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Catastrophic failure while connecting to DB

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Forum Name: Database Discussion
Forum Description: Discussion and chat on database related topics.
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Printed Date: 28 March 2026 at 2:21pm
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Topic: Catastrophic failure while connecting to DB
Posted By: kharelrupak
Subject: Catastrophic failure while connecting to DB
Date Posted: 15 December 2007 at 4:38pm
Hi,
I am sure that you will be able to help me here.
I have my website hosted by webwiz host. I have a website and webwiz forum installed. It was running properly until today when suddenly i started getting message saying
 
Server Error in Forum Application
An error has occured while connecting to the database.
Please contact the forum administrator.

Support Error Code:- err_mySQL_db_connection
File Name:- common.asp

Error details:-
Provider
Catastrophic failure
 
This is the error on forum, and my asp application also gives the catastrophic failure error.
When i trace the line of codes in my application i was able to find a line of code.
 
Private Function connectDatabase()    'connects to the database and opens a connection.
  sConnection = "DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver}; SERVER= " & dbhost & "; DATABASE= " & dbname & "; " &_
  " UID= " & dbuser & ";PASSWORD=" & dbpassword 
  Set objConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
  objConn.Open(sConnection) //this is the line that is throwing error
End Function
 
i am sure this is the server problem since all were working well before.
 
Waiting for the response soon.
 
Regards



Replies:
Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 15 December 2007 at 6:52pm
The problem appears to have been an issue with the myODBC driver becoming corrupted in the application pool memory of the server.

The myODBC driver is used so that your ASP website can talk to the mySQL database. The mySQL database is a good database but it is let down when used with ASP as we have to use the myODBC driver which does tend to have it's bugs.

We will look at updating the myODBC driver on the server your site is on as we are currently using an older myODBC 3.51.12 driver as we experienced issues with the server crashing underload when using newer versions of the myODBC driver when we applied Windows 2003 Server SP2 about 6 months ago.

This is the first time we have seen an issue of this kind with the myODBC 3.51.12 driver presently being used on the servers since rolling back to this older driver 6 months ago.


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Posted By: kharelrupak
Date Posted: 15 December 2007 at 11:26pm

Thanks...  I had guessed that it can be problem with the driver... anyways its working fine right now.. lets see in future.... if it continuously starts to give me problems then i will have to think of moving to MSSQL.

Regards


Posted By: jamie.townsend
Date Posted: 16 December 2007 at 12:21am
I work for a big uk hosting company and this tends to popup every now and then.
Generally an application pool recycle fixes the issue.
 
I can not stress enough that you should migrate to MSSQL especially if you have a database included in your hosting package !


Posted By: hassanx
Date Posted: 24 January 2008 at 1:59pm
Hello,

I get the same error for 3 days..


Server Error in Forum Application
An error has occurred while connecting to the database.
Please contact the forum administrator.

Support Error Code:- err_mySQL_db_connection
File Name:- common.asp

Error details:-
Microsoft OLE DB Service Components
Catastrophic failure


I'm on Brinkster server (paid, not free) and the customer service said that he doesn't see any obvious errors in myconnection string, but that is most likely caused by an issue in the code.

told me to see the following FAQ for sample database connections.

  javascript:void%280%29; - http://kb.brinkster.com/Kb.asp?kb=108078


Any help would be appriciated :) I'm stuck..


Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 24 January 2008 at 2:24pm
I'm afraid that your Brinkster guy is talking out his bottom or is one of these general clueless support guys who blame the code. This is the hosting version of 'try rebooting the computer' that you get when you phone an IT support department.

The issue is a server error. The database connection is a standard DSN-less connection, of which there isn't really many ways of doing it. If there was a connection string issue then these forums would be full of 1000's of people with the same error.

Often this error is coursed by a corruption in the app pool serving your site. Like Jamie says recycling the app pool usual fixes the issue.

If it keeps happening then it suggests a corruption with the DB driver. Usually reinstalling the MDAC drivers on the servers would fix this.

You should get back onto Brinkster and ask to talk to a server engineer who knows what they are talking about.


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Posted By: hassanx
Date Posted: 24 January 2008 at 3:04pm
Originally posted by WebWiz-Bruce WebWiz-Bruce wrote:

I'm afraid that your Brinkster guy is talking out his bottom or is one of these general clueless support guys who blame the code. This is the hosting version of 'try rebooting the computer' that you get when you phone an IT support department.


LOLLOL

I was just logging back to talk again but somehow forum got back online again. With no problems.

So it's the server I should blame for this type of error.

Thank you so much again :)

LOL


Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 24 January 2008 at 3:08pm
Most servers in a shared hosting environment are set to recycle the application pool every x number of minutes, usually between 6 and 24 hours. This helps reduce the amount of memory the server uses (app pools can use over 1gig of memory after a few hours) and also flushes out any issues like the one you mention.

If it keeps happening then you should get the server looked at as it suggests a server issue, or I have on occasion seen this type of error coursed by someone running bad code on the server who shares the same app pool as your web site.


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