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We have a piece of ERP software installed on a server 2012 machine, we'll call this Server 1. It hosts the ERP software and a number of other things.

We have an old, semi-retired server that I will called Server 2. This machine runs server 2008, and used to host the company's old ERP software.

If we turn off Server 2, no one can print or preview the crystal reports in the ERP software on Server 1. Every other aspect of the program works. Every other program in the building works and prints correctly. But this one does not. If you click 'Print' or 'Preview' anywhere in the program, nothing will happen. If you try it again, the program will crash. This behavior is repeatable every time. If we turn Server 2 back on, all printing works as normal again.

-Server 2 has Crystal, SQL server, and the old ERP software on it. It also has the 'Application Server", "File Services" and "Web Server (IIS)" roles.

The Application Server only has .NET framwork 3.5.1 installed.

The File Services just has the File Server service installed.

The Web Server has the Web Server and Common HTTP services installed.

-Server 1 has Crystal, SQL Server, and the new ERP software. It has all of the mentioned services and roles from above, and then some.

We installed this new server and new ERP software nearly a year ago, and Server 2 has sat around as an archive of sorts. Now we want to actually turn it off and get rid of it, but can't because of this issue. We tried to get the tech team of the ERP software involved, but they are baffled. They are convinced it has something to do with the old SQL server, but can't figure out what is going on. It's almost like the new server is looking at the old SQL server or something, but I have looked everywhere, and there are no references that I can see.

The reports don't have any defined printers in them, either. The ERP company also scoured the software itself to make sure there were no defined printers in it. As a test, I made custom reports that had both defined and undefined printers and they were still affected by the problem.

Also of note: Our network does not have any defined print servers.

DRSShawn
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1 Answers1

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I don't have any specific advice, but I'd start by trying to narrow down the possible causes.
Stop one service at a time on server2 and see when the problem appears.

If SQL Server turns out to be the culprit, use its own monitoring tools to see what exactly is connecting to it, which database is using and the queries it's running.

If the problem is caused by IIS, look at its logs.

If the problem is in file or print sharing, examine the active connections to network shares.

And so on...

Massimo
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