Re: database connection timeout

Juffermans, Jos wrote:

I understand your point but since I wasn't getting any response and never received a confirmation email from the system telling me that my email account had been verified, I wasn't sure that the original post was actually sent to the community. Oddly enough I got an email from the system this morning asking me to verify my email address - again :s Fair enough, I've been on that boat before. :)

The VPN connection is not always available. I'm afraid I don't have much control over the VPN myself and I believe only the Oracle port has been opened in this VPN. You might want to contact whoever manages the VPN - it sure sounds like it needs to always be up!

MN> Essentially, you want ocilogon (complex network function to login to a MN> networked Oracle [in this case] server) to timeout just like fsockopen MN> (fairly simple function to open a socket, including network resources). MN> My suggestion is to try connecting using fsockopen, with the timeout. MN> If it successfully connects - chances are, the majority of the time, MN> your ocilogon that follows will work as well. That's a good idea, I'll try to connect to the Oracle port thru fsockopen. Let us on the list know how/whether or not this works, It's definitely worth having some info on.

MN> Another dirty little trick you might use is running the ocilogon in a MN> separate script and making use of set_time_limit() to make sure it MN> doesn't run too long. Just be sure not to set_time_limit() for your MN> whole set of scripts, unless you really want them to abort after the 5 MN> or 10 second limit you're setting ocilogon (unlikely). I'm not sure if I can set the time limit (safemode...) but are you saying that set_time_limit only affects the script that you include and not the caller script? No no no - include() should be the same as if you just placed the code right where the include is, so it would apply it to the whole script.

You'll have to call out separately and make it another process, and exec or something - a small script whose sole intention is to determine if the VPN is up. exec() or the likes - like I said - dirty trick/hack. The idea is to just have it return 0 or 1 [actually, depending on how the time limit works, it may not return anything if it ends prematurely]. Definitely try the fsockopen bit first, and give it a few go's if it's not working.

I'll try the fsockopen "connection test" on the oracle port. Thanks for your help. Welcome to the list!

cheers, -- - Martin Norland, Sys Admin / Database / Web Developer, International Outreach x3257 The opinion(s) contained within this email do not necessarily represent those of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.