Getting Error :- Only one instance of COBRAS Export can be running at a time

[pradipto.moitra]

Hi All,

I was checking the Briefcase Mode help file and it mentions for Unity Conection

that COBRAS will run multiple instances of itself – if you schedule multiple backups to fire up at the same time they will all run at the same time.

However if I schedule multiple backups to fire at the same time then I get the error :- "Only one instance of COBRAS Export can be running at a time".

This also happens if the COBRAS windows is left open and the scheduled backup starts in the background.

http://www.ciscounitytools.com/Applications/General/COBRAS/Help/COBRAS_Briefcase/COBRAS_Briefcase.htm#_Toc276653845

I am not sure if I am making a mistake in understanding the statement :- "COBRAS will run multiple instances of itself – if you schedule multiple backups to fire up at the same time" or do we need to add any switch like lot of other application need like /m etc in the field of the scheduled backups as I see as /silent switch for process to run in background automatically but none for multiple instances.

I am attaching the screen shots of the errors I got when

A.) I scheduled 2 backups to run at the same time and the COBRAS application window was open "COBRASExportCUC7.exe" was running  and no backup took place and got errors for both the scheduled backups.

And

B.) I scheduled 2 backups to run at the same time and the COBRAS application window was closed off and "COBRASExportCUC7.exe" was not running and one of the scheduled backups started to work and the other one gave error and didn't work

Unity Connection in use :- Version 8.0.3.20000-18

Cobras Export :- Version 1.0 Build 76

Please Suggest.

Regards,

Prad

(E-Mail :- pradipto.moitra@gmail.com)

[lindborg · Accepted solution]

Hey Prad.

No, you're not making a mistake, we didn't update the help file to switch from a warning that it's a good idea not to run overlapping exports to a statement that you can no longer run overlapping exports.  Short version is with multiple instances running on the same box the ODBC access was serialized via the Informix driver and we rean into several issues with timetouts and the losing the connection that were traced back to the driver not handling multiple clients well - so we restricted it to a single instance to avoid problems.

I'll update the help file section accordingly.

Also, come to think of it, it should just log the error and exit out when running in scheduled mode, it shouldn't pop a dialog box like that - granted you'll find it eventually and it might be more obvious there was a problem but normally scheduled runs should be "silent" insofar as message dialogs go.

[pradipto.moitra]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks a lot for the quick response.

I had kept the Cobras Export main screen open on purpose just to check.

However when I close it off and the process :- "COBRASExportCUC7.exe" infact is not running the scheduled backup is infact silent except for a small flicker on the screen indicating the initialisation of a process or application and works fine after that.

However when the error happens due to multiple instance issue the small pop up window of the error doesn't exit automatically.

Thanks a lot once again for the confirmation.

Regards,

Prad

[lindborg · Accepted solution]

Yeah, I’m of two minds on that – on the one hand it’s bad style to have a scheduled application popping dialog boxes (especially if you’re running as an account you don’t log in as regularly) – one the other hand I did have some sites go a while not noticing backups were failing (due to a UNC not flying any longer after a server reconfig) – folks can be bad about checking log files or the event log for issues.  A pop up would pretty much guarantee they’d notice on next login at any rate.

I think I may stitch in email notifications in COBRAS Export in the same way they’re in the User Data Dump so failures of scheduled backups would be noticed right away (big, bright email in your box saying “failed!” would do it). 

Either way, I’ll update the help and make sure it fails quietly for now when I update some other items on the site middle of next week.

Thanks for the report.