Entry SQL Mail - exit the decimals
Erland Sommarskog
despite I have seen it myself, I find it difficult to believe in it.
Our sysadmin wanted to install SQL Mail at a customer site. Initially
he couldn't get it work, because they are running a cluster. But he
found that if he installed Outlook rather than Exchange, he got it
working. So in the late afternoon of today, he did precisely that.
Whereupon SQL Server started to throw the decimals away. If we
said INSERT some_tbl(..., floatcol) VALUES (..., 8.34), a SELECT
on the same column would return 8.0, not 8.34. We are talking a
financial system here, so this not a funny side effect, but a
business-critical problem. We didn't track it down in detail, but
inserting a value like sqrt(2) worked OK. It appears that the
problem appeared when the float values were input to SQL Server
from some client. (But I think 7.35*10 came back as 73.0.)
The problem occurred both with ODBC cliens and DB-lib clients.
Stopping SQL Mailing fixed the problem immediately, no reboot or
recycling of the server involved. (As neither there had been when
SQL Mail was started.)
We have performed no further experiments to see under which conditions
the problem arises. I guess we should, but we are quite pressed
with another things, as the system went live just two weeks ago,
so debugging services for Microsoft is not #1 priority. I have a
feeling though, that the Swedish settings with comma as the
decimal delimiter may be part of the plot.
In any case, this error is just too serious to be permissible.
We're talking SQL Server 6.5SP5a, NT Server 4 SP4 (I suppose).
I don't which version of Outlook that was involved.
--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, som...@algonet.se
This could have been my two cents worth, but alas the Swedish
government has decided that I am not to have any cents.
Neil Pike
This is very weird - maybe Outlook change the regional settings on the server?
But this is definitely one that you should raise a case with Microsoft PSS for.
Neil Pike MVP/MCSE. Protech Computing Ltd
(Please post ALL replies to the newsgroup only unless indicated otherwise)
For SQL FAQ entries see
http://go.compuserve.com/sqlserver (library 1) - latest stuff is always here
www.ntfaq.com/sql.html
http://www.swynk.com/faq/sql/sqlserverfaq.asp
Erland Sommarskog
> This is very weird - maybe Outlook change the regional settings on the
> server?
>But this is definitely one that you should raise a case with Microsoft PSS
>for.
Well, the regional settings are the same all the time, and MS
SQL Server shouldn't look at them in this case.
Yes, we have opened a case with Microsoft, but they seem to be
confused themselves. It's not me who has been talking with them
though.
My sysadmin told me that he had made a few experiments. He said that
if you configure SQL Mail while the server is down and then reboot,
the problem does not occur. But if you turn on SQL Mail while the
server is running, the problem appear immediately. Also, if I
understood him right, if you turn on SQL Mail while the server
is running, and then reboot, the problem perists.
MS had suggested that one certain DLL should be at fault, but my
colleague played with that one, without any improvements.
Neil Pike
Have they managed to repro it internally yet?
lian xu
Our LAN group setup a mail account in Ms exchange server for me. I'm trying to use
its profile name in SQL Mail, but never successfully test it. What could be wrong?
Thanks for any help in advance,
Lian
Neil Pike
> How could I setup a MAPI profile for SQL mail?
Q. How do I install SQL Mail? I've got problems installing SQL Mail on SQL Server.
(v1.0 22.10.1998)
A. First read the manual - SQL provides a very good, searchable, books-online.
After that go to www.microsoft.com/support and check out the following SQL Mail
knowledgebase articles :-
Q118501 for MS-Mail post-offices
Q153159 for Exchange post-offices
Any other problems then do a search for "SQLMAIL" and you'll find other more
specific articles.