I have a MS Access 97 database that resides on an SQL server running Linux. ODBC is used to connect the database. When a user attempts to login to the database, the error #3151 is generated, stating that the connection had failed. The server itself seems fine...we did a soft and hard boot and it appeared to start normally both times. There is traffic from the server into the hub according to the indicator lights.

My co-worker and I admittedly do not know nearly enough about Linux. The server was set up by a former employee and his replacement is in Florida on vacation. The database being down is seriously affecting productivity. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! We are just not sure where to go from here or what to try.

Brian Yost

My suggestion ... hire more than 1 Linux sysadmin (or no more vacations)

I need more info to be able to help you ...

You say they connect to a MS access 97 database that runs on a Linux SQL server ... and that they connect via ODBC

SO .. Is the Access 97 database actaully on the server and you are running it from a windows machine via a network share (like samba) ...

OR ... Is the Access mdb file really on another machine (like windows) and running there ... and maybe connecting to the SQL server via linked tables.

If you are using MS Access as a front end for a SQL database, what kind of database holds the data? (oracle, MySQL, PostGreSQL, etc.)

(I use MS Access to create reports from an enterprise Oracle database ...)

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I am not sure why the Linux system is there in the first place...this is the only instance that it is being used...and nobody seems to know much about it!

After some more clarification, it appears we have a PostGreSQL database that uses an Access front end. The file is actually on the server and is run by windows machines via the network.

The other glitch to throw into all this is that there appears to have been a power surge a day before this all happened. The building's elevator motor, the hard drive in the copier and another server all were fried. Since this Linux server appears to be generating traffic, I am suspicious of the rest of the hardware between the server and the workstations.

If the database itself were corrupt, would we be seeing a connection error like this? I am unsure if the database was open at the time of this power surge...maybe the server went down in the middle of an operation?

Thanks for your assistance.