Quick guide to Advantage Errors
Advantage 6420 Solution
Summary:
An Advantage 6420 error occurs when the client application is unable to connect to the Advantage service on the server. Advantage will normally use a discovery process to connect. The Advantage ADS.INI file was developed as a solution for when there are problems with the discovery process.
This solution assumes the use of Advantage 7.x or 8.x and that Windows operating systems are being used on the client and the server.
1. Ensure that the Advantage service is running.
2. Use an ADS.INI file.
a. Configure a port for Advantage on the server computer.
b. Find out the server computer’s name.
c. Find out the server computer’s IP address.
d. Ping the server computer IP address from the client computer.
e. Create an ADS.INI file.
f. Ensure visibility of the ADS.INI to the client application.
3. Ensure that the data folder is shared. This may be a security risk - if you are not sure, do not share your data folder, but share a dummy folder with no real data in it.
4. Validate that UDP communication is occurring on the port configured for Advantage. If UDP is blocked, check all potential sources of blocked UDP communication on the port configured for Advantage.
5. Troubleshoot with the Advantage Data Architect (ARC) using an ADS.INI in the ARC folder. Once ARC has successfully connected, connect with the client application in the same way.
6. If there appears to be a network communication problem, generate an ADSCOM.TXT file, which can be used to diagnose communication problems.
7. Investigate mapped drives if it is indicated to be a possible factor.
8. On server machines with more than one IP address, it may be desired to force the Advantage Database Server to use a specific address. This is done by changing a registry setting.
9. With either domestic or international versions of Advantage, ensure that the Advantage license is not an evaluation license that has expired. With international versions, ensure that the registration period has not expired.
Detailed Walk Through:
Complete each step below. After each step, attempt to run the application.
1. Ensure that the Advantage service is running.
Click Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Find the service with the name Advantage Database Server and check that its Status is Started.
2. Use an ADS.INI file.
a. Configure a port for Advantage on the server computer.
Configure the port on the server using the Advantage Configuration Utility - Configuration Utility tab - Communications tab - IP Port setting (in 7.x) and LAN Port setting (in 8.x). If you don’t have a specific port to set it to, we recommend that you set the port to 2000. This will be the configured_port referenced below.
Disregard the Internet Port setting, as in nearly all cases it can be left at 0.
The Advantage Configuration Utility is located by default for ADS 7.x at C:\Program Files\Extended Systems\Advantage\Server\ads_cfg.exe and for ADS 8.x at C:\Program Files\Extended Systems\Advantage 8.0\Server\ads_cfg.exe.
b. Find out the server computer’s name.
On the server computer, click on Start - right click on My Computer - select Properties - click on the Computer Name tab. In the “Full computer name” will be the server computer’s name. This will be yourServerName referenced below.
c. Find out the server computer’s IP address.
On the server computer, click Start - click Run - type “cmd” in the popup and then press the enter key. This brings up a command window. At the prompt, type “ipconfig” without the quotes. Look for the line of text beginning with “IP Address. . .”. The IP Address will be at the end of this line. This will be the pingable_IP_Address referenced below.
d. Ping the server computer IP address from the client computer.
On the client computer, click Start - click Run - type “cmd” in the popup and then press the enter key. This brings up a command window. At the prompt, type “ping pingable_IP_Address” without the quotes and where pingable_IP_Address is the IP address of the server.
e. Create an ADS.INI file.
Using Notepad (Start - All Programs - Accessories - Notepad), create a file named ADS.INI that contains the following:
[yourServerName]
LAN_IP= pingable_IP_Address
LAN_PORT=configured_port
All three pieces of information in the ADS.INI (yourServerName, pingable_IP_Address, and configured_port) must be valid.
The connection string that is used in your app needs to connect via yourServerName in order for the IP and port specified under yourServerName in the ADS.INI to be used.
f. Ensure visibility of the ADS.INI to the client application.
1. For the ADS.INI to be visible to Advantage, it must be located in one of the following folders. We recommend that it be placed in the application folder.
a. The application folder (for example, if you are troubleshooting with ARC, put it in the ARC folder).
b. The Windows directory folder.
c. The Windows System folder.
d. It may also be located in any folder in the client’s PATH.
To view and edit the filepaths in the PATH, click on Start - Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Environment Variables button - select PATH under System Variables - Edit.
2. Ensure that there is only one ADS.INI file on the computer.
Click on Start – Search and follow prompts to initiate a file search for files named ADS.INI. Rename or delete all superfluous ADS.INI files.
3. Ensure that the data folder is shared if using Advantage check rights.
Advantage check rights will check the operating system to see if the user on the client computer has rights to the data files that they are attempting to access. It is recommended that the data folder be shared at this point in order to facilitate the Advantage client connection with the Advantage server; however, please be reminded to reset the sharing of the folder to the desired configuration so as to maintain the level of security needed.
SECURITY WARNING: The following steps open the data folder wide open for access on your network and potentially beyond if the network is not properly protected. If you are not sure how this will affect the security of your data folder, do NOT proceed. Instead, create and use a dummy folder that does not contain any real data.
In order to share the folder on the server computer that contains the Advantage data (tables and Data Dictionaries), which we will called the sharedDataFolder, from the server computer browse to the sharedDataFolder, right click on the folder – select Properties – click on the Sharing tab – check the Share This Folder radio button.
It is also required that the proper users are added and that they have the correct permissions. After enabling sharing, from the sharedDataFolder Properties - Sharing tab, click on the Permissions button - click the Add button - click the Advanced button - click the Find Now button - in the scroll box select Everyone and click the OK button - click the OK button again in the “Select Users or Groups” popup - in the “Permissions for sharedDataFolder” window, select Everyone in the “Group or user names” pane, and then click the Full Control checkbox in the Permissions for Everyone pane - click OK - and then click OK in the “sharedDataFolder Properties” window.
4. Validate that UDP communication is occurring on the port configured for Advantage.
To ensure that UDP communication is occurring from the client to the server on the configured port for Advantage, use our UDP Test Utility at
– Tools – UDP Test Utility. It is a simple Windows executable and comes with a README.TXT that explains its use. It needs to be installed on both the client and server computers. UDP communication needs to happen from the client to the server with the client hosting and sending the test string and the server listening and receiving the test string.
If UDP communication is blocked on the configured port, whatever is blocking it must be changed in order to allow UDP communication on that port. The 6420 error will not be able to be resolved without UDP communication occurring on the configured port.
Check all potential sources of blocked UDP communication on the port configured for Advantage. This includes all the hardware and software that are connecting the client and the server. One of many things that can block UDP communication on a port is a firewall; this includes Windows Firewall which is installed by default with Windows XP SP 2. If this is the case, the firewall router logs will indicate the Advantage packets that are being filtered. Configure the firewall to allow UDP packets through the configured port for Advantage.
To configure Windows Firewall, click Start - Control Panel - Windows Firewall - Exceptions tab. In the Programs and Services list, ads.exe should be listed. Ensure that the checkbox next to it is checked; this will stop Windows Firewall from blocking Advantage. Additionally, the application that is using Advantage may also have to be added to the exceptions list. Other options will be to click the Add Program or Add Port buttons in order to ensure that ads.exe, the application, or the configured_port for Advantage is not being blocked by Windows Firewall. You may want to check with whoever either set up your network or is in charge of your network for their preferences in regards to this.
5. Troubleshoot with the Advantage Data Architect (ARC) using an ADS.INI in the ARC folder.
The Advantage Data Architect is available for download at the following links.
Advantage Data Architect 7.0 -
Advantage Data Architect 7.1 -
Advantage Data Architect 8.0 -
Install ARC on the same computer that the client application is installed on. It will by default install to C:\Program Files\Extended Systems\Advantage\ARC for Advantage 7.x and C:\Program Files\Extended Systems\Advantage 8.0\ARC for Advantage 8.x.
Important note: Make sure the ADS.INI file with the verifiably correct information is in the ARC folder.
Here are some ways to troubleshoot.
a. Open to open a table through the File pulldown menu – Open table – choose Path radio button – browse to Path – browse to File – ensure that only the Server Type – Remote checkbox is checked.
b. Open a Data Dictionary through the Database pulldown menu – Open Database – choose options and browse to database. Again, make sure that only the Remote server checkbox is checked (uncheck the Local and AIS checkboxes).
c. Connect through a connection string through the Tools pulldown menu - Advantage Management Utility. The Advantage Management Utility is called Advantage Database Server Management in ARC 7.x and Remote Server Info in ARC 8.x. Enter one of the following in the Server Drive text field.
\\yourServerName\sharedDataFolder
\\pingable_IP_Address:configured_port\sharedDataFolder
yourServerName must be used in the connection string given to ARC in order for the information in the ADS.INI to be used.
Using the pingable_IP_Address:configured_port will bypass using the ADS.INI and will attempt to connect directly.
You may also try to connect using \\ pingable_IP_Address:configured_port \C$. This will use C$ (which references the root of the C drive as the shared folder and is by default properly shared on many operating systems).
d. If you are able to connect using the \\pingable_IP_Address:configured_port\sharedDataFolder connection string, the ADS.INI may need to be changed to be as shown below. This is because the connection string in the application appears to be using the pingable_IP_address instead of yourServerName.
[pingable_IP_address]
LAN_IP=pingable_IP_address
LAN_PORT=configured_port
e. Once ARC has successfully connected, connect with the client application in the same way.
6. Generate an ADSCOM.TXT file, which can be used to diagnose network communication issues, as there may be a network communication problem.
a. Add the following section to the ADS.INI file in the ARC folder.
[Settings]
COMMCALLTRACE=1
b. Launch ARC from same folder.
c. Select the Tools pulldown menu - Environment Check Utility. In the “Connection Path” field, enter one the following connection string.
\\yourServerName\sharedDataFolder
\\pingable_IP_Address:configured_port\sharedDataFolder
d. The ADSCOM.TXT file will be created in the ARC folder.
e. Send this file to Advantage Technical Services along with the connection string that you used when creating it. We also encourage you to look this file over yourself.
7. Investigate mapped drives if it is indicated to be a possible factor.
Please note that how the ADS.INI interprets yourServerName in conjunction with mapped drives when mapped drive letters are used in the connection string may also be a factor. How drives are mapped should be considered a factor if a successful connection has been made through ARC using either the \\yourServerName\sharedDataFolder or \\pingable_IP_Address:configured_port\sharedDataFolder connection string, but you are unable to connect through the mapped drive.
Either edit the mapped drive, or delete the map drive and remap it.
8. On server machines with more than one IP address, i.e. dual homed servers, it may be desired to force the Advantage Database Server to use a specific IP address. This is done by changing a registry setting.
a. From the server computer that is running the Advantage service, click Start – Run – and then type “regedit” and hit enter.
b. Using the folder nodes on the left of the Registry Editor screen, navigate to \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Advantage\Configuration\ .
c. Right-click on the right side of the screen and select “New”. Select “String Value”.
d. For the Name type LAN_IP_ADDRESS.
e. Right-click on the new entry LAN_IP_ADDRESS and select “Modify”. Enter into the “Value Data” text field the IP address to be used for the server computer. This must be a valid IP address for the server; for example, the IP address that comes up when running ipconfig from a command prompt.
9. With either domestic or international versions of Advantage, ensure that the Advantage license is not an evaluation license that has expired. With international versions, ensure that the registration period has not expired.
Notes for Netware:
If using Netware, the LAN_PORT will have to be configured through the ads.cfg file on the server side to match the LAN_PORT setting in the ADS.INI on the client side in order for the ADS.INI to resolve the 6420. Also, they must be running IP on the server if the server and client(s) are on different networks, as IPX is non-routable.
Notes for Linux:
If using Netware, the LAN_PORT will have to be configured through the ads.conf file on the server side to match the LAN_PORT setting in the ADS.INI on the client side in order for the ADS.INI to resolve the 6420. Also, they must be running IP on the server if the server and client(s) are on different networks, as IPX is non-routable.
Additional Sources of Help:
Some Advantage Help topics that contain information on this topic are:
• Ads.ini File Support
• Alias Configuration Utility
• Database Aliases and the ads.ini File
• LAN IP Address
You may also want to read the following Advantage Help – Index topics, each of which contain numerous articles on their subjects:
Troubleshooting and Technical Support – Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting and Technical Support – Networking Issues
Troubleshooting and Technical Support – Networking Issues - Advantage Database Server Discovery
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