For products: Webtrends Enterprise 7.x Webtrends Professional 7.x Webtrends Small Business 7.x Webtrends Log Analyzer Advanced 8.x Webtrends Log Analyzer 8.x Webtrends Reporting Center 6.x
Last modified: 1/1/2011
Situation: The profile status log displays numerous "DB_ERROR" messages, usually indicative of corruption.
Solution: DB_ERROR messages may occur for many reasons, one of which relates to the analysis engine's inability to secure the file lock required to perform some of file operations. Once this error is seen, the profile's database has most likely become corrupted and the profile will not analyze any new data until the profile has been restored from a backup from before the error occurred.
Common causes include the following: Third-Party Applications Webtrends may be unable to access files in its own database due to third-party applications running on the Webtrends server. Third party application should be disabled to assess whether they are contributing to the problem. A server only has so much bandwidth to allow access to the filesystem and the more applications there are trying to share those resources, the greater the chances they may conflict with each other. In particular, anti-virus software and backup software are heavy users of filesystem resources and should be thought of as potential causes of these errors.
Note: Webtrends understands that anti-virus and backup software are a part of the modern business environment, and while we are not suggesting that these services be disabled permanently, we are suggesting that by disabling them temporarily, you can help to determine whether or not they are affecting Webtrends' performance. If anti-virus software is found to be the problem, you should be able to configure it to exclude the Webtrends product directory or to confine its scans to periods when no analysis is taking place. Similarly, backup software issues can be averted by scheduling backups for periods when analysis is dormant. In some cases, there may be software or services that cannot be disabled, or it may not be clear what process is interrupting the Webtrends software. In these cases, it can be helpful to use a third-party application to monitor file accesses to help in determining the source of the conflict. One tool for this is Microsoft SysInternal's Process Monitor, a free utility to monitor file system activity. Configure Process Monitor to monitor access to the Webtrends product directory. The majority of access will originate from the Webtrends software itself so it is recommended to use Process Monitor's filtering option to filter out activity from Webtrends, typically wtrs.exe. With the exclusion of Webtrends' components, everything else accessing files in the Webtrends product directory may be a potential cause of the DB_ERROR messages. Process Monitor is available from the following URL:
RAID and SCSI Disk Arrays DB_ERRORs may result from hardware defects, misconfigured disk arrays or driver, firmware, or BIOS defects in the controllers which require updates to deliver the stated performance. The types of issues that affect disk arrays are typically subtle and may only occur under heavy load. Webtrends' analysis is intensive enough to uncover problems with disk arrays that had previously gone undetected. Problems with disk array drivers and firmware may be nearly impossible to troubleshoot. Typically, the only way to know whether a problem will be solved by a specific disk array driver update is by applying the update and testing the problem. If the Webtrends server is managed by a separate department or an outside hosting provider it may be sufficient to inform them that there is a problem with one of the applications that is indicative of issues with the disk array.
Windows-specific Troubleshooting Suggestions Some of Windows' built-in services, specifically, the Indexing service and Disk Defragmenter, may have a detrimental effect on the Webtrends analysis if one of these services accesses a file while Webtrends is trying to write to the same location. It is recommended that these services be disabled on the machine Webtrends is installed on.
The following changes are recommended for IIS-related services, as well as other potential software that may conflict with the Webtrends environment:
1. Set the local security policy "Audit Object Access" to OFF.
2. Audit Tracking should be turned OFF for the Webtrends root directory.
3. Disable ALL services that use inetinfo.exe: NNTP SMTP WWW Publishing Service IIS Admin Service
4. FTP is acceptable as long as the default directory is not set to the root of the drive. A dedicated FTP directory must be used.
