FP2000 Unix Extensions Monopolize Portmap

ID: Q240968

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions

SYMPTOMS

If you are running the FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions on Apache 1.3.6 on Digital Unix 4.0D with HTML files stored on NFS partitions, Fpcount.exe and Shtml.exe can be seen monopolizing portmap.


   PID USERNAME PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE   TIME    CPU COMMAND
   318 root      49    0 2176K  122K run     0:46 43.50% portmap
  6197 wfp09446  42    0 2376K  172K WAIT    0:28 25.90% fpcount.exe

The added time in portmap means that the CPUs are spending 70 - 80% time in the kernel. This extra kernel time makes the system slow/unresponsive.

Following are response rates that you may see when Shtml.exe monopolizes the portmap.


 CPU states:  6.4% user, 36.8% nice, 56.7% system,  0.0% idle
 Memory: Real: 182M/494M act/tot  Virtual: 129M/953M use/tot  Free: 17M
 
   PID USERNAME PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE   TIME    CPU COMMAND
   300 daemon    55    0 2152K   90K run    44.7H 13.30% portmap
  5865 wfp04179  56    5   18M   11M run     0:13  8.60% author.exe
 32512 wfp05029  56    5   28M 9969K run     4:35  8.40% author.exe
  9857 wfp02450  56    5   29M   18M run     2:43  8.20% author.exe
  8252 wfp02628  42    5 8288K  352K WAIT    0:56  7.80% shtml.exe

CAUSE

The FrontPage Server Extensions use the Fcntl function to lock files. When the file is located on a network drive, the lock daemon makes calls through the RPC portmap to implement the lock on the remote NFS files. Flock is for file locking locally which is implemented in the kernel. Flock is a subset of Fcntl.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next FrontPage Server Extensions for Digital Unix that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:


   Date      Time                  Size    File name        Platform
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
  10/04/1999 17:58           12,629,230  fp40.alpha.tar.gz  Digital Unix

WORKAROUND

You can implement the FrontPage 97 hit counter and modify the code to use flock rather than the Fcntl function. You can also create a cron job that constantly checks for FrontPage processes the uses portmap excessively and kills the process.

STATUS

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Additional query words:

Keywords : fpse2000
Version : winnt:
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug