-
Probe Login
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
-
Probe Login (reply)
Maybe someone/something is using Performance Monitor on the dev server?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/10/99 10:18:19 AM
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
-
Probe Login (reply)
No one is running the Performance Monitor. Is that the only thing probe is used for?
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/10/99 3:34:25 PM
Maybe someone/something is using Performance Monitor on the dev server?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/10/99 10:18:19 AM
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
-
Probe Login (reply)
Well, if you're running standard security, then PerfMon uses probe to login.
On the other hand, there's nothing to stop just about anyone to use the probe account, since it's installed without a password by default.
I found this snippet from BOL though, that sounds a bit like your description
---- snip ----
If any server must recover the transaction, it initiates a process called probe, which determines the last known status of the transaction. The probe process makes use of the same status-checking function, stat_xact, that the commit service uses to check on the progress of a distributed transaction. After it returns the status of that transaction to the commit service, the probe process ends.
---- snip -----
Could this be it?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/11/99 9:26:29 AM
No one is running the Performance Monitor. Is that the only thing probe is used for?
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/10/99 3:34:25 PM
Maybe someone/something is using Performance Monitor on the dev server?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/10/99 10:18:19 AM
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
-
Probe Login (reply)
The idea that this could be a recovery process sounds good and might be a possibility. But the
consistent every 2 minute logon is driving me crazy. Could some product be checking for changes
and causing this. The only connection I can guess at is MS Exchange. Could it be checking for
something and using the probe account? Quite a few of our databases are used as WEB databases.
Does that shed some light? I am using standard security.
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/11/99 3:10:33 PM
Well, if you're running standard security, then PerfMon uses probe to login.
On the other hand, there's nothing to stop just about anyone to use the probe account, since it's installed without a password by default.
I found this snippet from BOL though, that sounds a bit like your description
---- snip ----
If any server must recover the transaction, it initiates a process called probe, which determines the last known status of the transaction. The probe process makes use of the same status-checking function, stat_xact, that the commit service uses to check on the progress of a distributed transaction. After it returns the status of that transaction to the commit service, the probe process ends.
---- snip -----
Could this be it?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/11/99 9:26:29 AM
No one is running the Performance Monitor. Is that the only thing probe is used for?
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/10/99 3:34:25 PM
Maybe someone/something is using Performance Monitor on the dev server?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/10/99 10:18:19 AM
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
-
Probe Login (reply)
Well, fire up SQL Trace and filter for the probe user. If it logs on every 2 minutes, you should be able to see which host or app it is, or at least what it's doing.
If nothing tangible shows up in the tracer, you could take a look in master..sysprocesses for the process and see what shows for nt_domain, nt_username and net_adress, which often is the NIC's MAC adress.
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/11/99 3:55:31 PM
The idea that this could be a recovery process sounds good and might be a possibility. But the
consistent every 2 minute logon is driving me crazy. Could some product be checking for changes
and causing this. The only connection I can guess at is MS Exchange. Could it be checking for
something and using the probe account? Quite a few of our databases are used as WEB databases.
Does that shed some light? I am using standard security.
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/11/99 3:10:33 PM
Well, if you're running standard security, then PerfMon uses probe to login.
On the other hand, there's nothing to stop just about anyone to use the probe account, since it's installed without a password by default.
I found this snippet from BOL though, that sounds a bit like your description
---- snip ----
If any server must recover the transaction, it initiates a process called probe, which determines the last known status of the transaction. The probe process makes use of the same status-checking function, stat_xact, that the commit service uses to check on the progress of a distributed transaction. After it returns the status of that transaction to the commit service, the probe process ends.
---- snip -----
Could this be it?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/11/99 9:26:29 AM
No one is running the Performance Monitor. Is that the only thing probe is used for?
------------
Kenneth Wilhelmsson at 3/10/99 3:34:25 PM
Maybe someone/something is using Performance Monitor on the dev server?
/Kenneth
------------
Diane DiGeronimo Deno at 3/10/99 10:18:19 AM
I recently took over my position as DBA here and am still having trouble determining why
and how certain things were done. I have two SQL Servers, one for production and one for
development, both running NT Server with SP3, SS 6.5 with SP5a and Exchange V5.
On my development server, Probe logins in every two minutes for some reason which I have
been unable to determine. It doesn't seem to cause any problem but my error logs and
Application Event Viewer look strange to me. The production server has virtually the same setup
but does not have this problem. Does anyone know why probe would log in every 2 minutes?
