Best from Defcon 15

March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Have fun!

Posted by | Filed Under Lectures, Hacks 

.net session timeout in IIS6

March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Does this sound simple web.config setup?
Nope this is way beyond that newbie configuration.

Problem: We were facing timeout issue on one of our servers. Web.config settings had no effect on the time out.

Note: In all screen shots pink color is hiding the actual server details.

Solution:
So here are some more interesting findings related to timeouts of sessions in IIS6 hosted on a windows 2003 server. You may need to change one or more of these setups in your server according to your setup.
There are totally 5 setups that influence your timeout. All of those are discussed here.
1. Web.config file of Application: First one to influence timeout is Session timeout setting in your we.config file.













Note: Web.config file is inherited to the subfolders and subfolders config settings take the precedence in case they exist.

2. Application session timeout in IIS:
Go to IIS, right click on the web application, go to properties. Go to Directory tab, click on Configuration button. Application configuration tab opens, click on Options tab as in the screenshot, you will find enable session state. Change the session time out period here.














3. Default website session timeout in IIS: Right click default web site under IIS and choose Home directory tab. Click on configuration button to open application configuration. Choose options tab and you will find Enable session state again similar to session state of each application. Enter higher session timeout period which will be application to all sites in the webserver.














4. Change Worker process idle timeout of application pool – Shutdown worker process after being idle for (time in minutes) – Default is 20 minutes. This setup is applied for all websites that use this application pool. To change this, Right click on the required application pool, choose Performance tab, and change the duration of idle time or uncheck the option so that the process is never recycled. You can also create an application pool, configure it, and use it for a selected list of web applications.














5. Change Recycle timeout period of application pool: Right click on application pool or default application, and choose Recycling tab. Change the “Recycle worker process (in minutes)” option to either change the period or disable the option by un checking. Un checking this option may be a good idea from performance point of view.

And finally there is a last one in machine.config file. But that does not affect any of these configurations and these setups take the precedence.

Posted by | Filed Under Troubleshooting, Asp.net 

SQL2K8 training videos

March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In the latest issue of the SQL Server Magazine, there was an attachment for some of the training videos which pointed to this site:

http://getonthecase.com

and when you go there, it is a re-direction to the ISV Innovation site:

http://www.isvinnovation.com/SQL/Default.aspx

Over there, you will get 8 different video tutorials. In case you have not gone over those yet, take a look - they are very well done and gives you a lot of very good information about the new feature sets of SQL Server 2008. These are the 8 tutorials:

1) Uncovering T-SQL on SQL Server 2008.
2) Working with unstructured data in SQL Server 2008.
3) Working with asynchronous data in SQL Server 2008.
4) Deploying managed code to SQL Server 2008.
5) Developing for SQL Server 2008 using Visual Studio.
6) SQL Server 2008 and ADO.Net Entity Framework Integration.
7) Communicating with SQL Server 2008 using HTTP.
8 ) Working with SQL Server 2008 and Disconnected Clients.

Posted by | Filed Under SQL 

Usage of SOS.dll to measure object size

March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Make sure ‘enabled managed debugging’ is checked in the project properties.

Add the directory where SOS.dll is located to the PATH environment variable,

which is in the  (C:\Windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50215)

At a breakpoint, in the immediate windows, execute :

.load sos.dll

!help  (shows a list of debugger commands)

Common ones (for looking at GridView objects as example):

!DumpHeap – type GridView

!DumpObj  0×00a8197 (or whatever address)

Posted by | Filed Under Asp.net