Troubleshooting Shared Databases

· General errors that occur i a shared database situation can range from slower performance and ACT! not responding, to invalid page faults and general protection faults

· Though there are specific technical issues related to particular operating systems, some general things to consider include the following:

· Heavy network traffic

· Insufficient memory

· Conflicting programs and screensavers

Improving Network Performance for Shared Databases

• Situation: Poor performance on the network can cause specific shared database performance issues. Your databases are stored on a Windows NT server, but performing any action in ACT! can cause performance issues.

Other options - Try the following general troubleshooting techniques to improve performance

• Increase Swap File Size
  Scenario: Increasing swap file size may improve performance by increasing the amount of temporary storage space available to the program. To do so, perform the following steps:
• On the computer, close all running programs, click the Start button, point to Settings, ten Control Panel
• Double-click System, then click the Performance tab
• Under Virtual Memory, click Change
• Select the drive on which the ACT! database resides
• In the Paging File Size for Selected Drive group box, write down the value for Space Available
• In the Maximum Size (MB) field, change the value so that it is approximately 25% of the Space Available on that drive. Do not set this less than 150 MB, even though it will only use the space if necessary.
• Click Set to implement the change. If there is less than 150 MB of space on that drive, try moving the database to a different drive if one is available.
• Note: If you have multiple drives, configure a swap file on each one. If you are sharing a database with multiple users, create a larger swap file on that shared drive.
• After you have configured the maximum size for the swap file, click OK. If the changes you made were large enough, you will be asked to restart the computer. After you restart the server, if required, restart ATC! And try it again. It should run much faster.
• Note: You will usually notice an increase I performance even on an NT workstation if you set the swap file to 150 MB.
• Database Appears to be Damaged
  This may be caused by SHARE.EXE, which is a DOS networking file. This file shouild ot be required for proper operation of the network.
  
  Scenario: ACT! performs poorly on a network. ACT! may randomly stop responding, or the database appears to be damaged. Follow these steps to bypass SHARE.EXE
• Click the Start button and choose Run
• Type SYSEDIT and click OK. The System Configuration Editor appears and displays several files
• Locate the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and check for a line that refers to SHARE.EXE
• Type REM at the beginning of this line (put a space after REM) and save the changes
• Restart the computer.
• Note: This has also been seen as a result of using UNC paths to access the database rather than mapping he drive to the database