Crash 1 or 2 times per day

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:33 pm

Hi!

I'm still evaluating the software. I have loaded it on Windows XP SP2 in VMware 1.01 on a Linux host. I have 42 checks running. I have no antivirus installed, but do have UltraVNC, Firefox and IE 6. I use the web server to look at the results remotely.

I get the evaluation nag screen and clear through it. Once today, it crashed after clicking Close on the evaluation screen. Once earlier this week/weekend it crashed during normal operation.

My Application event log says:

Event ID: 1000

Faulting application hostmon.exe, version 6.5.2.0.426, faulting module , version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

Not much of an error, but that's what I get. I have been trying to not reboot the system to see how it runs long-term in XP.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-m

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:53 pm

1) We never tested VMWare and we recommend to use Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows 2003 SP1

2) It looks like you are evaluating HostMonitor for 2 months. That's probably the reason.
On the other hand it should not show "Faulting application hostmon.exe, version 6.5.2.0.426, fault address 0x00000000"... Do you use ODBC logging or ODBC Query test method? If yes, what ODBC driver do you use? Bugs in ODBC drivers is the second most common reason of such problems (the most common reason - antivirus monitors).

Regards
Alex

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:58 pm

Hi,

I did download a fresh copy of hostmonitor over the weekend and installed it on this system. I opted for the non-beta version. I did have the same version, most likely, installed previously on a different machine. Does the eval get unstable the longer it is running?

I understand not having tested in VMware. That may be a deal-breaker for me as we are heavily involved with their software. Is there any upcoming planning for testing inside vmware?

Thanks !

-m

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:18 pm

Does the eval get unstable the longer it is running?

it should be stable but it may terminate after you close registration dialog.
Please re-read my previous post. I have added some notes there.

I understand not having tested in VMware. That may be a deal-breaker for me as we are heavily involved with their software. Is there any upcoming planning for testing inside vmware?

We have not tested VMWare because 1-10 testing systems will not discover all possible problems.
We are testing HostMonitor in our network all the time. However we upload Beta version every time we make significant changes in the code. It works perfect in our environment but we call it Beta because it may lead to some problems on 1/200 of the systems. If Beta version was tested by 1000 customers and we have not received any bug reports, then we upload release.
I am afraid we do not have 1000 WMWare users. That's why we never can be sure.

BTW: Version 6.72 Beta was downloaded 8,000 times. We have received 1 unconfirmed bug report. Now we don't know what to do, release this version or keep it Beta...

Regards
Alex

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:27 pm

Surely all software ships with some bugs in it, known or unknown. 1 of 8000 sounds like shippable code to me. Beta historically sounds somewhat unstable, that's why I picked the release version. I think I should try the beta if it is that stable, and will.

Don't know what to tell you about VMware testing.... If your customers just don't use it that much then you can't do much for testing it. As I said, we're heavily invested with VMware products are would want to run our monitoring application within it. It makes upgrades so much easier and disaster recovery. I will think about that....

Ok on those operating systems. For Windows 2000, are you recommending Professional or Server? I really don't want to buy Server because it's another $700 toward the project (more then HostMonitor Enterprise iteself!). I have an extra license of 2000 Pro here that could work. Let me know on that.

I do also find great value in your quick responses in the newsgroup. I don't think I would go long with an issue that wasn't addressed. That weighs heavily in the decision.

Thanks.

-m

PS: My checks are mostly port 80 and port 25 checks. about 3 event viewers, a couple free disk space to about 12 systems total.

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:35 pm

1 of 8000 sounds like shippable code to me

Usually 1/8000 or even 1/300 means problem is related to some 3rd party software. I just afraid more than 1 customer have some problems with version 6.72, not everybody send bug reports for Beta

For Windows 2000, are you recommending Professional or Server?

Both work fine.
I am not sure the problem you have related to XP. May be its VMWare, may be something else. What about ODBC logging?
Quote:
===========
Do you use ODBC logging or ODBC Query test method? If yes, what ODBC driver do you use? Bugs in ODBC drivers is the second most common reason of such problems (the most common reason - antivirus monitors).
===========

My checks are mostly port 80 and port 25 checks. about 3 event viewers, a couple free disk space to about 12 systems total.

Very simple configuration. I could say McAfee or Norton Antivirus leads to crash due to port 25 check. But you do not have any antivirus, right?

Regards
Alex

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:47 pm

All the logging is going to text files right now. One file per computer being tested.

I can install a Windows 2000 Pro box and try it there. Still want to try in VMware at this point.

Not running antivirus at this time.

Maybe I should try win 2000 first and see how it goes.

Or other recommendations...

-m

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:15 pm

IMHO such simply configuration should work on XP SP2 without any problems. I would put my finger on VMware

May be you have some other non-standard 3rd party software on that system?

Regards
Alex

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:28 am

A little update...

My previous evaluation setup was VMware Server 1.0.1 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 host, Windows XP SP2 with all the patches as the guest, and HostMonitor 6.54.

My current setup is VMware Server 1.0.2 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 host, Windows 2000 Professional SP4 and no additional patches guest, andHostMonitor 6.74 beta. No antivirus, didn't even install FireFox, just the straight operating system with SP4.

This has been much more stable then the original test bed. A number of factors have changed in the new setup , so it's hard to pin down what the biggest issue was. I typically find newer versions of VMware are more stable then the previous, so I have to guess that helped a little. I have run this for about 4 days with no problems. I just brought my HML file over from the previous system so the tests are the same. I am also using the web interface. I have not turned back on the e-mail notifications yet.

I'll run it for a while longer here, but it's looking good so far.

Thanks.

-m

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:22 pm

Good news.
Yes, may be problem was caused by combination of some factors (VMWare+XP)... Modern software configurations are really complicated. E.g. HostMonitor's code contains about 100,000 lines of code. How much code was used for VMWare and XP? Millions of lines...

Regards
Alex

invisik · Post by **invisik** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 6:18 pm

Just an update on my progress. It's been almost a week now and HostMonitor 6.72beta has not crashed at all. Windows 2000 SP4 in VMware Server 1.0.2 seems quite stable. I'm managing two RMA's at remote sites and a number of local tests.

Thanks again!

-m

KS-Soft Europe · Post by **KS-Soft Europe** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:34 am

invisik wrote:Just an update on my progress. It's been almost a week now and HostMonitor 6.72beta has not crashed at all. Windows 2000 SP4 in VMware Server 1.0.2 seems quite stable. I'm managing two RMA's at remote sites and a number of local tests.

Thank you for your feedback and good news!

Regards,
Max