Where does it crash? How does it crash? What is the input/output? Does the presence of the database have any bearing? What is the minimal script that still exhibits the behaviour but is shorter than 20 lines?

By answering these questions, you can help us to help you better. We have little to no knowledge of your existing program and if you provide information in a way that's easy to digest it makes it much likelier that we can look at your problem successfully.

Here is some example code. Unless you have a Cisco controller, you can't actually run this and get meaningful output. The script completes, but the output to the various logs is all wrong. I think I need to find a way to wait for the prompt again so that it slows things down. I think the script is happening too quickly, the log inputs/outputs are getting created before the first subroutine has ended and the output for sub get_ap_summary shows up in the output log for show_inventory. The prompt is '(Cisco Controller) >', and I thought I set that in the properties of the session object, but perhaps the regex doesn't match? I thought if I changed the prompt in the session object that it would always wait (IOW, I thought the default setting is 'always wait for prompt').

#!c:/perl/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Net::Telnet::Cisco;
use DBI;
use DBD::mysql;
use Env;
use File::Path;
use File::Basename;
use IO::Handle;
use Config::IniFiles;
use Term::ReadKey;

######################################################################
+##################################
# Global Variables ###################################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################
my $username = "admin";
my $password = "admin";
my $host = "172.16.0.2";
my @output;
my $input_log;
my $output_log;
my $directory = "c:/perl/bin/test/";
#Check for the presence of the log file directory.  If not there, crea
+te it
eval {
    mkpath($directory);
    if ($@) {
        print "Couldn't create path: $@";
    }
    else {
        mkpath($directory);
    }
};
######################################################################
+##################################
# Global Variables ###################################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################

######################################################################
+##################################
# Controller Connection ##############################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################
system "cls";
print "Connecting to controller ...\n";
my $session = Net::Telnet::Cisco->new(
        Host => $host,
        Prompt => '/\(Cisco Controller\)/',
        Errmode => 'return',
        Timeout => 5);

$session->open($host);

# Wait for the username prompt and enter username
$session->waitfor('/^User:.*$/');
$session->print($username);

# Wait for the password prompt and enter password
$session->waitfor('/^Password:.*$/');
$session->print($password);

$session->cmd("config paging disable");
######################################################################
+##################################
# Controller Connection ##############################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################

get_ap_summary();
show_run();
show_inventory();
cleanup();
exit();

######################################################################
+##################################
# Subroutines ########################################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################
sub get_ap_summary {
    print "\nGetting AP Summary ...\n";
    #my @output;
    $input_log  = $directory . $host . "_get_ap_summary_in.log";
    $output_log = $directory . $host . "_get_ap_summary_out.log";
    $session->input_log($output_log);
    $session->output_log($input_log);

    @output = $session->cmd("show ap summary");
    
    return;
}

sub show_run {
    print "\nGetting Running Config ...\n";
    #my @output;
    $input_log  = $directory . $host . "_get_run_config_in.log";
    $output_log = $directory . $host . "_get_run_config_out.log";
    $session->input_log($output_log);
    $session->output_log($input_log);

    @output = $session->cmd("show run-config");
    
    return;
}

sub show_inventory {
    print "\nGetting inventory ...\n";
    #my @output;
    $input_log  = $directory . $host . "_get_inventory_in.log";
    $output_log = $directory . $host . "_get_inventory_out.log";
    $session->input_log($output_log);
    $session->output_log($input_log);

    @output = $session->cmd("show inventory");
    
    return;
}

sub cleanup {
    print "\nClosing telnet connection ...\n";
    $session->cmd("config paging enable");
    $session->close;
    print "FINISHED\n";
}

######################################################################
+##################################
# Subroutines ########################################################
+##################################
######################################################################
+##################################
[download]

I think the issue might be that the log files are not actually written to disk until the session is closed. I'll have to test it, but if I'm right, it's going to be a pain to write my own logging function. Furthermore, I don't know of any other way to capture the output from the session. I've looked extensively at redirecting the session output, particularly to STDOUT, with no success.

Yeah, I know I'm not being a team player without a lot of code, but it's proprietary and I can't release it. I'd have to try and create some generic code that does the same thing and then post that. Probably later tonight.