FreeTDS Development Group

[Craig Berry <craigberry AT mac.com>]

On Sunday, March 15, 2009, at 05:13PM, "James K. Lowden" 
<jklowden AT freetds.org> wrote:
>Jeff.Goodwin AT fairchildsemi.com wrote:
>> 
>> It appears that the change did not have the desired effect:
>> 
>> DB error = 20004,  Severity code = 9
>> DB error msg Read from the server failed
>> OS error # 54
>> OS error msg connection reset by peer
>
>http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/82final/6529/6529pro_030.html#app_error_codes
>
>54 ECONNRESET   SS$_CONNECFAIL  Connection reset by peer
>
>Hi Jeff, 
>
>I think the problem originates on the server, or seems to from the
>client's perspective.  
>
>I was hoping Craig would weigh in, because he's done the most to make
>FreeTDS work under VMS.  You would certainly be one of only a small number
>of people using 0.82 with VMS.  

I'm traveling and can't try to reproduce this at the moment.  Actually I 
can't try to reproduce it anyway since I don't have any Sybase servers 
running.  It does make sense to look at the "unusual" ingredients in the soup 
first when trying to figure out what's making the funny smell, but in this 
case I can't think of anything VMS-specific that is likely to be the culprit. 
I agree with James that something server-side is the most likely cause.

If it's difficult to pursue a server-side investigation without more ammo, 
I'd try to reproduce the problem on another client platform -- anything unixy 
should do.  Reproducing it (or not) with a Sybase Open Client would also be a 
nice data point to throw in the mix.

[very nice analysis snipped]

>It's not due to a TDS protocol violation; we know that from the packet you
>sent.  I would check the server logs, looking for resource exhaustion or
>other reasons it would close the connection.  Also, the 24-hour thing is
>suspicious.  Maybe some backup script or cleanup utility is closing
>"stale" connections or otherwise resetting the network interface.  Or
>maybe a firewall shuts down connections after a period of inactivity. 
>Keep in mind it might be half-closed.  

This was actually my first thought.  The first thing would be to sort out 
whether the connection reset happens at the same time every day or 24 hours 
from whenever you connect without regard to time of day.