be an issue of how you are calling the script. I have noticed a variation between the info returned with @LDRIVE for Win2K/NT and Win9x systems. The Win9x systems return 'Z:', while the 2K/NT return '\\Server\Netlogon\'. Notice the difference between existence of the trailing '\' on Win2K/NT that does not exist under Win9x. To get around this issue I use a variable to represent the @LDRIVE, removing the trailing '\' from 2K/NT systems.
See below.
Bill

IF (@INWIN = 1)
$CallDrv = (SUBSTR (@LDRIVE, 1, LEN (@LDRIVE)-1)) ; REM ** Removes trailing '\'.
ELSE
$CallDrv = @LDRIVE
ENDIF

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#12118 - 2001-09-07 12:26 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


Regarding the path info. It works fine for NT/W2K systems. Here is the method I employ.

CALL @LDRIVE + "\myscript.kix" (this runs for NT just fine, fails for Win 9x, but this method only fails for Win 9x systems after another script has run just prior to a script call. Ex:

Line 1-2:
COPY @LDRIVE+"\myscript.kix" "c:\myscript.kix"
CALL "C:\myscript.kix" (this works fine for both platforms)

Line 3:

CALL @LDRIVE+"\myscript2.kix" (call fails at this point)
Kix errors stating it cannot find the script this is for Win 9x systems only...NT/2000 call and execute the script just fine.

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#12119 - 2001-09-07 02:10 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
NTDOC Administrator Offline
Administrator
*****

Registered: 2000-07-28
Posts: 11631
Loc: CA
Ron,

Maybe the environment is losing the handle to the file.

Just for trial, try keeping a copy of all the files on the LOGON share and calling all of them from the Logon share and see if Windows 9x still has a problem finding them.

Do they work if run from a command prompt on Win9x instead of the logon script?

You could also try KIX32.EXE /D yourscript.kix

Then see if anything more specific comes up in the code. Maybe a run or shell statement that Windows NT/2000 is okay with that Win9x is not.

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#12120 - 2001-09-07 06:02 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


I haven't really experimented with doing that. That is, calling "ALL" scripts from the logon drive. I'll give that a shot. I did this for the script just previous to the call to the next script that keeps failing. It didn't have any effect. There is another script call contained within the one I employed this method on that runs locally. I did not try running that from @LDRIVE. Because many of the scripts I have written are very lengthy, I was curious to know if there is any limitation inherent to the Kixtart interpreter that prohibits or complicates the running of a script once it has exceeded a certain length? Also, is there any limit to how many "deep" calls I can make in a script, i.e, script A calls script B, script B calls script C, script C calls script D, etc, etc?
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#12121 - 2001-09-07 06:33 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Les Offline
KiX Master
*****

Registered: 2001-06-11
Posts: 12734
Loc: fortfrances.on.ca
Reading The Fine Manual...
quote:

Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of scripts that can be nested. Obviously, the practical limit on the number of scripts you can call is determined by the amount of available memory at the time KiXtart runs, the size of the scripts, the number of variables defined, and so on.


Can someone translate?
_________________________
Give a man a fish and he will be back for more. Slap him with a fish and he will go away forever.

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#12122 - 2001-09-07 09:24 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
NTDOC Administrator Offline
Administrator
*****

Registered: 2000-07-28
Posts: 11631
Loc: CA
We have called up to 7 scripts without problems on any of our systems.

However, keep in mind we are supposed to be helping the users get their job done, not neccessarily making ours easier (if ours gets easier during the process that is good though) if our scripts are so long and slow that it takes the user 5 minutes to logon, how can we justify that we are really helping them?


I reduced our main logon script from 2,300+ lines of code to around 200 and call only a couple of smaller scripts now depending on conditions. This has cut logon speed in half which most users appreciated.

[ 07 September 2001: Message edited by: NTDOC ]

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#12123 - 2001-09-07 09:58 PM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
bleonard Offline
Seasoned Scripter
*****

Registered: 2001-01-19
Posts: 581
Loc: Chicago, IL
Ron -
Recommend where 2nd script is failing, put in display statement to determine what Win9X is returning for @LDRIVE. Given that scripts are in exact same location, and long file name not an issue (at least not in my experience), would seem either macro result being returned is changing (Win9x using 'Z:', is any called script using 'Z:'?), or a permissions issue to the second call script.

Now, can the macro value change - I do not know. I belive when run this dynamically checks current setting, so if invoked 2x in script, KiX checks 2x to see what is @LDRIVE. Can some process be deleting the 'Z:' drive mapping?

Try a simple
IF @INWIN = 2
? @LDRIVE
SLEEP 3
ENDIF

Bill

[ 07 September 2001: Message edited by: bleonard ]

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#12124 - 2001-09-11 06:45 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


We are having similar problems with our Win 9x clients logging on in our Windows 2000/NT 4.0 'mixed' server environment. Our Win 9x clients start the script alright (called from Netlogon share) but stall when group membership is checked via the "Ingroup" function. It is intermittent but seems to be associated with heavier-than-normal network loads. We do not use the KixRPC service as we do not use the @ldomain macro (according to the manual this macro needs the KixRPC service) but we do use the @Ldrive macro. For quite some time the script ran without error but now seems to be failing regularly. At this very moment a team is trying to analyse why things failed but nothing is immediately apparent. Does 3.62 Kix32.exe operate well with Windows 2000?
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#12125 - 2001-09-11 07:02 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Les Offline
KiX Master
*****

Registered: 2001-06-11
Posts: 12734
Loc: fortfrances.on.ca
Geoff,
By mixed, do you mean AD? When I rolled out 3.62 in a small (approx. 300 clients) NT4 domain / NetWare NDS, my Win95 clients had difficulty with Ingroup that was related to the provider order issue. Once the provider order was swapped, it was fine.
_________________________
Give a man a fish and he will be back for more. Slap him with a fish and he will go away forever.

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#12126 - 2001-09-11 08:00 AM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Anonymous
Unregistered


Yes.

"PDC" is Windows 2000 but most other DCs are NT 4.0. Presently we are running in a mixed mode as our AD is not yet in place. The master DC is running in NT emulation mode.

I'm interested in your comment about 'provider order'; can you elaborate?

Regards

Geoff

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#12127 - 2001-09-11 04:35 PM Re: RPC & @LDRIVE issue on Windows 95
Les Offline
KiX Master
*****

Registered: 2001-06-11
Posts: 12734
Loc: fortfrances.on.ca
RTFM
code:

Known Problems of KiXtart on Windows 9x
The following is a list of known issues that may be encountered when using KiXtart on Windows 9x:
If KiXtart is used on systems that are configured to run both Microsoft Networking client software and Novell Netware client software,
compatibility issues can cause KiXtart to fail to retrieve network information and/or find any script.
If these problems occur, make the following change in the registry of the affected clients:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
System
CurrentControlSet
Services
MSNP32
Network Provider CallOrder [00 00 00 40] >change to> [00 00 00 20]
NOVELLNP
Network Provider CallOrder [00 00 00 20] >change to> [00 00 00 40]


[ 11 September 2001: Message edited by: LLigetfa ]

_________________________
Give a man a fish and he will be back for more. Slap him with a fish and he will go away forever.

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