From: "Alan" 
Subject: Novell's SoftSolutions Document Management Program
Date: 1998/04/02
Message-ID: #1/1
Organization: All USENET -- http://www.Supernews.com
Newsgroups: fido.novell


SoftSolutions: HELP

A few days ago, SoftSolutions 4.0 seemed to take a dump and in the process,
crash our Novell 3.11 server. The system is as follows:
A Novell 3.11 server, (Compaq Pentium EISA machine w/32 meg RAM, 4 gig SCSI
drive.) As far as I can tell the proper patches are in place. The
workstations are clone machines running Windows 95b (these were recently
put in place, replacing DOS based 386 & 486's). The version of
SoftSolutions is 4.0. Most people still like to run the DOS program under
Windows.  We have loaded up locally (on the workstations C: drive)  the
Windows version of SoftSolutions and pointed it towards the same dataset as
the DOS program. This allows the users to FAX from their desktops and use
the more friendly WordPerfect 6.1 instead of the DOS 5.1. 
About a week ago we had some power problems in the building that effected
the network. We had a series of  8 to 12 quick power dips. So fast that the
UPS was unable to keep up, causing the server to shut off. Upon the
restart, it came back up and seemed to be OK. About 4 days later the server
hung. It had to be downed but this time it would not mount the volume SYS.
We ran VREPAIR and it fixed a mirror error and a few other less serious (I
think) errors. The newest problem is 2 days old. It looks like the
SoftSolutions SEM (or whatever) failed and caused the crash. 
Additionally, we run a tape backup unit attached to the server. The
software used is Backup Exec 7.5 for NetWare. When I first ran a backup
using this software I noticed that many of the SoftSolutions files would
not backup because they were in use. In use not by any particular user but
by the SEM (Server Enhancement Module). I looked at the backup scripts from
the old Palindrome backup software and noticed that the SEM NLM was
unloaded first and then the backup was done. After finishing the backup,
the NLM was reloaded. I once accidently started a Backup Exec backup job
that turned off the SEM in the middle of the day (don�t ask!). It caused
the server to hang... to the point that a downing and a restart was in
order.
Anyway, below is the error log from the other day. 

Questions:
Is this what happened just before the SEM / SoftSolutions hung up? 
Can someone tell me what happened? 
How can I hope to prevent this in the future.
Is a SoftSolutions file or data structure damaged?
Should the unloading of the SEM cause the server to crash?
How long should re-indexing take? (we sometimes have trouble finding a
document via a search, but if we know its document number getting it is no
problem)
I get the feeling that I should not start indexing while people are
accessing the dataset. Is this true or can I do the re-indexing during the
day when people are using SoftSolutions?

ERROR LOG:
Monday March 30, 1998  09:26:37 AM -- SoftSolutions SEM is up
Monday March 30, 1998  09:31:57 AM -- 634: KDT file read error
-103 
Monday March 30, 1998  09:31:57 AM -- ## MCGOWAN%2 __ MCGOWAN%2

Monday March 30, 1998  09:58:59 AM -- 634: KDT file read error
1 
Monday March 30, 1998  09:58:59 AM -- ## COACH%2 __ COACH%2

Monday March 30, 1998  09:59:09 AM -- 634: KDT file read error
1 
Monday March 30, 1998  09:59:09 AM -- ## COACH%2 __ COACH%2

Monday March 30, 1998  04:21:19 PM -- ## MCGOWAN%2 __ MCGOWAN%2

Monday March 30, 1998  04:32:55 PM -- not enough blocks, allocating one
Monday March 30, 1998  04:32:55 PM -- not enough blocks, allocating one
Monday March 30, 1998  04:32:55 PM -- not enough blocks, allocating one
Monday March 30, 1998  04:32:55 PM -- not enough blocks, allocating one
Monday March 30, 1998  04:32:55 PM -- not enough blocks, allocating one
Monday March 30, 1998  04:35:26 PM -- ## MCGOWAN%2 __ MCGOWAN%2

Additional �not related to this problem� SoftSolutions questions:
1) The DOS version puts in a footer with the document number and version of
that document (3277.1, 3277.2 for example) When that same document is
called up by the Windows version the footer information is usually wrong. 
Can someone point me in the right direction to fix this?
2) In the DOS version you can save the current document to a floppy simply
by saving it to drive A or B. The Windows version does not.  We can only
copy & paste into another word processor and then save it to a floppy.
How do I save to a floppy directly from SoftSolutions / WordPerfect for
Windows?
3) While in the Windows SoftSolutions saving as a new version does not
work.
How does it work? Is there any special setup instructions that have to be
followed?

Thanks for all help in this matter....
Alan Martinez
wertanda@aol.com
bigal@bestweb.net
Or if you want to talk, email me and I�ll send you my phone number...!