Squarebox

Slow Database Startup

Question

The CatDV server won’t start up, the control panel says “waiting for database”. Then, when I try to start it again it says port 1099 is already in use.

Answer

When the server starts up it normally performs housekeeping to free up unused space from the database and delete old clips from the recycle bin. If housekeeping hasn’t been run for a while it can take a few minutes to complete (or longer, on very large databases). You should leave this to complete. If you try to start the server again while it’s still busy running housekeeping the second copy will fail because the port that the CatDV server uses is already being used.

You can enable or disable automatic housekeeping via the Server Config page of the server control panel. If housekeeping is taking too long to complete and you need to restart the server immediately, first disable housekeeping via the control panel. Then, you need to kill the existing CatDV server process that is trying to start up. You can do this using Active Monitor or Terminal on the Mac or Task Manager or Windows (or as a last resort by restarting the whole machine, though it’s better to use one of the other techniques if you can).

If you disable automatic housekeeping, please remember to run housekeeping occasionally (at convenient points when the system isn’t being used, for example before going home for the evening) from the Tools menu of the control panel.

Last updated – August 2012