I have been getting a series of invalid requests over the past few
months.

Sometimes they do not seem to matter other times they seem to cause
problems.

What I can't do is find out what the hex dump means so I can get a
better idea of what is going on.

This is happening on NW4.1 SFTIII, PSQL 7.

I have seen mention of a post that explains the dump but I have not
been able to find it or not one that is good enough for me to map to my
hex dump.

If someone can give me a clue I shall be very grateful.

Regards

John Aherne


The hex dump follows:

12-08-2006 08:14:26 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
E An invalid request was received. Hex
dump follows
12-08-2006 08:14:26 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2b9030: 3c 00 4b 00 00 00 50 90
2b 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00
12-08-2006 08:14:26 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2b9040: 00 00 aa 22 00 0f fe 30
a8 67 60 13 57 52 00 00
12-08-2006 08:14:26 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2b9050: 30 90 2b 0e 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 1c 00
12-08-2006 08:14:31 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
E An invalid request was received. Hex
dump follows
12-08-2006 08:14:31 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2cd030: 3c 00 4b 00 00 00 50 d0
2c 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00
12-08-2006 08:14:31 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2cd040: 00 00 aa 22 00 0f fe 30
a8 67 60 14 57 52 00 00
12-08-2006 08:14:31 NWMKDE 02A762B0 NWMKDE.NLM GLHIRE
W 0e2cd050: 30 d0 2c 0e 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 1c 00

There are actually two problems indicated by these messages.

A) The actual message indicates that an invalid request was received by
the server, but the message does not display the ENTIRE packet, so it
can be difficult to figure out what is wrong. Luckily, this problem
doesn't impact you -- it just makes it harder to figure out the bad
packet.

B) A change was made at some point in the Pervasive.SQL 2000i lifecycle
to issue a Btrieve Reset call (operation 0x1C, shown in the third line
of the packet) to reset the session created when the client requests
the engine version (upon first connection). The problem with this
change is that the call was made without a valid key buffer, and the
engine kicks that out as a bad request.

What to do about it? Several options:
1) Check your BTI.INI file and look for a setting called "Validate
Request". Change it from ON to OFF (or is it No?) and restart the
engine/server. Byu disabling the validation, you may no longer get
these messages.
2) Ignore the errors -- they are a by-product of bad code on
Pervasive's part, but the problem is not fatal and should have no real
impact on the rest of your environment. Just remember to clear the log
files every once in a while to reclaim the disk space.
3) A patch to the Network Services Layer was issued for this issue. If
you have a version of the NSL which is newer than W3NSL22B.DLL dated
05/01/2002, you should be able to eliminate the problem. I do not know
if this patch was in the "official" SP4 HotFix updates or not, but it'd
be easy enough to check.
Goldstar Software Inc.
Pervasive-based Products, Training & Services
Bill Bach
BillBach (AT) goldstarsoftware (DOT) com
http://www.goldstarsoftware.com
*** Chicago: Pervasive Service & Support Class - 03/2007 ***


johnaherne (AT) rocs (DOT) co.uk wrote: