ViceVersa Usage of file Handles

[arhoffman]

VV Support,

First let me start off by saying that ViceVersa has been working great in our application for the past year. It's been a wonderful solution to keeping our primary and secondary systems current. Thank you.

Recently however we've have noticed a problem, VV's usage of file handles. It seems that over time VV collects file handles, and doesn't let them go. I am beginning to suspect that this may be the cause of a few of our system hangs. Not often, but hangs/freezes that we've been unable to explain or find another reason for it to occur.

Just recently while exploring the system to find a possible cause we notice that the VV file handle usage in the Windows Task Manager was up over 100,000 (I've also sent email with an attached screen capture).

I also begun looking at this further on my desktop computer. I started VV about an hour and half ago with about 120 handles, it is now 225. The usage doesn't seem to grow very fast, but it does grow at a fairly steady pace, so that over time (say a week or two) the number can start getting pretty large. In the case of the system shown in the screen capture, I not sure how long that it's been running since it's was rebooted, but I believe about a month.

I'm not sure what Windows upper limit is for handles, but if a software continually consumes handles, there are bound to be repercussions at some point. Please take a look at this and let me know if this can be resolved.
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

Hi! what version of ViceVersa are you using? and what is the timestamp of the file VVLauncher.exe you have on your machine? thanks
_________________
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TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[arhoffman]

That would be ViceVersa Pro 2, build 2.0.0.8, 09/06/2005

and VV Launcher 2.0.0.2, 09/06/2005
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

Thanks, from the screenshot you sent via e-mail it look like it is the VVLauncher process that is not releasing certain handles.
I tried monitoring VVLauncher that comes with the latest VV PRO Build 2010 and it seems fine: after 1 hour it is still using 86 handles.

Are you running VVLauncher as service? What VVLauncher settings are you using?

On a different note: you may want to try the new VVEngine, which is a new advanced scheduler for VV PRO, it has all the features of VVLauncher and much more. http://www.tgrmn.com/web/vvengine/vvengine.htm

thanks
_________________
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TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[arhoffman]

VV Support,

I installed the latest release this morning (build 2010), but I notice that VVlauncher is still the same build number (2002), the file date changed, but the build number is the same. Anyway, I been running the new install since 09:30 this morning, starting with 102 handles, it is now 12:30 and the handle count is up to 372.

The profile I currently using on my desktop here is listed below. I have to wonder about the exclusions. Last year I had wrote in about the excluded files & directories constantly triggering VV to indicate that a change has been made even though its been excluded. Could this be a possible source of the handles not being released? I’m going to try running a modified profile without the exclusions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile File: C:\Dewitt_Software\ViceVersa\Hoffman1.fsf
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Folders
- Sources: (Locked) (Archived)
- Targets: (Archived)
- "C:\Dewitt_Software\" <to> "X:\Backup\Dewitt_Software\" (Include Subfolders)
- "C:\Documents and Settings\HoffmaA.GSFC\My Documents\" <to> "X:\Backup\My Documents\" (Include Subfolders)
- Exclude files: "C:\Dewitt_Software\ViceVersa\ViceVersa.log"
- Exclude files: "C:\Dewitt_Software\ViceVersa\vvdb1.tdb"
- Exclude files: "C:\Dewitt_Software\hwcntrlMGS\alarm.log"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\hwcntrlMGS\debugOutput\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Wotis Interface\FTP\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Wotis Interface\Logs\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Wotis Interface\Test Files\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Wotis Interface\Wotis\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Wotis Interface\Error\"
- Exclude subfolders: "C:\Dewitt_Software\Temp\"
Comparison
- Comparison Type: Size and Timestamp
- Ignore 2 seconds difference
Execution
- Method: Backup (Mirror Source to Target)
- No overwrite / read-only / error confirmations
- Log File: "C:\Dewitt_Software\ViceVersa\ViceVersa.log" (max 1000 KB)
- Log only summary and errors
- Archive deleted/replaced source files to: "X:\Backup\Archive\"
- Archive deleted/replaced target files to: "X:\Backup\Archive\"
- Smart archive
- Archive max. 3 copies per file
- Remove archive copies older than 30 day(s)
- Append Source/Target path to archive folder(s)
- Limit Bandwidth to: 4.00MB/Sec
- Speed: 50 Buffer Size: 32768 (flush the buffer every write)
- Copy directly to destination file (do not use a temporary file)
- Try to copy files that are in use by other applications
- Replace newer target files with older source files (backup only)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
End of profile
----------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

Thanks, what settings did you setup in VVLauncher? (runnig as soon as file changes are detected or every X min)? I would like to retry exactly your configuration on my machine. You should also be able to see when the handles increase, is that when file copy starts?
thanks
_________________
--
TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[arhoffman]

VV Launcher settings are as follows:

• Run profile every 5 minutes
• Run only if file changes are detected
• Detect changes in Source

However, after testing today, I think I may have zeroed in on the trigger. If what I found is correct, it won’t matter what the profile setup is. Just include the VV log in the source path.

As I said earlier, I was going to run the profile without the exclusions. In doing so, I removed the exclusion I had setup for the VV log. I’ve had the VV log written to the same directory as all of my profiles, all of which are being backed up to the target. Not needing to store the log to the target I had it excluded.

After removing the exclusions I began getting a sync failure error message, and found it to be caused by the file lock on the active VV log. I also notice that the handles were still increasing. Finding this I modified the profile to use the shadow copy feature, this stopped the error message from occurring, allow the sync to complete properly. But the file handle continued to increase.

Next I modified the profile to disable the VV logging, the file handles stopped incrementing. I turn the logging back on, and the handles again started increasing. At the end of the day I modified the profile one last time to active logging and write the log to another location (not in my source path), and restarted VVlauncher to reset the handle count. I left it running for the weekend, and plan to check the handle count on Monday when I return to work. When I left today the count was 58 after about 30 minutes.

I let you know the results on Monday.
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

Ok, thanks, let me know how the test goes, if the log file location is the possible cause I will try reproducing the scenario on my machine.
_________________
--
TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[arhoffman]

That does seem to be the culprit. When I left on Friday the VVlauncher handle count was 58 after restarting the software. This morning after running through the weekend, the handle count was 62, and is still 62 now, 4 hours later.

At least for the immediate time, the solution is simple. Don't have the VV log in the archival path. Are there any plans to correct the exclusion problem, that I had asked about last year?
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

I setup a similar scenario in VVLauncher. Since the log file is in the source path and you are monitoring the source for file changes, VVLauncher always runs every 5 minutes (due to changes to the log file). BUT: the handles count does not increase on my machine. I checked this on a Win 2003 server. Are the handles increasing every time a run starts?

[arhoffman]

Yes, as I said eariler on, the handles increase at a slow but steady rate.


On the exclusions issue please see "Changes in excluded directories" that I posted on Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:52 am.
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman

[TGRMN Software]

Ok, this is something we want to improve but it is not yet available....
_________________
--
TGRMN Software Support
http://www.tgrmn.com
http://www.compareandmerge.com

[arhoffman]

After a few weeks, running with the VV log removed from my sync path, the handle issue has improved, but it is still gradually increasing. Granted not anywhere near the rate as previously stated, but still increasing.
_________________
Thanks,
arhoffman