| Previous | Next |
| RPC_X_SS_IN_NULL_CONTEXT | RPC_X_SS_HANDLES_MISMATCH |
RPC_X_SS_CONTEXT_DAMAGED
What a damaged context handle indicates
RPC_X_SS_CONTEXT_DAMAGED is a consistency failure involving state that an RPC server retains across calls. The runtime detected that a context handle changed while the remote procedure call was in progress. This is different from a normal application response saying that a requested object was not found: the client and stub can no longer safely rely on the context token that was used for the call.
Context handles are opaque to the client and are valid for one server. Their associated server-side data is not transmitted as ordinary application data. A failure here therefore warrants investigation of the call lifecycle, server restart or failover behavior, and any wrapper that caches or copies the handle.
Conditions worth checking
- A worker destroyed or replaced the server context while another call still used it.
- A reconnect, load-balancer change, or server restart made a formerly valid handle refer to a different server address space.
- Concurrent client code shares one context handle without the synchronization required by the interface.
- Custom proxy or marshaling code changed the handle representation or mixed incompatible generated stubs.
Recovery and diagnosis
- Treat the active context as lost; release local state associated with it and acquire a new handle through the service's creation method.
- Record the interface UUID, procedure number, endpoint or binding, server instance identity, and timestamps for open, use, close, and reconnect events.
- Review context-handle rundown and shutdown paths on the server. A retry is only meaningful after reconstructing the application session.
References
Microsoft: context-handle lifecycle and restrictions · The Open Group: DCE RPC IDL context handles · Microsoft: RPC return values
Looking for a different code? Search another status or error code.