KB316184: MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 10.0 -10.3 fails to start on Windows Operating Systems with the error: "Could not establish communication with the other process"

SYMPTOM
Strategy Intelligence Server 10.0 - 10.3 running on a Windows operating system may fail to start. The DSSErrors.log may contain error entries similar to the following, or may contain no log entries at all from the startup attempt:

Error type: System call error. Could not establish communication with the other process.

 
Additional examples from various scenarios:

[MultiProcess][Error] Could not establish communication with the other process 
[Database Classes][Error] Connection::Connect failed. Unable to connect. 

[MSql][Error][0x80041404] Database error <1>: Connection::Connect failed. Unable to connect. 
Error type: System call error. Could not establish communication with the other process. 

 

QueryEngine encountered error: Connection::Connect failed. Unable to connect. Error type: System call error. Could not establish communication with the other process. Connection String: DSN=dsnname;UID=;.. Error in Process method of Component: QueryEngineServer, Project projectname, Job 33137, Error Code= -2147212544.

 
The behavior occurs most often immediately after the Strategy Intelligence Server host machine has been restarted.
This same error can also be seen in relation to other Strategy processes such as connecting to a database (during Statistics logging or Distribution Services subscription execution) or writing files to disk even while the Strategy Intelligence Server is running.  Though the symptoms are different, the underlying cause is the same.
 
CAUSE
This behavior is caused by a known defect in Strategy Secure Enterprise 10.0 - 10.3 related to how new processes are spawned in a Windows environment.   Depending on the process IDs of other processes that are running on the system, sometimes new processes will get stuck in an infinite loop and fail to spawn correctly.   Any time a Strategy process is spawned (e.g., starting the Intelligence Server, creating database connections, etc.) there is a chance that the issue will occur.
 
ACTION
This issue has been resolved in Strategy version 10.4 and above.  Upgrade to the newer version to take advantage of this fix.
 
WORKAROUND
When the issue is occurring, restarting the Strategy Intelligence Server host machine may resolve it by causing all running processes to get new process IDs.  Sometimes it might be necessary to restart the machine more than once for the workaround to be successful.