SalesLogix Sync

[#1]

Hi everyone,

We've had a few problems recently around the way SLX sync works. If you try to open an SLX sync while there is an active synchronisation in progress, you receive an error stating only one copy of sync server can be run at any one time.

Fair enough.

This error message causes problems though if the sync server is running automatically and for one reason or another, one particular sync takes an unusually long period of time to process through.

Lets say you have a windows scheduled task that automatically fires the SLX sync every 15 minutes. If one SLX sync takes longer than this time to process through, the server will try to open another sync client which prompts an error, then another, then another. We have logged on to servers before and seen upwards of 60 sync server messages saying it cannot run because another sync server instance is open.

Is there anything that can be done about this? Perhaps the addition of an argument to the exe that tells that particular instance of syncserver.exe to close if it detects it's already running? This will resolve a lot of sync issues overnight and make SLX sync a much more reliable application.

[#2]

A - Are you talking about sync on the main/secondary sync servers? If so, then do NOT use WIndows scheduling to run sync.. use the built-in Sync as a Service via the (WG)Admin app and you will NOT see thsi problem.

B - If this is a remote Office sync (server) than there IS a way to avoid the problem by setting/passing in the correct (sequence) of switches.

To expand on this.. take a look at this blog posting:

Synch As A Service

[#3]

In the most part I agree with you however Sage have still not got to the bottom of why the I/O 103 errors keep occurring. The customers that have sync enabled via scheduled tasks have had this enabled because there is simply no other option and they do not accept the answer of "sync does sometimes fail with a 103 error and the only way of fixing it is to reboot your server and if that doesn't work, your sync configuration". When this is happening bi-weekly in some of the worst cases, customers demand answers from us that we or Sage cannot give.

So setting up sync as a scheduled task is the only option.

You're right the arguments do not always pass in to the command lines and a hotfix has to be installed on Server 2008 machines that run the sync as a scheduled task to run these properly but the decision to set up sync as a scheduled task isn't taken lightly and only occurs when we feel there is simply no other option.

[#4]

We use the following in a .cmd file called from Task Scheduler for Sync Client (and can be adapted for Sync Server) to ensure only one copy is running

tasklist|find /i "SyncClient.exe"||start /D"C:\Program Files (x86)\SalesLogix" /B /HIGH SyncClient.exe /b"SLXRemote" /c /r /a /x

This ensures that if "SyncClient.exe" is in the process list, it doesn't start another copy.

Tasklist.exe should be in every version of Windows from XP onwards

Cheers!