Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround

This WebDNA talk-list message is from

2008


It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 70260
interpreted = N
texte = Purely as an FYI as it relates to the potential call home issue of WebCat. Smith Micro recently purchased E Frontier Software's Poser and their 3D content store. Now when you file a support ticket and or get a response from the Poser (SmithMicro) support team, the domain of their mail server is a voice from the past, or "pacific-coast.com" The timing of the SM support people using the pacific-coast.com domain and when I started seeing webCat dying issue are about the same. >Hi, > >Ours happens every 72 hours as well. As it seems to affect all >versions and platforms, my guess is that it's trying to phone home >at regular intervals and fails because SM have turned off the >server. After x amount of tries, the phone home code fails and >brings down DNA. > >We have noticed that shell commands are the first thing to stop >working and give you about 20 mins notice of it going all together. > >Apart from this issue, we have been very pleased with it and still >develop new sites in it. Some new commands like bitxor would be >useful and because it was written in C, we have found strings with >NULL chars in them make it fail but we have always found workarounds >for these issues. > >When I have some more time, I will investigate the issue further, we >are not ready to give up on it yet. > >Thanks for your code, I will use it if we upgrade any of our servers to 10.4 > >Regards, > >Colin > > > >Rob wrote: >>We've actually given up trying to find it, even though it occurs >>every 72 hours, and have moved on to recoding sites in other >>languages, as they are renewed. We are down to a handful of sites >>anyway. >> >>Your script will not work on 10.4.10 or newer(I think), using >>cronnix, as cron has been eliminated, and replaced with launchd . >>The script we use is slightly different, and a little more >>graceful, but amounts to the same thing in the end. It gets >>launched at a predetermined slow time on our networks everyday, and >>the total down time is 6 seconds. >> >>Here is a copy of our script, if you use it save it out as >>whatever.sh making sure it has proper permissions: >>-------------------------------- >>#!/bin/sh >> >> >>echo "Stopping service" >>/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/WebCatalogEngine/WebCatalogCtl stop >> >>sleep 5 >> >>echo "Starting service" >>/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/WebCatalogEngine/WebCatalogCtl start >> >>exit 0 >> >>------------------------------ >> >>If your not familiar with launchd, you can use a free little app >>called Lingon to set it up. Hope this helps someone out. >> >>Rob >> >> >> >>On 16-May-08, at 4:48 PM, Colin Sidwell wrote: >> >>>Hi, >>> >>>Anyone still having this problem, we have prevented the problem >>>with the following- >>> >>>Save this as quitwebdna.pl in somewhere such as >>> >>>/library/tenon/webserver >>> >>>#!/usr/bin/perl >>> >>>print "content-type: text/html \n\n"; >>> >>>print "hello world"; >>> >>>system("killall -9 WebCatalog"); >>> >>>Use Cronnix or similar to add a new cron job for the root user >>>that executes every 24 hours. >>> >>>the 2nd and 3rd lines in the script were used when we tested it in >>>a web site folder (it worked) but to do this you will need to have >>>it in a cgi-bin and change the privileges. >>> >>>It's working for us! >>> >>>Regards, >>> >>>Colin >>> >>>Stuart Tremain wrote: >>>>The server is still there >>>>http://license.smithmicro.com/ >>>>But maybe not responding as required >>>>If you were to alter your host file you would be able to test the >>>>theory and maybe fix the problem >>>>Regards >>>>Stuart Tremain >>>>IDFK Web Developments >>>>AUSTRALIA >>>>webdna@idfk.com.au >>>>On 30/04/2008, at 1:19 AM, Colin Sidwell wrote: >>>>>Hi, >>>>> >>>>>I can confirm that if you restart the server before your approx >>>>>74 hour limit is up, you get another 74 hours before it goes >>>>>again. >>>>> >>>>>My money's on Smith Micro turning off the 'phone home' server, >>>>>as this problem is affecting all versions of WebDNA irrespective >>>>>of Apache version or platform. >>>>> >>>>>Regards, >>>>> >>>>>Colin >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Vijay-Kumar Solanki wrote: >>>>>>this sounds like something we might need to do; however, i >>>>>>have noticed that when we run into the issue, we just need to >>>>>>kill the webcatalog process ( OS X ), and the other process >>>>>>will restart it... so i wonder if we just need to do that once >>>>>>every day in the am... >>>>>>On Apr 28, 2008, at 7:51 PM, Brian B. Burton wrote: >>>>>>>i know it's old fashioned, but i have a script that reboots my >>>>>>>severs every day at 5:15AM EST. Nice and safe, never a >>>>>>>problem. Never, and i mean not once have I had a customer >>>>>>>complain. (seems they are busy sleeping, hmm, well timed on my >>>>>>>part ) Problem solved :) >>>>>>> >>>>>>>BBB >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>On Apr 28, 2008, at 5:16 PM, Karl Schroll wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Besides discussing legal remedies off this list, has anyone >>>>>>>>come up with a way to fix these every 72-hour or so hiccups? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>>> >>>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>> >>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>> >>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>the mailing list . >>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>> >>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>> >>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>the mailing list . >>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>> >>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >> >> >>------------------------------------------------------------- >>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >> the mailing list . >>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >> >>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >> > >------------------------------------------------------------- >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to > >Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:

    
  1. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Stuart Tremain 2008)
  2. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Terry Wilson 2008)
  3. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( "Michael A. DeLorenzo" 2008)
  4. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
  5. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( "Robie Blair" 2008)
  6. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Christer Olsson 2008)
  7. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Stuart Tremain 2008)
  8. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
  9. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Pat McCormick 2008)
  10. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Bob Minor 2008)
  11. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Mark Bergkvist 2008)
  12. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( "Dennis J. Bonsall, Jr." 2008)
  13. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Lester 2008)
  14. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Stuart Tremain 2008)
  15. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( "Planet DJ (Chris W.)" 2008)
  16. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
  17. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Chris 2008)
  18. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
  19. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Stuart Tremain 2008)
  20. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Terry Wilson 2008)
  21. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Donovan Brooke 2008)
  22. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( webmaster 2008)
  23. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
  24. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Rob 2008)
  25. Re: Strange intermittent WebDNA problems Workaround ( Colin Sidwell 2008)
Purely as an FYI as it relates to the potential call home issue of WebCat. Smith Micro recently purchased E Frontier Software's Poser and their 3D content store. Now when you file a support ticket and or get a response from the Poser (SmithMicro) support team, the domain of their mail server is a voice from the past, or "pacific-coast.com" The timing of the SM support people using the pacific-coast.com domain and when I started seeing webCat dying issue are about the same. >Hi, > >Ours happens every 72 hours as well. As it seems to affect all >versions and platforms, my guess is that it's trying to phone home >at regular intervals and fails because SM have turned off the >server. After x amount of tries, the phone home code fails and >brings down DNA. > >We have noticed that shell commands are the first thing to stop >working and give you about 20 mins notice of it going all together. > >Apart from this issue, we have been very pleased with it and still >develop new sites in it. Some new commands like bitxor would be >useful and because it was written in C, we have found strings with >NULL chars in them make it fail but we have always found workarounds >for these issues. > >When I have some more time, I will investigate the issue further, we >are not ready to give up on it yet. > >Thanks for your code, I will use it if we upgrade any of our servers to 10.4 > >Regards, > >Colin > > > >Rob wrote: >>We've actually given up trying to find it, even though it occurs >>every 72 hours, and have moved on to recoding sites in other >>languages, as they are renewed. We are down to a handful of sites >>anyway. >> >>Your script will not work on 10.4.10 or newer(I think), using >>cronnix, as cron has been eliminated, and replaced with launchd . >>The script we use is slightly different, and a little more >>graceful, but amounts to the same thing in the end. It gets >>launched at a predetermined slow time on our networks everyday, and >>the total down time is 6 seconds. >> >>Here is a copy of our script, if you use it save it out as >>whatever.sh making sure it has proper permissions: >>-------------------------------- >>#!/bin/sh >> >> >>echo "Stopping service" >>/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/WebCatalogEngine/WebCatalogCtl stop >> >>sleep 5 >> >>echo "Starting service" >>/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/WebCatalogEngine/WebCatalogCtl start >> >>exit 0 >> >>------------------------------ >> >>If your not familiar with launchd, you can use a free little app >>called Lingon to set it up. Hope this helps someone out. >> >>Rob >> >> >> >>On 16-May-08, at 4:48 PM, Colin Sidwell wrote: >> >>>Hi, >>> >>>Anyone still having this problem, we have prevented the problem >>>with the following- >>> >>>Save this as quitwebdna.pl in somewhere such as >>> >>>/library/tenon/webserver >>> >>>#!/usr/bin/perl >>> >>>print "content-type: text/html \n\n"; >>> >>>print "hello world"; >>> >>>system("killall -9 WebCatalog"); >>> >>>Use Cronnix or similar to add a new cron job for the root user >>>that executes every 24 hours. >>> >>>the 2nd and 3rd lines in the script were used when we tested it in >>>a web site folder (it worked) but to do this you will need to have >>>it in a cgi-bin and change the privileges. >>> >>>It's working for us! >>> >>>Regards, >>> >>>Colin >>> >>>Stuart Tremain wrote: >>>>The server is still there >>>>http://license.smithmicro.com/ >>>>But maybe not responding as required >>>>If you were to alter your host file you would be able to test the >>>>theory and maybe fix the problem >>>>Regards >>>>Stuart Tremain >>>>IDFK Web Developments >>>>AUSTRALIA >>>>webdna@idfk.com.au >>>>On 30/04/2008, at 1:19 AM, Colin Sidwell wrote: >>>>>Hi, >>>>> >>>>>I can confirm that if you restart the server before your approx >>>>>74 hour limit is up, you get another 74 hours before it goes >>>>>again. >>>>> >>>>>My money's on Smith Micro turning off the 'phone home' server, >>>>>as this problem is affecting all versions of WebDNA irrespective >>>>>of Apache version or platform. >>>>> >>>>>Regards, >>>>> >>>>>Colin >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>Vijay-Kumar Solanki wrote: >>>>>>this sounds like something we might need to do; however, i >>>>>>have noticed that when we run into the issue, we just need to >>>>>>kill the webcatalog process ( OS X ), and the other process >>>>>>will restart it... so i wonder if we just need to do that once >>>>>>every day in the am... >>>>>>On Apr 28, 2008, at 7:51 PM, Brian B. Burton wrote: >>>>>>>i know it's old fashioned, but i have a script that reboots my >>>>>>>severs every day at 5:15AM EST. Nice and safe, never a >>>>>>>problem. Never, and i mean not once have I had a customer >>>>>>>complain. (seems they are busy sleeping, hmm, well timed on my >>>>>>>part ) Problem solved :) >>>>>>> >>>>>>>BBB >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>On Apr 28, 2008, at 5:16 PM, Karl Schroll wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Besides discussing legal remedies off this list, has anyone >>>>>>>>come up with a way to fix these every 72-hour or so hiccups? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>>> >>>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>> >>>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>>the mailing list . >>>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>>> >>>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>>the mailing list . >>>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>>> >>>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >>> >>>------------------------------------------------------------- >>>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >>>the mailing list . >>>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >>> >>>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >> >> >>------------------------------------------------------------- >>This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to >> the mailing list . >>To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >>To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to >> >>Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ >> > >------------------------------------------------------------- >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: >To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to > >Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ webmaster

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