FW: Server problems caused by the application of a Microsoft Secu rity Patch

From: Firstname Lastname (Cote.Marc_at_IC.GC.CA)
Date: 10/29/03

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    Date:         Wed, 29 Oct 2003 16:39:34 -0500
    To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
    
    

    Russ:

           This was forwarded to me by one of our users. I am wondering if
    anyone else has run into any issues with the latest round of security
    patches and SAP.

    Microsoft Security patches cause SAP outage for our Production Instance.

    The application of Patch KB828750 caused us to lose a complete day of
    productivity on Friday 24 Oct on our SAP Production System. This patch
    caused a Shared memory problem on two SAP Application Servers , to the point
    that they could no longer function. The application
    of one or more of Security patches caused problems with driver CPQDAEN.SYS
    which could not be resolved by COMPAQ H/W engineer who was
    called
    in. Two other problems still persist which may or may not be the result of
    the application of the Security patches. One immediate question is whether
    any know problems exist for the patches in question, and whether any
    solution is available. Below is the sequence of events followed on Friday
    Oct 24 and Monday 27 Oct'03.

    1. Windows Security Patches KB828750, KB825119, KB828035, KB826232,
    KB824105, KB823182, KB824141 823559, plus Security Update Feb/13/2002
    (MSXML
    2.6), 816093, 814078, and 823718 (note that the last 4 do NOT SHOW WITHIN
    ADD/REMOVE programs from Control Panel) were applied to ######, #####
    and ##### on morning of Friday 24 Oct 2003, and all 3 systems rebooted.
    These patches had already been in place on
    ##### and #####, since 16
    Oct 2003, with no obvious side effects.

    2. On reboot of ####,#### and ##### we could not logon to SAP
    through the Application Servers APP1/2, but could SAPlogon to
    Central/Database Instance on #### host. Having logged to ##### we
    could not "see" #### or #####. We examined the Windows 2000 event log.
    An error was found in the Event log, stating that the device associated
    with
    SCSI device driver CPQDAEN.SYS had failed to initialize.
    Removing 8 of the applied patches on #####(those that could be removed)
    did not resolve the problem. Assuming we had a potential H/W problem, a
    call
    was place to COMPAQ A debate then ensued
    as to whether this should be treated as a H/W or S/W problem, a critical
    issue since the contract is for H/W. COMPAQ agreed to accept the call as a
    H/W issue. The COMPAQ Engineer arrived at 14:12 PM. The Engineer discovered
    an anomaly when viewing the configured Array controllers (slots 10 4250ES,
    and 11 5300) from Windows using the COMPAQ Array Configurator Tool - only
    one of the two could be seen. Both slots were visible when using the same
    Tool off-line, loaded in memory from a COMPAQ Support CDROM. Replacing
    slot
    11 Controller (5300) for the external shelf, upgrading the Windows Tool and
    associated Drivers had no effect. The Engineer concluded that the problem
    lay with Windows, in all probability, and had done all he could do, and
    left
    between 6 and 7:00PM. The CPQDAEN.SYS driver was disabled, since it seemed
    to be associated only with the COMPAQ Event Notifyer, which seem to be
    reporting a "missing" controller that was in reality present.

    3. Attention was then diverted to the Application Servers #### and
    #####, on which SAP was reporting severe shared memory problems. It had
    been assumed initially that the cause could have access failure to the
    configuration files located on ##### because of problem reported above.
    The first 8 patches listed in Step 1 were removed from both Application
    Servers, and the shared memory problem cleared at once when the program
    associated with Patch KB828750 had been removed - "October 2003, Cumulative
    Patch for Internet Explorer 5.01 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4". The same
    patch was also
    Removed from #####.

    At this point in time ALL the Security patches listed in Step 1 were still
    in effect on #####, with the exception of KN828750. None of the
    removable
    8 were in place on ######.

    5. Two other errors were discovered on Monday Oct 27, which may or may not
    be related to the patch application effort. ##### cannot connect to
    ##### through /oss1 transaction, but #### and #### can. The
    second
    problem relates to the failure of the CALL SYSTEM function with ABAP
    programs called on SAPPRD01 through /se38. The CALL is the interface to
    Windows DOS commands, FTP scripts, etc. The same programs WORK when invoked
    from SAPPRA1/2 using /se38.

     6. All the remaining 8 removable patches listed in Step 1 were removed
    from
    SAP CI/database Server ##### on Monday 27 October at 19:30 PM, but the 2
    problems identified in Step 5 remain. These two problems have been reported
     to SAP, but as of yet no response has been received.

    Marc Cote
    Systems Manager

    -----
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    -----


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