Scheduled SMS limitations?

[jsbajada]

Hi all.

Over the weekend, we performed DR activities between our two data centres. This was monitored using Solarwinds (NPM, NCM, IPSLA, SAM), which is configured to use Pagegate v5. Due to the nature of the event, our Comms team did not want to unmanage their devices, as they needed to manage other sites as well.

Paging worked fine, sending SMSs across both Connectors, until approx 1hr 15mins after failover, when we started noticing errors in one of the connector logs (PGDIAL1.log) :

[code]15/06/2013 8:15:29 AM Error sending packet[/code]

SMSs were then sent entirely through Connector 2, which then started generating its own errors:

[code]15/06/2013 10:11:15 AM Program Halted. Database error: 3219 Invalid operation. in Procedure: SendToModem[/code]

Through various service restarts, hardware reboots and message purging, we were able to get Pagegate working again - although we had to do this a couple more times through the weekend.

Looking back through the logs (Pagegate.log) during the DR time, it appears we sent 1,687 messages through Pagegate over the course of 6.75 hrs - an average of one message every fifteen second or so. The question was raised: did we hit Pagegate with too many messages for it to handle?

Is there a limit on the number of scheduled messages Pagegate can handle? Is there any performance tuning we can do so it can process messages faster?

I know part of this answer is "Limit the amount of alerts that Solarwinds calls Pagegate", but I wanted to find out what else could be done, and if there is in fact a limit on the amount of messages Pagegate can handle. If further information is required to assist with an answer, let me know. Thanks!

[Tech Support]

Well, there isn't a limit on the amount of messages PageGate can handle. I'd need to see more information in the logs immediately prior to the failures.


I can tell you that the 3219 error you received is a COM port error. That error means that the COM port PageGate was told to use for that connector either ceased to exist or stopped responding entirely.

Just based on some contextual clues, I'm guessing you're using a Cellular Modem (or a pair of cellular modems) for message delivery. I think what you ran in to is that the cellular modems themselves couldn't handle the traffic you were pushing through them but... if you can email your logs to support at notepage dot com, I'll have a look and see what I can find out.

_________________
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support@notepage.com
http://www.notepage.net

[jsbajada]

Sent through.

Although I think you may have already answered the question when you said "there isn't a limit on the amount of messages PageGate can handle". So I'll see if I can find anything upstream - either COM port issues or modem problems.

And you are right - we have two GSM modems plugged into USB ports and mapped to COM ports. This has been working fine on either side of this issue, so we suspect the volume of requests is the fault - it's then just trying to find out what that limit is!

Thanks for your help!

[Tech Support]

I received the logs and can't see anything particularly odd from the PageGate side of things. Everything's running fine and then the cellular modem just... stops responding properly.

This may sound like a ridiculous question but are they plugged in to actual USB ports on the motherboard or are they plugged in to a USB extension? I ask because I've run in to a few issues with cellular modems being plugged in to USB extensions before. Basically, if the cellular modem is plugged in to an unpowered USB extension, the cellular modems aren't actually getting enough power and will behave somewhat erratically, especially under a heavy load. You'll definitely want to use a powered USB extension, if that's what you're using.

_________________
Tech Support
support@notepage.com
http://www.notepage.net