Steve, I think we may be seeing a fault at the point where the 32 bit application and 64 bit operating system meet. Sesame is checking for memory based on a 32 bit value. The operating system reports the amount, but - because it is large, it exceeds the bit space of a 32 bit integer and "rolls over" to a negative number. My only hesitancy here is that I have a 64 bit computers as well, running Vista and Ubuntu Linux for 64 bits and have never seen this.

I will double check the code for 32 bit variables trying to hold 64 bit values. In the meantime, I would suggest that you set some of your server's settings closer to those on a box that is not having this problem and see if that has any effect.

We crashed again while trying to load Sdesigner in addition to our other aps. Since everyone was disconnected, I took the opportunity to change the server pc settings to match my pc  (system memory and processor now set to 'programs') and rebooted the machine.

With all aps unlocked and loaded back up, I don't see any difference, except the windows console is a bit sluggish to respond (not a problem). Also, the sesame GUI again shows 'physical memory remaining' unchanging at 4,294,967,295, matching 'Virtual memory remaining'...quite different than my windows 7 pc. (both machines are 64bit OS).

I hope we are getting close to finding the culprit.

Thanks for all your efforts.

Steve

Other programs running on the server pc seem to use very little memory. The second biggest memory user is SearchIndexer.exe using 125K and then w3dbsmgr.exe using 76K and then Outlook.exe using 50K

Taskmgr shows total 'available' memory at 6.8GB and 'system cache' at 1.3 GB

Kernal memory shows total at 100,300 and paged 60,260 and nonpaged 40,000.

Seems like we have plenty of memory just waiting to be used.

I've never been keen to having all of our aps loaded into one sesame server. In the case of a crash in one database, everything hits the floor. Can we launch a second sesame server on this pc to run some of our bigger aps? They will need to have xlookups run between them, which would cause issues?

Thanks.

Mark, here is list of our aps that load into one sesame server:

I restarted the sesame server gui and loaded up each ap, making notes of 'mem usage' from task manager on the server.

Orders.db
Filesize 166MB 
Mem usage 190MB

Products.db
Filesize 144MB
Mem usage 166MB

Inven-test.db
Filesize 63MB
Mem usage 70MB

Stock.db
filesize 10MB
mem usage 12MB

OldSales.db (only used occasionally. contains 353,000 records. no X commands.)
Filesize 189MB
Mem usage 226MB
(sesame.exe mem usage swelled to 1GB during loading phase.)

With the above aps loaded, Mem usage is sitting at 664K and issues begin to snowball....

Now that these aps are loaded, I cannot get an additional client window to appear to load the zipcodes ap. Connections show 9 of 13 (but I only have 5 client GUI's 'visible' on my pc.)

After closing all sesame clients, connections shows 4 of 13. Don't know how to release the 4 that are still 'connected'. (This happens often.)

Will run same test on my windows 7 pc.

Sorry to put you through all of this, but I am getting truly perplexed. Could you please try some experiments? First, try to connect your max number of clients without loading any apps. After they have connected, disconnect them making sure the connection count goes down with each. If that goes as it should, try the same test with any one of the more likely suspect apps loaded. If that goes well, try loading all of the apps that are regularly loaded, but do not open any forms (do you have any "application open" programming?) and see how that goes.

From the numbers you are telling me, it sounds like you are approaching but not exceeding the 1 GB mark. We have quite a few customers with much larger applications with many more connections, so I am still suspicious that something more is going on here than mere size, especially in light of the network connection problem you are outlining.

If you do have a 32 bit OS machine that is not otherwise occupied, it might be worth a few moments to see how it compares. It might be worth a moment to get Ray or Ben on your server with remote desktop so they can see this first hand. Or, if you prefer, send in all the apps (neatly packaged) and I will run them on my machine, which sounds very similar to yours, and hopefully will exhibit the same symptoms.

BTW: Does your server log indicate any problems?

OK Mark, per your request, here are the results of my test....

In client/server mode serving from the windows server 2003 computer: (i have 13 client seats.)

With no aps loaded, all 13 client GUI's loaded and unloaded with no problems.

I loaded Orders.db and then opened 12 additional client gui's. All 12 opened and closed with no problem. (this one has 'application open programming', which also loaded a tiny db called Pers.db)

Loaded Products.db, in addition to orders.db. 11 client gui's opened and closed just fine. (this also has ap open programming)

Loaded Inven-test.db in addition to above two db's. 10 client's opened and closed fine. (has a default form, but no ap open programming)

Loaded Stock.db and 9 clients opened and closed fine.

Ran the same test for Oldsales.db, 8 clients opened and closed fine.

Loaded zipcodes.db (wow! couldn't do this last night.) but then could not open any new client GUI's but server shows I am connecting each time I launch from icon.

closed Zipcodes.db client, and it released from the sever (as per server admin panel>unload application) and I could then open up another client GUI to load zipcodes again. I'm now showing 13 connections at the server, with only 6 client GUI's on my desktop.

I closed all my GUI's and sesame shows 8 of 13 connections. I am able to open FOUR new client Gui's. Closed them all. Sesame server now shows 9 of 13 connections.

I opened 4 more client GUI's and then they all closed and sesame server closed and popped up numerous (probably 13) notices on my desktop that the client was no longer communicating with the server.

I repeated the above test, loading zipcodes.db third in the list of aps.

After loading zipcodes.db, and then Oldsales.db. Getting a new GUI to open is getting hairy now. one gui did not open, but the next one did.

After loading Orders.db, I can't get any more GUI's. Sesame memory in taskmgr on the server shows 650,000K. Sesame server shows 13 connections. I have 7 GUI's visible on my desktop.

I can run the same test on a 32bit machine tomorrow and I'm fine with any other steps you think we should take. We need to figure this out, so just let me know what's next.

Thanks again for all your time.

Steve

After some experiments here, and with the numbers you have posted, I am forming a picture. I can create similar symptoms if I take memory usage to extremes. I opened 24 different copies of your app, using 24 clients. Then, with Sesame server memory on the edge of 2 GB of usage, I kicked off enough exports to kick the usage over 2 GB. At which point, memory allocations start to fail and, because the conditions are notably controlled, the failures were noted and logged, I can see how in some cases they could result in a dropped connections and communications cessation. Basically, if there is no memory, there is no memory to use to report that there is no memory.

When you report memory usage of Sesame server from task manager, are you reporting the column labeled, "Working Set (Memory)"?