sysprocesses displays wrong Network Address -- sql server odbc

Len Cardinal
4/20/2004 2:58:12 PM

In SQL EM's Current Activitiy window, the Network Address of TCP/IP
connections shows the wrong MAC address for client machines.

The MAC shown is often one for a different ethernet port than the one that
SQL traffic is going over.

Any idea on why this is happening? Machines are multi-homed. The MAC
address being shown is for an integrated on-board ethernet port, whereas the
MAC of the NIC being used for SQL connections is an added PCI NIC. I am
guessing that ODBC provides the client address, and is simply reading the
MAC of the "first" network device on the machine, which is the built-in
device.

Len Cardinal
4/20/2004 11:15:19 PM

I found the answer to this. The ODBC client sends the MAC address of the
first available NIC on the client machine. SEM simply displays whatever
address ODBC sends it. If the client machine is multi-homed, the MAC may
not be the one that is expected.

In the situation I encountered, the "client" was an APp server, which had
more than one NIC - one for app<-> DB traffic, and one for systems
management (tape backup). SEM was showing the MAC address of the NIC used
for tape backup. This led folks to incorrectly conclude that the
environment routing was messed up, and other issues were being blamed on
this. Understanding what SEM is showing cleared up the misperception.

[quoted text, click to view]

sql server odbc : sysprocesses displays wrong Network Address