A fatal error occurred while reading the input stream from the network. The session will be terminated.

Applies to: Microsoft SQL Server 2005.


Error Message.

We receive this error when the network load on the server is high. This error shows itself intermittently.


    Event Type: Error
    Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
    Event Category: (2)
    Event ID: 4014
    Date: 10/22/2007
    Time: 12:18:57 PM
    User: DOMAIN\user
    Computer: SQLSVR
    Description:
    A fatal error occurred while reading the input stream from the network. The session will be terminated.
 

Cause.

The problem occurs because the TCP Chimney is enabled on the Windows Server 2003 SP2 where the instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise is running. This functionality is part of the Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack which is embedded on Windows Server 2003 SP2.

The network card we are using is the Hewlett-Packard NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter, with the Broadcom 5708 chipset inside, which is well known to be related to network issues when TCP Chimney is enabled.


Solution.

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article 942861 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942861) ask for updates for the following:

        - The latest basic input/output system (BIOS) update for the server
        - The latest firmware update for the network adapter
        - The latest driver update for the network adapter

Our hardware vendor didn't have the updates, so we chose the workaround that the article suggests.

Also the SQL Programmability & API Development Team blog suggest to disable SynAttackProtect.  Please visit the following link and follow instructions:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlprogrammability/

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