OCS Address Book errors

[Vinny]

First the problem: We are seeing OCS Address Book errors like "cannot
synchronize with the corporate address book because the file could not be
found."

Next, my question: Could this be caused by performance issues on our SQL
servers?

There are many errors in the event viewer under Office Communications Server
on some of the OCS servers we use, but there's not much online about them.
Also, on some of the OCS servers we have that are experiencing the problem,
there are only a few errors, where others have a lot. There is no error
common on ALL of the OCS servers that have the problem. This is a list of
all of the Source/EventIDs found on the OCS servers.

Source: Event ID
OCS Server:12295, 12331
OCS Protocol Stack: 14498
OCS Address Book Server: 21015, 21035, 21045, 21051, 21055
OCS User Replicator: 30001, 30014
OCS User Services: 30903, 30904, 30961, 30983, 32016, 32027, 32030, 32034,
32068, 32073, 32075
OCS WMI Event Provider: 56013, 56019
OCS MCU Factory: 51009, 51011

This is what leads me to believe the issue is related to our SQL servers:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The WMI event provider could not connect to pool backend server.

Pool backend: 'SQLSERVERNAME'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error occurred while accessing SQL database.

SQL Connection String: Data Source=SQLSERVERNAME;Initial
Catalog=rtc;Integrated Security=SSPI
Exception: Transaction (Process ID 895) was deadlocked on lock resources
with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the
transaction.
Exception type: SqlException
Cause: Either the connection to the SQL database could not be established or
the account that the Address Book Server is running under does not have the
necessary permissions.
Resolution:
Verify that the SQL database is accessible and functioning correctly. If
this occurs the first time the Address Book Server is started after
activation, it may be because the changes in Active Directory made during
activation have not replicated to the domain controller the Address Book
Server logon account is authenticating against. Wait for the replication to
finish and then stop and restart the server.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address Book Server was unable to perform its heartbeat function against the
back-end database after 3 attempts.

SQL Connection String: Data Source=(local)\rtc;Initial
Catalog=rtc;Integrated Security=SSPI
Exception: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the
server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by
the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote
connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating
Server/Instance Specified)
Exception type: SqlException
Cause: SQL Connectivity issues.
Resolution:
Verify that the RTCService account has access to the database and that the
machine running the RTCSRV service has connectivity to the back-end server.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you in advance for any help you could provide,
Vinny

[Samer Ghanem]

I had similar issues, and I posted a solution for this on my blog
http://www.appliedtechs.net/blog/

Basically, you need to run these two commands

abserver.exe –validateDB
abserver.exe –syncNow

Good luck

Hi
Looks that you have an issue with the SQL server connection, I wonder if you
set it up correctly.
Address book in OCS is generated by the user repliator and downloaded using
HTTPS, so check the permissions on the ABS virtual directory and that is SSL
enabled on it
Regards
Mahmoud Magdy

Post by Vinny
First the problem: We are seeing OCS Address Book errors like "cannot
synchronize with the corporate address book because the file could not be
found."
Next, my question: Could this be caused by performance issues on our SQL
servers?
There are many errors in the event viewer under Office Communications
Server on some of the OCS servers we use, but there's not much online
about them. Also, on some of the OCS servers we have that are experiencing
the problem, there are only a few errors, where others have a lot. There
is no error common on ALL of the OCS servers that have the problem. This
is a list of all of the Source/EventIDs found on the OCS servers.
Source: Event ID
OCS Server:12295, 12331
OCS Protocol Stack: 14498
OCS Address Book Server: 21015, 21035, 21045, 21051, 21055
OCS User Replicator: 30001, 30014
OCS User Services: 30903, 30904, 30961, 30983, 32016, 32027, 32030, 32034,
32068, 32073, 32075
OCS WMI Event Provider: 56013, 56019
OCS MCU Factory: 51009, 51011
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The WMI event provider could not connect to pool backend server.
Pool backend: 'SQLSERVERNAME'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error occurred while accessing SQL database.
SQL Connection String: Data Source=SQLSERVERNAME;Initial
Catalog=rtc;Integrated Security=SSPI
Exception: Transaction (Process ID 895) was deadlocked on lock resources
with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the
transaction.
Exception type: SqlException
Cause: Either the connection to the SQL database could not be established
or the account that the Address Book Server is running under does not have
the necessary permissions.
Verify that the SQL database is accessible and functioning correctly. If
this occurs the first time the Address Book Server is started after
activation, it may be because the changes in Active Directory made during
activation have not replicated to the domain controller the Address Book
Server logon account is authenticating against. Wait for the replication
to finish and then stop and restart the server.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address Book Server was unable to perform its heartbeat function against
the back-end database after 3 attempts.
SQL Connection String: Data Source=(local)\rtc;Initial
Catalog=rtc;Integrated Security=SSPI
Exception: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the
server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by
the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote
connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating
Server/Instance Specified)
Exception type: SqlException
Cause: SQL Connectivity issues.
Verify that the RTCService account has access to the database and that the
machine running the RTCSRV service has connectivity to the back-end server.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you in advance for any help you could provide,
Vinny

[Thomas Lee]

Post by Samer Ghanem
I had similar issues, and I posted a solution for this on my blog
http://www.appliedtechs.net/blog/
Basically, you need to run these two commands
abserver.exe –validateDB
abserver.exe –syncNow

The abserver is a real issue for many. These two commands can help, but
are by no means the full answer! Depending on the issue, you may need to
do more. In my experience, certificates on the web components server and
permissions on the folders for the web app are the most common issue.

I plan to write a longer blog article setting out what I've learnt!
Thanks for the encouragement.

Thomas