Offline Servers Should Be Removed From Clients' Service Table.

ID: Q236578

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SNA Server, versions 3.0, 3.0 SP1, 3.0 SP2, 3.0 SP3, 4.0, 4.0 SP1, 4.0 SP2

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

SNA Clients for Windows NT versions 4.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and 4.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2), and SNA Clients for Windows 95 and Windows 98 version 4.0 SP2 may suffer long delays when trying to acquire an SNA resource from the subdomain if one or more configured sponsor servers are offline.

When configured for remote access, the SNA Clients listed above have their sponsor SnaBase entries created with a flag that guarantees that they are never removed from the client's service table. This is to avoid problems if the sponsor connection is lost and later reopened.

If the SNA Client tries to get an SNA resource from a configured server that is currently not available for any reason, it must wait for all connection retries to time out before trying another server from its list.

MORE INFORMATION

Although this behavior is by design, there have been requests for an update to dynamically remove offline servers from the client's service table so that the client will not try to connect to the offline servers when looking for an SNA resource.

In addition to that update, a new registry value must be added on the SNA Client.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

Windows NT

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Snabase\Parameters\

On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value Name: DeleteNonActiveSponsors
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: YES

Quit Registry Editor.

Windows 95 or Windows 98

Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SnaBase\Parameters\

On the Edit menu, click New, String Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value Name: DeleteNonActiveSponsors
Value: YES

Quit Registry Editor.

Some other SNA Client settings may affect the delay to connect to an SNA resource. Please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q178126 SNA NT Clients Should not Fall Back to Named Pipes

This feature is available in the latest service pack for SNA Server version 4.0. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q215838 How to Obtain the Latest SNA Server Version 4.0 Service Pack

This feature was first included in SNA Server version 4.0 Service Pack 3.

Additional query words:

Keywords : sna4sp3fea sna3 sna3sp1 sna3sp2 sna3sp3 sna4 sna4sp1 sna4sp2
Version : WINDOWS:3.0,3.0 SP1,3.0 SP2,3.0 SP3,4.0,4.0 SP1,4.0 SP2
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo