DCOM error 0x800706be (RPC_S_CALL_FAILED) after idle time.

[Numinel]

This is not specific to Windows Server.
The set-up we have: Windows 2008 Server as server and Windows Xp/Vista as workstations.

DCOM interfaces are opened between the workstations and the server.
If a workstation is left in idle mode for some time (say 30min) then the DCOM calls will fail with 0x800706be. The interfaces are then re-opened but this will take a few minutes.

If we set-up a timer procedure that will call a dummy function through DCOM once per minute then the DCOM interface will not die if the workstations are left in idle mode.

I thought DCOM initernally did this kind of "keep alive ping".

We also have similar setups in other places where this problem does not occur.

All power-save functions are supposed to be off but it still seems that something is cleaning up idle interfaces.

So...is there a setting in Windows (registry?) that may cause the above problem with dead interfaces?

[martinkj]

I have exactly same problem. Have also tried to fix it by constant pinging and reopening of the interface whenever the ping fails. The reopening can take a minute or two and even then it fails with RPC_S_CALL_FAILED sometimes. A retry just a few seconds later succeeds.

Have you found any solution yet?

I'm at the point where I'm going to start sniffing on Ethernet to see if there is something fishy. Maybe this is all ecause of packet loss...

[EINSTEIN_007]

Have you tried running DCOMCNFG and click the Default Properties tab. Confirm that the Default Authentication Level is set to at least Connect. Also confirm that the Default Impersonation Level is not set to Anonymous. Also look here, 0x800706BE RPC_S_CALL_FAILED (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950718/).

[Numinel]

The default authentication/impersonation level is set to none/impersonate.
The reason we use impersonate is that local accounts won't work otherwise (permision denied even though we give full rights to everyone and anonymous logon).
If we only use domain accounts it works fine with the defaults (i.e. connect/identify).

This issue though is something else since it only occurs if interfaces are left idle for 30min or more.