ColdFusion analysis

Hello,

The following is a report we have received from a client after Microsoft analyzed a log file from a server hang-up. The server is Windows NT running ColdFusion 4.5. There seems to be an issue with the iscf.dll according to Microsoft.

We are in the process of converting to Windows 2003 running CFMX 6.1, but we are wondering if the hang-ups are happening because of the old .dll files or from something else. We don't want to transfer the same problem over to the new server. Will an upgrade to WIN2K3 and CFMX 6.1 alleviate the issues described below by Microsoft?

Are there any helpful tips for optimizing the server or CF code that can be recommended after reviewing Microsoft's findings?

Thank you!

*** From Microsoft ***

There are three 3rd party ISAPIs:

0:000> lmvm jrun
start end module name
013b0000 013ba000 jrun (deferred)
Image path: d:\inetpub\scripts\jrun.dll
Timestamp: Fri May 19 10:14:37 2000 (3925767D) Checksum: 00000000
ImageSize : 0000A000
File version: 0.0.0.0
Product version: 0.0.0.0
File flags: 0 (Mask 0)
File OS: 0 Unknown Base
File type: 0.0 Unknown
File date: 00000000.00000000
Translations: 0000.04b0 0000.04e0 0409.04b0 0409.04e0


start end module name
10000000 1014d000 teserver (export symbols) teserver.dll
Loaded symbol image file: teserver.dll
Image path: C:\CFUSION\BrightTiger\Program\teserver.dll
Timestamp: Tue Sep 12 09:12:34 2000 (39BE55F2) Checksum: 00157DCF
ImageSize : 0014D000
File version: 1.0.0.1
Product version: 1.0.0.1
File flags: 0 (Mask 3F)
File OS: 4 Unknown Win32
File type: 2.0 Dll
File date: 00000000.00000000
Translations: 0409.04b0
CompanyName: Bright Tiger Technologies, Inc.
ProductName: Bright Tiger ClusterCATS Server
InternalName: teserver
OriginalFilename: teserver.dll
ProductVersion: 1, 0, 0, 1
FileVersion: 1, 0, 0, 1
FileDescription: Bright Tiger ClusterCATS Server
LegalCopyright: Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Bright Tiger Technologies


:000> lmvm iscf
start end module name
1df00000 1df0d000 iscf C (export symbols) iscf.dll
Loaded symbol image file: iscf.dll
Image path: C:\CFUSION\bin\iscf.dll
Timestamp: Wed Jun 20 10:19:39 2001 (3B30DB2B) Checksum: 00000000
ImageSize : 0000D000
File version: 4.5.0.0
Product version: 4.5.0.0
File flags: 0 (Mask 3F)
File OS: 40004 NT Win32
File type: 0.0 Unknown
File date: 00000000.00000000
Translations: 0409.04b0
CompanyName: Allaire
ProductName: Cold Fusion
InternalName: Cold Fusion Stub
OriginalFilename: CFML.EXE
ProductVersion: 4, 5, 0, 0
FileVersion: 4, 5, 0, 0
PrivateBuild:
SpecialBuild:
FileDescription: Cold Fusion Stub
LegalCopyright: Copyright © 1998
LegalTrademarks: Cold Fusion

Comments:
There are over 500 client connections, with the majority of the requests being for specific .cfm pages, or for the default documents). These requests appear to be taking a long time, upwards of 1 minute in most cases.

We also see some requests for .gif files. However, we've drained our ATQ thread pool so these are also processing slowly.

Our Recommendations :
1) Since this is primarily a cold fusion server, and most of the requests are for .cfm pages, the Cold Fusion vendor needs to be contacted for further assistance on the hanging .cfm pages.

2) We notice that the ISAPI extensions and filters are really old. Need to contact vendor for updates to those files.

3) Most of the threads are hung doing work with iscf.dll. With so many threads running in process (IIS 4) this is undoubtedly why the ATQ thread pool is drained and requests for static files are also hung. Thestatic files are being effected because all of the ATQ threads are being
held up by that file

4) There is another filter involved, teserver.dll by Bright Tiger, which is old (2000) and which is known to have caused IIS Hangs in the past. It doesn't look like it is causing this hang (this one is iscf.dll) but it should be noted that teserver.dll, as well as iscf.dll and jrun.dll all need to be updated as per guidance from the vendors.

5) You have 15 sites all running in Inetinfo. To help isolate problems in the future, they could run their sites in a separate memory space (mtx.exe), as long as the applications they're running supports that.

I've never seen such problems with CFMX and I've been using it for two years. Remember that CF 4.5 is over 5 years old at this point.

So your opinion is that CF 4.5 is just too old, moving to CFMX should alleviate any issues ...

How about the iscf.dll - what does it do?

thanks

I'd guess that iscf.dll the ISAPI filter that connects IIS to the CF engine.

Thanks for the info!