The Live Communications Server service stops responding when you perform a batch presence subscription in Live Communications Server 2005

Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 stops responding. Additionally, and an event that is similar to the following is logged in the Application log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Live Communications User Services
Event Category: (1006)
Event ID: 30903
Date: 7/27/2005
Time: 07:59:02 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Computer Name
Description: The Endpoint expiration stored procedure failed. It will be retried, but if this error continues to occur, the Live Communications Server service will need to be restarted.

Error code: 0x80004005
Cause: Possible issues with backend database.

This problem occurs if all the following conditions are true:

• Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is installed.
• At least two subscribers subscribe to two different publishers by using batch subscriptions.
• All publishers and subscribers are homed on the same server pool.
• The two publishers change their status at the same time.
• The batch subscriptions have a different order across both publishers.

This problem occurs because of a deadlock condition on the back-end Microsoft SQL Server database. When there is a deadlock condition, SQL Server automatically selects one of the set presence calls as the deadlock victim. Then, Live Communications Server retries the operation. Occasionally, the endpoint expiration procedure is also chosen as the deadlock victim. Therefore, the event that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section logged in the Application log.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. Install the SQL Server client tools on the back-end server that is running Live Communications Server.
2. Type the following command at a command prompt on the back-end server that is running Live Communications Server to manually reindex all the tables:
   OSQL.EXE -S local\<instance name> -d rtc -E -Q "exec sp_MSforeachtable 'dbcc dbreindex(''?'')'"

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This hotfix corrects the problem by making sure that the batch subscriptions have the same order across both publishers. To make sure that the batch subscriptions have the same order, the nightly maintenance schedule is used to reindex the BatchSubParent table and the BatchSubChild table of the Live Communications Server database. Because problems may exist in other tables, the command that is mentioned in the "Workaround" section reindexes all tables. This command has been effective in fixing more problems than if only the known affected tables were reindexed.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: