When MicroStation is launched from ProjectWise in the context of Managed Workspaces (Worksets) attempts to connect to a database via the MicroStation non-graphical database interface may fail.
Common expressions of the failure are, but not limited to:
Inability to Browse for Data Source from within the Connect to Database dialog:
An unresponsive DB= statement:
Under normal operation, when the connection type is set we should see the message: Database: NONE
After setting the connection type and executing a DB= command, we should likewise see Database: NONE (if invalid), or the connection details, or the next step in the connection process (e.g. password dialog).
A failing session will likely display:
Illegal type in MS_LINKTYPE
and
Database server is not active
Failures expressed as above are an indicator that dbconmgr is unable to locate the requisite configuration variables.
During normal operation, definition of these variables occurs when the connection type is set.
e.g.
dbconmgr odbc (loads values from odbc.cfg) dbconmgr oracle (loads values from oracle.cfg)
before database connection type is set, variables are undefined :
and e.g. after executing dbconmgr odbc :
In a default desktop MicroStation installation, these configuration files are defined by the variable:
_USTN_DATABASE
Directory containing MicroStation database configuration files. (_USTN_DATABASE)
as
$(MSDIR)config\database\
* To check for the variable definition within a session of MicroStation, _USTN_DISPLAYALLCFGVARS must be set to 1
If set, all configuration variables (including those of the format _USTN_xxx) will be displayed. (_USTN_DISPLAYALLCFGVARS)
If your Managed Workspace session of MicroStation is missing the _USTN_DATABASE definition and failing to connect, you will need to account for the variable within your Managed Workspace: