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Server instances failing

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    Server instances failing

    We have a severe problem of web server instances failing - stopping to respond. In search of any ideas.

    This uses pre-release 7630-5573. I know all about pre-release in production, but we're here for reasons, should not be the center of discussion.

    For 10 days now since we implemented this, any one of our instances may just stop working at any time. We cannot find a cause. I cannot find any records of errors in places like the Xbasic stack log or anywhere else.

    Our Cloudflare-connected users get a TimeOut error page. Our Google Cloud-connected users get a 500 Internal error page.

    I can easily find a non-working instance using localhost - I get the same connection problems when an instance has failed.

    We have two web servers, each with four instances, and it's happening on all of them, no pattern.

    We're past the critical stage to near-crisis with this. Any ideas on how I might figure out what's going on and/or fix this?



    -Steve
    sigpic

    #2
    My first thought is when did this start happening and what are some of the things you changed/updated/or did just prior to the start of the problem. What is the memory usage of the failed instances? I ask because in the past anything approaching 1GB made the classic app server unresponsive. To this day my AlwaysUp is set to kill and restart any instances over 800MB (although for quite some time now the classic app server has been very stable). What about the Windows Event logs? ...have you look at them for any clues?

    I'm not familiar with either Cloudflare or Google Cloud but maybe answering the above will help someone else help you.
    Mike Brown - Contact Me
    Programmatic Technologies, LLC
    Programmatic-Technologies.com
    Independent Developer & Consultant​​

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks. It started when we (a) upgraded to the build so that we could (b) implement a new feature from a contractor that required something other than the much older build we had.

      Already in touch with the contractor for any possible issues there.

      Usage is not abnormal. I don't think any of the instances survive long enough to grow very far. It's 1:30 pm and we've had six fails already today.

      The Cloudflare and Google Cloud content of my message was really to explain symptoms and user-experience. This is symptom/result, not cause.

      -Steve
      sigpic

      Comment


        #4
        I've also just now looked through the Windows events log. This isn't something I'd call my area of expertise. But I see this Administrative Events warning, for instance, when an instance fails:
        The application has failed to stop gracefully and may be forcibly terminated. The following processes may be terminated: A5ApplicationServer.exe, A5ApplicationServer.exe, node.exe, conhost.exe
        -Steve
        sigpic

        Comment


          #5
          Have you turned on server logging? Maybe you might get more of a clue after looking at those logs?

          I know you don't wish it to be the center of discussion .. but these problems seem to coincide directly from the pre-release update if I understand your explanation.
          With that, have you at least tested the roll back to see if the problem clears up, then you could submit a bug report.
          Last edited by iRadiate; 05-17-2021, 03:11 PM.
          Alpha Anywhere v12.4.6.5.2 Build 8867-5691 IIS v10.0 on Windows Server 2019 Std in Hyper-V

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            #6
            Rollback (official) build had an unacceptable bug in it. We're not on pre-release by choice, and spent 4 months getting to this upgrade.
            -Steve
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              I can confirm having the exact same server issues you describe in the newer builds (around 7600 and later). We already tried submitting bug reports, only to find the problem persist in subsequent releases. I’ve been unable to move past build 7470 for months, as it is the last version that definitely worked with no inexplicable server timeouts in our environment. At this point we are just going to wait a few months until this gets resolved, because as you say, it’s essentially impossible to troubleshoot on our end.

              Apologies to not be of more help except to say that rolling back far enough seems to be the only surefire solution right now. Build 7611 and later seems to have the issue, Build 7470 does not, but it’s not clear at what point in between things fell apart.

              Comment


                #8
                I know all about pre-release in production, but we're here for reasons, should not be the center of discussion.
                Steve it is the center of the discussions - the recent nightly builds are toxic to a live development (which we know is possible and warned about ) - and it's very hard to overcome issues, i've abandoned them totally for now ..

                Out of interest what does 'but we're here for reasons' mean? - May be able to help.

                Pete
                Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                Albert Einstein, (attributed)
                US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

                Comment


                  #9
                  The reason I asked this - the new tools I used in the nightly builds STILL WORK when run in latest official release. - Just sayin.
                  Pete
                  Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                  Albert Einstein, (attributed)
                  US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Just don't edit it until the Next working build.
                    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                    Albert Einstein, (attributed)
                    US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      We were on a very old build. Everyone here knows the hassle of upgrading. We worked at it for a very long time and finally had to move. We did this because we had two new features contracted to users that were very much delayed by our efforts to upgrade. We could not accept the current official build - it has a bug in it that is extremely problematic for us. So we worked with Selwyn through the nightly builds until we found one we thought would do the job. And, it does, except for this problem.

                      So with that out of the way, I may have sights on the problem though it's hard to be sure. The access log has this quite frequently, and often before a server halt:

                      [Tue May 18 08:00:53 2021] [error] [Thread ID: 56b718c4497e4105af0f50f9ee10c36e Request Sequence: 300] (Internal Server Error: C:\A5Webroot\__a5RunDialog.a5w) Script Error: Error:Script:a5_ajax_Dialog2() line:2381 - Property not found - rv._state.__dialogGuid subelement not found.
                      That error in the handful I've checked, seems to be found with this event:

                      127.0.0.1 - - [18/May/2021:08:00:53 -0400] "POST /__a5RunDialog.a5w?__pageName=__a5RunDialog.a5w&__dialogFilename=Exhibit_Central&__alias=M_UX2_EC&__unsaved=no HTTP/1.1" 500 406 56b718c4497e4105af0f50f9ee10c36e 300
                      Exhibit Central is a UX wrapper with plenty of it's own controls plus 4 embedded UX components.

                      I've searched the entire web application, and cannot find rv._state.__dialogGuid anywhere.

                      Clearly I'm going to focus on Exhibit Central, but does anyone know why this would reference rv._state.__dialogGuid, or where to find it?



                      -Steve
                      sigpic

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Looks like that is a request variable: e.rv

                        It is referenced in the onDialogInitilize event. I downloaded today's (5/18) nightly build and ran one of my components through debug. See the screenshot below. In my case there is no __dialogGuid. I'm wondering if it can be added somehow even if it's empty. Might temporarily fix your issue ...or expose a new one. I don't know.

                        Ashampoo_Snap_Tuesday, May 18, 2021_08h47m04s_002_.png
                        Mike Brown - Contact Me
                        Programmatic Technologies, LLC
                        Programmatic-Technologies.com
                        Independent Developer & Consultant​​

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I did find a e.rtc._state.__dialogGuid. It looks like a GUID Alpha assigns to the component. I wonder if, in Alpha's code, they meant to reference RTC but mistakenly put in RV.
                          Mike Brown - Contact Me
                          Programmatic Technologies, LLC
                          Programmatic-Technologies.com
                          Independent Developer & Consultant​​

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Selwyn's been helpful, says I should find something like this in the View Source:

                            ;DLG1_DlgObj.setStateInfo({
                            "__dialogGuid": "74322dc6-d11c-476d-a40b-d109a886e812",
                            "argumentsBoundToCotrols": "",
                            "__dtfmt": "MM/dd/yyyy",
                            "__tfmt": ""
                            });

                            Also needed to turn on raw HTTP logging so I have to wait for an instance or two to fail, restarts, and then throw whatever error again.
                            -Steve
                            sigpic

                            Comment


                              #15
                              That's what I saw in the debugger ...but in e.rtc ... not e.rv

                              I know that's JS you posted but just to be clear the server-side of that references e.rtc unlike the error you have which references e.rv.

                              Ashampoo_Snap_Tuesday, May 18, 2021_09h03m03s_003_.png
                              Mike Brown - Contact Me
                              Programmatic Technologies, LLC
                              Programmatic-Technologies.com
                              Independent Developer & Consultant​​

                              Comment

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