Are Groove Enterprise Servers Offline?

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

I'm not entirely sure of the business end of things, but I know we do credit
some support cases. If the issue did turn out to be the servers, you might be
able to get the charge ($99 for an email case) waived.

On the other hand, there are plenty of cases which in which people think
they are seeing a server problem, and it turns out to be a network problem or
configuration problem -- for example, a out-of-synch account, or a new
firewall or content-filtering software. In that case, you would definitely be
paying for the support. As of yet, I have no confirmation of a server issue.

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

Each instance of an account needs to use the same relay server consistently,
or the presence mechanism wouldn't function. I discussed how this works in a
blog post recently. See
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroo...t-communicate-narrowing-down-the-problem.aspx.

 

[Rox]

Well he was working fine for several months and now he can't see anyone
online and all of the information you have provided (links) deals with the
same account on multiple computers. He uses his account on one system and we
only created a new account on that system to get him up and working again but
that was short lived.

If he was my only user with this issue then I might agree that maybe there
was something wrong with his network / communications but I have multiple
users with this issue, not to mention the fact that others are seeing the
same issue at about the same time.

Is it possible that you added additional servers into the server pool and
they aren't communicating all the information between the servers? Is it
possible that one server has been left out of the communications loop?

If one account doesn't work, but a new account works, and then that same new
account stops working, I can think of no way, technically, for that to be a
relay server issue. If the two accounts use the same server, and the problem
was on the server, than either both accounts should work or neither should.

Appearing offline to himself could also not be a relay issue, as presence on
the LAN does not use the relay. Are you sure the user doesn't have two
accounts with the same name? See "When you use the same account information
on two computers that are running Groove, the computers do not share data" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;907424

If he is using the account on multiple computers, you may also want to look
at "You experience presence and delivery services issues when you use a
Groove account on multiple computers" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;922168


--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Well Matt, I'm glad yours is fixed but I still have users that can't see each
other. I've created a new account for one user and he was fine for about a
day but now he can't see anyone again, even himself online.

 

[Rox]

In one of your links you mentioned a sequence number in the Groove
Workspaces, is there a way to manually increase the sequence number?

I'm not entirely sure of the business end of things, but I know we do credit
some support cases. If the issue did turn out to be the servers, you might be
able to get the charge ($99 for an email case) waived.

On the other hand, there are plenty of cases which in which people think
they are seeing a server problem, and it turns out to be a network problem or
configuration problem -- for example, a out-of-synch account, or a new
firewall or content-filtering software. In that case, you would definitely be
paying for the support. As of yet, I have no confirmation of a server issue.

--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Frances - whatever you did appears to have solved the issue. Thank you.

Regarding support - it is hard to deal with the pay-for-support link you
sent when I think many of us don't think we should have to pay for a support
issue that was clearly the responsibility of Microsoft, given that it
certainly appears that one of their relay servers was offline for more than a
week.

Is there a better way to alert Microsoft of potential issues that does not
involve being billed?

matt

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

I think that the initial period of the new account working was coincidental.
We have confirmed an issue bluegro3, and it turns out that some connections
are working normally, while others (most) are being rejected. Look for my
post -- IT has been working on the server and will be restarting it soon.


--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Well he was working fine for several months and now he can't see anyone
online and all of the information you have provided (links) deals with the
same account on multiple computers. He uses his account on one system and we
only created a new account on that system to get him up and working again but
that was short lived.

If he was my only user with this issue then I might agree that maybe there
was something wrong with his network / communications but I have multiple
users with this issue, not to mention the fact that others are seeing the
same issue at about the same time.

Is it possible that you added additional servers into the server pool and
they aren't communicating all the information between the servers? Is it
possible that one server has been left out of the communications loop?

If one account doesn't work, but a new account works, and then that same new
account stops working, I can think of no way, technically, for that to be a
relay server issue. If the two accounts use the same server, and the problem
was on the server, than either both accounts should work or neither should.

Appearing offline to himself could also not be a relay issue, as presence on
the LAN does not use the relay. Are you sure the user doesn't have two
accounts with the same name? See "When you use the same account information
on two computers that are running Groove, the computers do not share data" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;907424

If he is using the account on multiple computers, you may also want to look
at "You experience presence and delivery services issues when you use a
Groove account on multiple computers" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;922168


--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Well Matt, I'm glad yours is fixed but I still have users that can't see each
other. I've created a new account for one user and he was fine for about a
day but now he can't see anyone again, even himself online.

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

No -- saving and reimporting the account is the best way to increment it. It
usually only gets out of synch when an account is on multiple computers or an
old account file is restored.

 

[Rox]

Well that's kind of good to hear, when will it be fixed? Is there any way we
can "force" users onto another server?

I think that the initial period of the new account working was coincidental.
We have confirmed an issue bluegro3, and it turns out that some connections
are working normally, while others (most) are being rejected. Look for my
post -- IT has been working on the server and will be restarting it soon.


--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Well he was working fine for several months and now he can't see anyone
online and all of the information you have provided (links) deals with the
same account on multiple computers. He uses his account on one system and we
only created a new account on that system to get him up and working again but
that was short lived.

If he was my only user with this issue then I might agree that maybe there
was something wrong with his network / communications but I have multiple
users with this issue, not to mention the fact that others are seeing the
same issue at about the same time.

Is it possible that you added additional servers into the server pool and
they aren't communicating all the information between the servers? Is it
possible that one server has been left out of the communications loop?

If one account doesn't work, but a new account works, and then that same new
account stops working, I can think of no way, technically, for that to be a
relay server issue. If the two accounts use the same server, and the problem
was on the server, than either both accounts should work or neither should.

Appearing offline to himself could also not be a relay issue, as presence on
the LAN does not use the relay. Are you sure the user doesn't have two
accounts with the same name? See "When you use the same account information
on two computers that are running Groove, the computers do not share data" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;907424

If he is using the account on multiple computers, you may also want to look
at "You experience presence and delivery services issues when you use a
Groove account on multiple computers" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;922168


--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.


:

Well Matt, I'm glad yours is fixed but I still have users that can't see each
other. I've created a new account for one user and he was fine for about a
day but now he can't see anyone again, even himself online.

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

It was fixed on Friday. See my post at
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...f142&mid=940b1d08-d7f5-4824-a68c-68a81f23f142 for details.

 

[Rox]

Looks like it is working, one user is still on blugro3 and can now see
everyone else. The other user is now on blugro1 so he can see everyone now
as well but on the other server which appears to have worked in the past.

Thanks.

It was fixed on Friday. See my post at
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...f142&mid=940b1d08-d7f5-4824-a68c-68a81f23f142 for details.

--
Frances Selkirk [MSFT]
http://blogs.technet.com/weeklygroove/
----
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.

Well that's kind of good to hear, when will it be fixed? Is there any way we
can "force" users onto another server?