Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1

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Author Thread:

Jairo.Lopez

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:30 AM (EST)

We have APL+WebServices running on a Windows Enterprise Server 2003 SP1 without a problem.

I will suggest you to reinstall APL+WebServices (the latest version can be found here: http://apldn.apl2000.com/downloads/APLWS+Downloads/APLWSRTM/1701.aspx).

You also need to check that APL+Win is properly register as an ActiveX server.



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Friday, June 03, 2005 8:32 AM (EST)

We tried your suggestion but without success. One difference is that we're running Standard edition, not Enterprise. Personally I don't think this is the problem but do you have any information regarding anyone running Standard ed with SP1?

At the moment we're trying to find out differences in security setting in SP1. Do you have any idea where to look?

/Gert



j.merrill

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Friday, June 03, 2005 11:51 AM (EST)

This page

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/default.mspx

has a lot of links, including one to a knowledgebase article about "application compatibility" and one to a "datasheet" that has info about new features and security things.

If you have MSDN Universal (you have it, don't you?) you could use a support incident to call MS. They might well take quite an interest in an issue like this, as it seems very likely that APL2000 built much of the webservices infrastructure (starting the service and so on) by utilizing .NET library functionality -- so MS does not want a new SP to cause things to fail.

What account do you run the service under?



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Saturday, June 04, 2005 5:34 AM (EST)

Thanks J. We're running under the System account, but we also tried to switch to a different account.

/Gert



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 8:33 AM (EST)

We've done some additional testing and there is a pattern:

After restarting Aplservice, one and only one page is returned. This can be a "dumb" gif or html page or a dynamic page created with Aplcom. Subsequent requests give no response from Aplservice. After each restart of the service one and only one page is returned followed by no response. Obviously there are no problems in the communication between Aplservice and Aplcom.

This (in my mind) also rules out security issues in SP1. If that would be the case there would be no response at all. Following J: s link there's a lot of compatibility issues involving even Microsoft’s own products, such as MS Exchange Server 2003. Since we don't have the source code for Aplservice it's impossible for us to track this down.

During testing we've switched account, ports (even tried port 80), and Aplservice version, switched between Win 2003 Standard and Enterprise edition, all with the same result. We've used 3 different servers, two with VMware (latest available version, "SP1 compatible") installed. We've monitored traffic, been digging in logs. The Task Manager tells us that Aplservice and Aplw.exe is running happily. The only thing that helps is uninstalling SP1.

In this link:

http://www.tokeshi.com/modules.php?&name=News&file=article&sid=3941

Microsoft is claimed to have said that 80% of all server applications will "work out of the box", leaving 20% that does not! This link also lists a number of well known products from well known companies that does have problem with SP1 compatibility issues.

I would like to rule out Aplservice as the problem, but I can't. Is there anyone else out there that has got Aplservice running under SP1?

/Gert



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 8:41 AM (EST)

Sorry about the "dead" link, here is another one:

http://www.tokeshi.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3941&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=a0409c129222517d95be2a175cc4fe26

/Gert



Jairo.Lopez

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 8:51 AM (EST)

The APL+WebServices has two logging mechanisms the EventViewer and Log files.

The 'AplServices' service logs information to the 'AplServicesLog'. To review the log information go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer.

You can also enable logging for every website. Just select the website and edit the properties to allow logging and specify the folder where the log files would be created. The logging information is written to disk every 64K, but you can force the write using the 'Flush' option under the 'Action' menu.

Also, if you are using the latest version of the APL+WebServices, you can monitor the server activity using the Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon). The APL+WebServices creates a custom category called 'AWSCounters'.



j.merrill

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 12:30 PM (EST)

Have you modified your APL code so that it writes information about the requests it receives from APLWebServices, and the responses it sends back, into a file that you can examine? In other words, do you know whether APL gets only one request (to which it responds normally), or does it get many requests and respond to subsequent ones with something odd, or does it get many requests and respond normally but the results don't get displayed?

It could also work to have messages displayed to the APL session, and make the service "able to interact with the desktop" -- but then you'll have to use non-runtime APL, and that would be more of a change than you might want to make when trying to figure this out.

Good luck...



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 5:24 PM (EST)

APL gets only one request and handles that one OK. APLWebServices doesn't respond to more than one reqest from the browser so it seems like the communication between APL and APLWebservices is not the problem. By typing in requests for static files like gifs and html (where APL is not involved at all), we get the same result: APLWebServices only responds to one request.


Jairo.Lopez

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 5:30 PM (EST)

If you can setup a webex we can help you track what the issue is. We have move every single installation of APL+WebServices to Windows 2003 without a problem.


Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:31 AM (EST)

Thanks Jairo! I'm not familiar with Webex, but we will take a look at it. I'll get back to you later.

/Gert



j.merrill

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Thursday, June 09, 2005 12:56 PM (EST)

If you turn off HTTP 1.1 in your browser, does that change anything?

If you can get APL2000 to send you the .PDB file for the version of APLWebServices you're using, and you use WinDBG with the "son of strike" (SOS) addin, you can (attempt to) do some low-level not-quite-source-level debugging (at the CLR level) and perhaps figure out what's going on.

I don't know what alternative you have, other than getting an "instrumented" copy of APLWebServices that creates a more detailed log of what it sees happening. (It's possible that it's Windows that's refusing to deliver subsequent requests to APLWebServices, for whatever reason.)

Sigh; I hate computers.



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2005 5:12 AM (EST)

Thanks for all suggestions. Since we're running Windows 2003 SP1 on a VMware-machine, we could actually burn the whole virtual machine on a DVD and mail it to you (if you have VMware availible) or you could download it from one of our servers.

/Gert



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 3:14 AM (EST)

Good news for those who are following this thread. APL2000 has been able to replicate the problem.

/Gert



Jairo.Lopez

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Friday, June 17, 2005 11:47 AM (EST)

A fix is available at: http://apldn.apl2000.com/downloads/APLWS+Downloads/APLWSRC/1933.aspx



Gert.Glantz

Problem with Win 2003 Server SP1
Posted: Thursday, June 30, 2005 7:35 AM (EST)

Great news! We've tested the fix running under Windows 2003 Enterprise Ed with SP1 successfully!

Thanks a lot for all help,

Gert