Troubleshooting

Diagnosing application problems can be a tricky issue. Taken as a group, the questions below make up roughly 98% of ALL support requests we get for the UltraPort MS SQL Schema Engine. This means that if you are having an issue with the UltraPort MS SQL Schema Engine the odds are better than 9 out of 10 that you can find your answer by reading through the sections below.

1) The Schema Engine works when Running Locally but nothing happens when Running as a Service. Our #1 support call! Your answer is almost certainly in #2 or #3 (or both) below.

2) Using the SQL "Trusted Connection". When creating your Schema Profiles you have the option of selecting the "Authentication / Security" which the Schema Engine should use when connecting to SQL Server. IF you select "Windows Logon (Trusted)" this means that when processors run they use the current logon of WHOEVER is logged into windows at that time. This can have several unfavorable results. Number ONE is that IF you have a professional license AND you wish to run the MS Windows Services (see Running as a Service) you must remember that all MS Windows Services run in a separate memory space and under different logon credentials. You must configure the MS Windows Services to run under the context of a User ID which has a trusted connection to the database. If running locally, you must make sure that you are logged into MS Windows with a User ID which has a "Trusted" connection to the SQL Server AND adequate user rights to the database and tables. BEST OPTION: If at all possible, we highly recommend that you choose "SQL Server User ID" in the "Authentication / Security" section of your schema profile. For more information on SQL Server Security and Authentication refer to your DBA or MS SQL Server documentation. Also see Important Considerations for further info about the MS Windows Services.

3) Using Network Drives, Mapped Drives or Virtual Drives. It works fine when running locally BUT when running as a service it will start BUT doesn't appear to be processing messages. The #2 support call we get here is from customers who want to use network shares / mapped drives / virtual drives to host the data folder in their processor profiles. This will cause issues for you because MS Windows Services are unable to access network resources. The thing to remember is that when you are creating your listener profiles or running your profiles locally you are logged into your network. Thus you can see all of the 'My Network Places' which you have access to and any mapped drives which are part of YOUR login script. The UltraPort SQL Schema Engine's MS Windows Services on the other hand are (by default) running under the "Local System" account which exists ONLY on your computer, doesn't have any access to network shares or to ANYTHING which resides in a login script (like mapped drives). This is done on purpose because your service needs to be able to start when the computer BOOTS UP and before anyone logs in (thus you're protected from power outages in the middle of the night). If you absolutely must use network shares then you will have to go into the MS Windows Services, right click on the UltraPort Schema Engine services and select select "Properties". In the properties tab you can configure any windows service to run as a particular domain user. This is NOT our requirement here at HermeTech, it's a requirement of Microsoft. Getting this to work is notoriously tricky because so much depends on your own network security policies regarding user access/logins. It's because of this that this is one of the things that we probably can't do much to help you with. If you need to contact HermeTech for support and your processor profiles are using network drives for the data folder the first thing we will instruct you to do is to use a local drive and try again. If that works, then we have identified that the issue is with user access rights and the MS Windows Service and there's really not much else we can do.

4) Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Server 2003 or greater. If you have problems either A) Installing the windows services (see Running as a Service) or B) Starting the Windows Service then you might be experiencing problems with UAC or user access. See the section on UAC and/or contact your system administrator for assistance and to verify that you have sufficient user rights to perform the tasks needed.

5) Firewalls and 3rd party network monitoring software, including the Windows Firewall as well as Norton's and Symantec's virus scanning and network protection suites can cause problems depending on how they are configured. This can be particularly true if you are using the options to integrate with the UltraPort HL7 TCP/IP Listener or Router in your inbound and outbound processor profiles.

6) Creating OUTBOUND HL7 Messages in your Schema. Read through the section on Exporting HL7 very carefully. The most common mistakes people make are A) not populating the MessageManifest table correctly and B) failing to insert a row into th _B table if there is one.

7) MySQL Issues. See Troubleshooting MySQL.

Also see Important Considerations for further info about the MS Windows Services.