Troubleshooting SR DAL connectivity

This support note applies to:

AE Tax (NZ)
AE Tax Series 6 & 8 (AU)
AE Tax (AU)

These instructions require technical expertise

Make sure you know what you're doing and are using one of the products listed. If you're not sure, ask your IT professional or MYOB.

Article ID: 34866

In MYOB Accountants Enterprise (AE) and Accountants Office (AO) you may experience the errors relating to System Release (SR) Data Access Layer (DAL) connectivity on your server, standalone or workstation.

To resolve SR DAL errors you first need identify whether the issue is on the workstations only and/or the server or standalone itself.

To resolve these issues refer to one of the following procedures:

On a server or standalone

1. Check the SR DAL service is installed and running

Click Start, type services.msc in the Search programs and files field and press ENTER.The Services window opens.
Review the status for the service System Release DAL. If it is not currently running right-click on it and select Start.

If the service doesn't appear at all in the services list, you'll need to Error: "System Release DAL - The server is not installed".

2. Check SR DAL is configured correctly

Right-click on the Windows Start menu and click Control Panel. The Control Panel opens.
Double-click System Release DAL then click the Configuration tab. The tab details appear.
Check SQL server to host databases field has the correct instance name.

3. Check that port 6606 is listening

Click Start, type cmd in Search programs and files and press ENTER. The Command Prompt window opens.
Type netstat -aon -p TCP and press ENTER. The information appears in the window.
Check for the following entry: TCP 0.0.0.0:6606 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING (PID)

PID is the process ID

If it is not listening you may need to reinstall SR DAL. If it appears to be listening you need to check the Process ID (PID) as listed in netstat against Task Manager > Processes tab > View > Select Columns > PID to ensure its being used by the SR DAL and not another rogue process.

4. Ping the server name

Click Start, type cmd in Search programs and files field and press ENTER. The Command Prompt window opens.
Type ping SERVERNAME and press ENTER then note the IP address where the servername is your servers actual name. The information appears in the Command Prompt window.

Repeat this process on the workstation and confirm it's the same IP address especially if workstations are fine. The issue may reside with DNS picking up the wrong IP address especially if the server has multiple network interface devices for example wireless and LAN connection to the workstations. One of these devices might need to be disabled advise IT to investigate further if this is the case.

5. Check that SQL Server and SQL Native Client drivers exists

Follow the menu path: START > Control Panel > Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools window opens.
Double-click Data Sources (ODBC) and review the list.

If it doesn't exist it indicates an issue with Windows DAC in Vista/Windows 7/Server 2008. Please speak your IT consultant to repair this feature.

6. Reinstall SR DAL

If all of the above is correct, uninstall SR DAL via Control Panel then reinstall SR DAL from the current tax release self-extracting installer using the installation guide.

If the issue still occurs, debug SR DAL by following Debug System Release DAL

On a workstation environment

1. Create firewall exceptions

Please have your IT consultant create an exception on your servers inbound firewall rules for TCP port 6606.

2. Check server IP address

On the server running SR DAL:

Click Start, type cmd in Search programs and files field and press ENTER. The Command Prompt window opens.
Then type ipconfig and press ENTER. The Server IP address appears.

Take note of the IP address for the server.

3. Ping the server from the affected workstation/

Click Start, type cmd in Search programs and files field and press ENTER. The Command Prompt window opens.
Type ping SERVERNAME and press ENTER. The details appear on the Command Prompt window.

where SERVERNAME is the name of your server.

If the IP address differs the workstation cannot communicate with SR DAL. Please refer to your IT consultant to either fix DNS or edit the Windows HOST file.

If the issue is only occuring on one workstation, try opening a non-SQL SOL63 tax ledger you may find instead you get the error "Your licence file is not valid for this computer" refer to Error: "Your licence file is not valid for this computer" or "License file invalid". Please contact MYOB support". This also indicates an issue with DNS and the ping result will show this.