========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 10:30:33 -0800 Reply-To: buddy@ucla.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Robert Dennis Organization: Crump Institute Subject: initializing tcl scripts MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all- Activity on this list has really dwindled. I hope this isn't a portent to the disappearance of AOLserver. I have a simply question. Can someone tell me how to ensure than Tcl scripts stored in a sub directory of the private Tcl script filesget initialized at startup? All the scripts at the top level of the private set get loaded, but anything that is within a directory does not get loaded. Is there a setting in the setup server that will init these at startup? Hope there's a 2.3.1 version coming soon. One last thing: anyone else notice that "About This Server" doesn't work? -- Robert A. Dennis Ph.D. Crump Institute for Biological Imaging Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology UCLA School of Medicine 310.206.2462 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 14:52:03 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: Re: initializing tcl scripts Comments: To: buddy@ucla.edu In-Reply-To: <35ED89DC.CCBD2A44@mail.nuc.ucla.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Make a subdirectory under modules/tcl called xyz, then put xyz=tcl in your nsd.ini file, in the modules section, along with nsperm=nsperm.so, ... I have also noticed list activity dwindling... I think moderating the list was not a good thing, personally. We are using AOLServer 2.3 on RedHat 5.0 with good success, although there are issues to work around. I have asked the AOL developers to publish their source, both to stimulate development of the server and to make those of us using AOLServer for mission-critical projects more comfortable that we will be able to support ourselves in the future without concerns about AOL's business plans... Jim At 10:30 AM 9/2/98 -0800, Robert Dennis wrote: >Hello all- >Activity on this list has really dwindled. I hope this isn't a portent >to the disappearance of AOLserver. > >I have a simply question. Can someone tell me how to ensure than Tcl >scripts stored in a sub directory of the private Tcl script filesget >initialized at startup? All the scripts at the top level of the >private set get loaded, but anything that is within a directory does not >get loaded. Is there a setting in the setup server that will init >these at startup? > >Hope there's a 2.3.1 version coming soon. > >One last thing: anyone else notice that "About This Server" doesn't >work? > >-- >Robert A. Dennis Ph.D. >Crump Institute for Biological Imaging >Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology >UCLA School of Medicine > >310.206.2462 > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 08:40:42 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Bas Scheffers Subject: Security Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi Everyone, I was wondering about some sequrity issues in AOLS. First is that I can't find a way to have virtual servers execute their ADPs under different user IDs, is there a way to do it? Right now, I can simply delete any file that aolserver has write access to. This isn't a problem when you or trusted people are in control of all your servers, but with may 'anonymous' clients hosting on your server, it would be. Is there a way around this? I could make all the virtual server's files owned by someone else, but then you would not be able to edit the TCL scripts from within the setup server. And what files does AOL server _need_ write access to? I could make the rest owned by some other user in order to keep people from deleting aol's system files. Thanks for any advice, Bas. BTW: My 'about this server' (version 2.3) isn't working either, what's it suposed to do? ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 08:34:44 -0400 Reply-To: "Peter J. Lim" Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Peter J. Lim" Subject: AOLserver - Fix for "About This Server" In-Reply-To: <199809030403.AAA01601@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > > One last thing: anyone else notice that "About This Server" doesn't > work? > The "About This Server" not working bug has been reported to the AOLserver people, and they say that it has been fixed and will be released with the next release. The problem involves the checking of the page quotas for the server. If you have a page quota set, then "About" works fine; if you don't have a quota set, then the process wanders off to la-la-land. There are two fixes (either one works) -- 1) Set a page quota for your server - or - 2) Edit the "about.tcl" script and comment out the following lines: (they are about 3/4 of the way down the script). Be sure to reinitialize TCL after editing the script. set usedint [ns_quota used] set used "$usedint.0" Commenting those lines out disables the checking of the used amount of space for the page quotas, and then "About This Server" works fine. My personal preference is #2, since I'm running a dedicated machine and want the server to use as much space as needed. (If only I could get the professors to put even more stuff onto the web. ) BTW, I don't know if this works for all systems, but it worked for me. I'm running AOLserver 2.3 on RedHat Linux 5.1 (with the glibc2.0.7! Yeah!) Hope this helps, Peter Lim OUE Webmaster plim1@ohiou.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 11:50:56 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: Re: AOLSERVER Digest - 31 Aug 1998 to 2 Sep 1998 In-Reply-To: <199809030403.AAA01599@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Thu, 3 Sep 1998 00:02:31 -0400) > Hope there's a 2.3.1 version coming soon Yep. RSN. Unless Something Really Bad happens, hopefully in the next week or two. > One last thing: anyone else notice that "About This Server" doesn't > work? Yep. If you excise the ns_quota command from about.tcl, it'll work. This has been fixed. > Can someone tell me how to ensure than Tcl > scripts stored in a sub directory of the private Tcl script filesget > initialized at startup? Make a module. If you want .../aolserver/servers/server1/modules/tcl/greeble/*.tcl to get sourced, have your ns/server/server1/modules look something like this: [ns/server/server1/modules] ... greeble=tcl ... ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development. markd@aol.net "elvis is not death for me, inside in memory same the name is song elvis i love elvis." -- Chabot Tittley ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 11:56:27 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: Re: AOLSERVER Digest - 31 Aug 1998 to 2 Sep 1998 In-Reply-To: <199809030403.AAA01599@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Thu, 3 Sep 1998 00:02:31 -0400) > I have also noticed list activity dwindling... Me too :-( Would folks rather use a Q&A forum like Philip Greenspun has at http://db.photo.net/bboard/? (which does email notifications of new messages, amongst other stuff) ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development "There is no 'I' in 'TEAMWORK', but there is an 'EWOK'" -- Zorak ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 11:01:27 +0200 Reply-To: Branimir Dolicki Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Branimir Dolicki Subject: Re: AOLSERVER Digest - 2 Sep 1998 to 3 Sep 1998 In-Reply-To: <199809040402.AAA26087@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > Would folks rather use a Q&A forum like Philip Greenspun has at > http://db.photo.net/bboard/? (which does email notifications of new > messages, amongst other stuff) I vote for a Q&A forum. Especially if Philip would host it at db.photo.net. We would then have full text search, email notifications of new messages and I would not have to save them on my disk. -- Branimir ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:44:37 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: Re: Security In-Reply-To: <199809040400.AAA25961@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Fri, 4 Sep 1998 00:00:01 -0400) > First is that I can't > find a way to have virtual servers execute their ADPs under different user > IDs, is there a way to do it? Nope. What folks do who supply tcl scripting to 'untrusted' clients is give them their own AOLServer process running under a different userID. > what files does AOL server _need_ write access to? If you use the setup server, then nsd.ini. Otherwise, only the log files (which you can redirect to a different directory). Some modules (like nslog, nsftp) write to servers/server-name/modules/modulename, and nsperm can write to its servers/server-name/modules/modulename directory if you use the admin pages. > BTW: My 'about this server' (version 2.3) isn't working either, what's it > suposed to do? Displays things like virtual server name, AOLServer version and build date, server log, quota space free. ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development "Apple Computer, right down there with Mercedes Benz" -- Douglas Adams ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 06:02:23 -0400 Reply-To: philg@mit.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Philip Greenspun Subject: security and switch to Q&A forum? Comments: cc: bas@unitas.nl In-Reply-To: <199809040401.AAA25999@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Fri, 4 Sep 1998 00:00:01 -0400) I was wondering about some sequrity issues in AOLS. First is that I can't find a way to have virtual servers execute their ADPs under different user IDs, is there a way to do it? Right now, I can simply delete any file that aolserver has write access to. This isn't a problem when you or trusted people are in control of all your servers, but with may 'anonymous' clients hosting on your server, it would be. Is there a way around this? I could make all the virtual server's files owned by someone else, but then you would not be able to edit the TCL scripts from within the setup server. And what files does AOL server _need_ write access to? I could make the rest owned by some other user in order to keep people from deleting aol's system files. The way around this is to run AOLserver chroot'd (see the admin docs). Each client gets his own nsd process and his ADP or .tcl pages won't be able to even reference files belonging to other clients since his / won't be their /. Philip p.s. Markd has revived the issue of whether we want to run this list from now on as a Q&A forum at http://db.photo.net/bboard/ . I suggested it to Doug a long time ago because I think it is useful to have the old postings conveniently browsable/searchable. I'm happy to host it and I have plenty of server capacity now that everything is running from Oracle rather than Illustra. I guess we'd need 1) the moderator to agree to use my software instead 2) the subscribers to agree to have themselves bulk-loaded into getting a daily email summary from the forum Holler if you have an opinion, pro or con. The best example of a vibrant Q&A forum is from http://photo.net/photo/ ; the best example of a Q&A forum for Web nerds is from http://photo.net/wtr/ ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 13:39:27 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Do It Sports Staff Subject: db help needed Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" We've been running AOLServer/Illustra for a long time (since it was GNNServer) and ran into to some load probs with that combo. Our db is subject to several poundings during the year, because we do *live* results for major events (e.g. Chicago Marathon, LA Marathon, etc.). These events can have up to 50,000 people and everyone and their brother wants to search through the results at the same time (during and right after the event). As a result, we'll get 30,000 queries in half a day (as an example). Our original setup (SGI Challenge-S, 133mhz MIPS, 64M RAM, running Illustra) didn't cut it under those loads. We then double the RAM to 128M, but that didn't survive either. We then went to a bigger/faster SGI Origin 200 box with 256M RAM. Nonetheless, this combo didn't cut it either. With this combo, the load on the machine never gets too high, but it looks like Illustra is the weak link. We tried playing with the MaxThreads (currently set to 250; which is much higher than the 50 default) and the Connections variables. But really to no avail. The server still comes to a halt under heavy queries. We very much need to satisfy this market and are looking for advice. My guess is that we need to move to another db. Can anyone help in this area? Is SOLID more robust under these circumstances? I'm drawn to SOLID because it is at least affordable. Or am I just missing something with Illustra? Thanks. +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | o _ _ _ | | _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) | | _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ | | (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ | | --------^ ---^--- ---^--- ------- ----------- | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ "Doesn't matter where you finish, as long as it's not behind slow people!" -DoMan Brad Chick doman@doitsports.com Do It Sports, Inc. Tel: (734) 998-0007 x27 150 S. Fifth Ave. Fax: (734) 998-0056 Suite C, Ann Arbor, MI 48014 http://www.doitsports.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 21:20:50 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: Re: db help needed In-Reply-To: <199809041801.OAA09260@services.web.aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Brad - I'm no database expert, but here are a few suggestions: Do you have database writes going on at the same time as searches? The default isolation level in Illustra is serializable, which keeps reads from seeing partial transactions. If you set this to read uncommitted, less locking occurs during reads. ("set transaction isolation level read uncommitted" will work, as will "select * from tab using (read uncommitted)..."). Note that the Illustra manual says "Illustra strongly advises using read committed instead of read uncommitted". If you aren't concerned about seeing transactions in progress during queries, this could speed things up. For writes, you might try using set autocommit off and/or begin transaction statements if your TCL scripts are doing many database write operations as separate statements. All of the processing occurs at once and it may go faster than doing it a statement at a time...not sure. Have you used the query trace facilities to determine what is really happening during your queries? return Trace('Planner.1'); return TraceMessages('t'); select ... a bunch of tracing output shows whether indexes are being used properly, where sequential table scans are being done, etc. If you want really fast query performance, you might look at MySQL. It doesn't have transaction support, and as far as I know there isn't a built-in AOL database driver for it. But the query performance looks really good from the stats on their web page. Jim (Hey, I was just in A2 tonight!) At 01:39 PM 9/4/98 -0400, Do It Sports Staff wrote: >We've been running AOLServer/Illustra for a long time (since it was >GNNServer) and ran into to some load probs with that combo. > >Our db is subject to several poundings during the year, because we do >*live* results for major events (e.g. Chicago Marathon, LA Marathon, etc.). >These events can have up to 50,000 people and everyone and their brother >wants to search through the results at the same time (during and right >after the event). As a result, we'll get 30,000 queries in half a day (as >an example). > >Our original setup (SGI Challenge-S, 133mhz MIPS, 64M RAM, running >Illustra) didn't cut it under those loads. We then double the RAM to 128M, >but that didn't survive either. We then went to a bigger/faster SGI Origin >200 box with 256M RAM. Nonetheless, this combo didn't cut it either. > >With this combo, the load on the machine never gets too high, but it looks >like Illustra is the weak link. We tried playing with the MaxThreads >(currently set to 250; which is much higher than the 50 default) and the >Connections variables. But really to no avail. The server still comes to a >halt under heavy queries. > >We very much need to satisfy this market and are looking for advice. > >My guess is that we need to move to another db. Can anyone help in this >area? Is SOLID more robust under these circumstances? I'm drawn to SOLID >because it is at least affordable. > >Or am I just missing something with Illustra? > >Thanks. >+-------------------------------------------------------------+ >| | >| o _ _ _ | >| _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) | >| _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ | >| (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ | >| --------^ ---^--- ---^--- ------- ----------- | >| | >+-------------------------------------------------------------+ > "Doesn't matter where you finish, as long as > it's not behind slow people!" > -DoMan >Brad Chick doman@doitsports.com >Do It Sports, Inc. Tel: (734) 998-0007 x27 >150 S. Fifth Ave. Fax: (734) 998-0056 >Suite C, Ann Arbor, MI 48014 http://www.doitsports.com > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 17:43:38 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Larry W. Virden" Subject: Re: AOLSERVER Digest - 2 Sep 1998 to 3 Sep 1998 In-Reply-To: of Fri, 4 Sep 1998 11:01:27 +0200 Note that I have bboards for tcl at a number of sites - I have found the ones at clubs.yahoo.com a little nicer in the features available. -- Larry W. Virden INET: lvirden@cas.org <*> O- "We are all Kosh." Unless explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should be construed as representing my employer's opinions. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 14:59:10 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Matt Pease Subject: problems w/ enabling servlet support MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all - I'm trying to get the servlet in 2.3 to take. However, the docs call for creating entries in the nsd.ini as outlined here: http://www.aolserver.com/server/docs/2.3/html/con-ch5.htm#12259 I don't know what to put for the NcgiClassPath because I don't know where I can find the NcgiServletGate.class I'm guessing that its some type of class to give servlet support via a server's CGI mechanism? In any case, the log file reads: [05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Notice: Ns_ModuleLoadSection(server1): Loading module: nsservlet [05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Notice: Loading module: /usr/local/AOLserver/bin/nsservlet.so [05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Error: Serv_ConfigGetOpts: Invalid NCGI class path (/usr/local/jsdk/lib/sun/servlet/apache). [05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Error: Ns_ModuleInit(Servlet): Setting up servlet environment. Then it loops... trying to start up the servlet environment over and over. Relevant portion of nsd.ini: [ns/server/server1/module/nsservlet] JavaHome=/usr/lib/jdk-1.1.6 JavaClassPath=/usr/lib/jdk-1.1.6/lib/classes.zip NcgiTimeout=30 ServletAPIHome=/usr/local/jsdk ServletAPIClassPath=/usr/local/jsdk/lib ServletUrl=/servlet ServletHome=/modules/nsservlet ServletVerbose=On # NcgiClassPath=/usr/local/jsdk/lib/sun/servlet/apache # NcgiEnvPath=/usr/local/java:/usr/local/jsdk:/opt/jsdk/servlets Thank you- Matt ____________________________________________________ Matthew Pease matt@fullscreen.com Fullscreen, Inc. http://www.fullscreen.com ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 17:43:22 -0400 Reply-To: philg@mit.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Philip Greenspun Subject: Illustra sucks Comments: cc: doman@doitsports.com In-Reply-To: <199809050402.AAA21451@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Sat, 5 Sep 1998 00:02:22 -0400) Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 13:39:27 -0400 From: Do It Sports Staff Subject: db help needed We've been running AOLServer/Illustra for a long time (since it was GNNServer) and ran into to some load probs with that combo. You can write this one up for Duh Magazine. Our original setup (SGI Challenge-S, 133mhz MIPS, 64M RAM, running Illustra) didn't cut it under those loads. We then double the RAM to 128M, but that didn't survive either. We then went to a bigger/faster SGI Origin 200 box with 256M RAM. Nonetheless, this combo didn't cut it either. I could only support a handful of simultaneous users with Illustra on a $250,000 SPARC E5000. Every Illustra-backed site of which I'm aware died as soon as they got to be modestly popular. You must switch to an RDBMS that doesn't take read locks, e.g., Oracle or Informix Universal Server (I think Solid falls into this category as well). Philip who doesn't get up in the middle of the night anymore now that he's switched from Illustra to Oracle ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 08:54:27 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Poriel Jean-Marc Subject: unsuscribe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -----Message d'origine----- De : Mark Dalrymple À : Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Date : vendredi 4 septembre 1998 23:26 Objet : Re: Security >> First is that I can't >> find a way to have virtual servers execute their ADPs under different user >> IDs, is there a way to do it? > >Nope. What folks do who supply tcl scripting to 'untrusted' clients >is give them their own AOLServer process running under a different >userID. > > >> what files does AOL server _need_ write access to? > >If you use the setup server, then nsd.ini. Otherwise, only the log >files (which you can redirect to a different directory). > >Some modules (like nslog, nsftp) write to >servers/server-name/modules/modulename, and nsperm can write to its >servers/server-name/modules/modulename directory if you use the admin >pages. > > >> BTW: My 'about this server' (version 2.3) isn't working either, what's it >> suposed to do? > >Displays things like virtual server name, AOLServer version and build >date, server log, quota space free. > >++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development > "Apple Computer, right down there with Mercedes Benz" -- Douglas Adams > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 08:54:45 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Poriel Jean-Marc Subject: unsuscribe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -----Message d'origine----- De : Matt Pease À : Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Date : samedi 5 septembre 1998 23:25 Objet : problems w/ enabling servlet support >Hi all - > I'm trying to get the servlet in 2.3 to take. >However, the docs call for creating entries in the >nsd.ini as outlined here: > > http://www.aolserver.com/server/docs/2.3/html/con-ch5.htm#12259 > > I don't know what to put for the NcgiClassPath >because I don't know where I can find the >NcgiServletGate.class I'm guessing that its some type >of class to give servlet support via a server's CGI >mechanism? > > In any case, the log file reads: > >[05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Notice: >Ns_ModuleLoadSection(server1): Loading module: nsservlet >[05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Notice: Loading module: >/usr/local/AOLserver/bin/nsservlet.so >[05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Error: >Serv_ConfigGetOpts: Invalid NCGI class path >(/usr/local/jsdk/lib/sun/servlet/apache). >[05/Sep/1998:14:20:53 -0300][31196.31198][server1] Error: >Ns_ModuleInit(Servlet): Setting up servlet environment. > >Then it loops... trying to start up the servlet environment over and over. > > >Relevant portion of nsd.ini: >[ns/server/server1/module/nsservlet] >JavaHome=/usr/lib/jdk-1.1.6 >JavaClassPath=/usr/lib/jdk-1.1.6/lib/classes.zip >NcgiTimeout=30 >ServletAPIHome=/usr/local/jsdk >ServletAPIClassPath=/usr/local/jsdk/lib >ServletUrl=/servlet >ServletHome=/modules/nsservlet >ServletVerbose=On ># NcgiClassPath=/usr/local/jsdk/lib/sun/servlet/apache ># NcgiEnvPath=/usr/local/java:/usr/local/jsdk:/opt/jsdk/servlets > > >Thank you- >Matt > >____________________________________________________ >Matthew Pease matt@fullscreen.com >Fullscreen, Inc. http://www.fullscreen.com > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 10:23:49 PDT Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Robert Locke Subject: SSL and other questions... Content-Type: text/plain Greetings everyone... Are there plans to add support for SSL3 (maybe using the publicly available SSLeay libraries)? If not, how realistic would it be for another developer to have a go at it? I would be more than willing to give it a shot. Also, I would like to voice a basic concern that I've heard from others on this mailing list. In a nutshell, what is the future of AOLServer? Hope all's well! Rob ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 10:46:06 -0700 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: John Buckman Organization: Lyris Technologies Inc. Subject: AolServer on Solaris/x86 In-Reply-To: <199809061038.GAA18928@services.web.aol.com> I'm wondering if anyone on this list has any experience with running AolServer on Solaris/x86 in a production setting. I just moved a web site from an UltraSparc 1/140, where "top" was reporting that "nsd" used about 2% of the CPU at a constant rate. Now that I've moved the web site over to Solaris/x86, it's using about 40% of the cpu. The PC is a Pentium/133 w/128mb of RAM, which should be able to handle this ok. When I kill nsd and restart it, the cpu usage goes back to 4%, which seems about right. Anyone have any thoughts on this? john John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 23:43:52 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Enno W. Brands" Organization: FoliQuest Subject: Re: db help needed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------D26049DE4C178099EDB0F391" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------D26049DE4C178099EDB0F391 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have been working with Illustra/Netscape combinations that worked pretty well with an NSAPI driver, but only because in this situation you can kill the (open) connections after a pre-set number of operations. You would indeed see Illustra mi_server processes grow in memory usage (assumably because of memory-leaks) but getting killed (and fresh mi_server processes started) before serious damage occurred. This has worked fine for me in a number of implementations on NT. Now I don't know if AOLserver can do a similar job, but I would expect it to work well with Illustra, if it did. There is a useful little book, "Managing Illustra" that also has some useful hints. Anycase, I have switched to Informix Dynamic Server, which is about 10 times better in performance, and does not need these tricks. I think there is a free version for NT in the USA now. But then you need a driver from AOL to IDS, and I think Philip Greenspun's version is for UNIX only. Success! Do It Sports Staff wrote: > We've been running AOLServer/Illustra for a long time (since it was > GNNServer) and ran into to some load probs with that combo. > > Our db is subject to several poundings during the year, because we do > *live* results for major events (e.g. Chicago Marathon, LA Marathon, etc.). > These events can have up to 50,000 people and everyone and their brother > wants to search through the results at the same time (during and right > after the event). As a result, we'll get 30,000 queries in half a day (as > an example). > > Our original setup (SGI Challenge-S, 133mhz MIPS, 64M RAM, running > Illustra) didn't cut it under those loads. We then double the RAM to 128M, > but that didn't survive either. We then went to a bigger/faster SGI Origin > 200 box with 256M RAM. Nonetheless, this combo didn't cut it either. > > With this combo, the load on the machine never gets too high, but it looks > like Illustra is the weak link. We tried playing with the MaxThreads > (currently set to 250; which is much higher than the 50 default) and the > Connections variables. But really to no avail. The server still comes to a > halt under heavy queries. > > We very much need to satisfy this market and are looking for advice. > > My guess is that we need to move to another db. Can anyone help in this > area? Is SOLID more robust under these circumstances? I'm drawn to SOLID > because it is at least affordable. > > Or am I just missing something with Illustra? > > Thanks. > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ > | | > | o _ _ _ | > | _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) | > | _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ | > | (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ | > | --------^ ---^--- ---^--- ------- ----------- | > | | > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ > "Doesn't matter where you finish, as long as > it's not behind slow people!" > -DoMan > Brad Chick doman@doitsports.com > Do It Sports, Inc. Tel: (734) 998-0007 x27 > 150 S. Fifth Ave. Fax: (734) 998-0056 > Suite C, Ann Arbor, MI 48014 http://www.doitsports.com -- Enno Brands Senior System Developer, FoliQuest International N.V. Bruistensingel 630 tel: + 31 55 5788751 5232 AJ 's Hertogenbosch fax: + 31 55 5787633 The Netherlands email: ebrands@wxs.nl http://www.foliquest.com "Increasing your Customer and Sales channel loyalty by guaranteeing effective Information delivery. The next Day." --------------D26049DE4C178099EDB0F391 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Enno W. Brands Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: Enno W. Brands n: Brands;Enno W. org: FoliQuest International N.V. adr: Bruistensingel 630;;;'s Hertogenbosch;;5232 AJ;Netherlands email;internet: ebrands@wxs.nl title: Senior System Developer tel;work: 055-5788751 tel;fax: 073-6427747 tel;home: 055-5787633 (TAM+FAX) x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE version: 2.1 end: vcard --------------D26049DE4C178099EDB0F391-- ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 08:46:44 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: Re: db help needed In-Reply-To: <199809050402.AAA21398@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Sat, 5 Sep 1998 00:02:22 -0400) > I'm drawn to SOLID because it is at least affordable. I've used Solid for a number of small projects, and use it on my at-home machine to prototype stuff and do general development before moving things over to my Big Iron. There are AOLServer users who use this (some folks have ported Philip Greenspun's Lusenet software to Solid, and have given me some driver fixes) Judging from traffic on the Solid users mailing list, folks are running with fairly high-volume traffic. Note that the web-server license is a bit more expensive than the per- user license. Be sure to check out http://photo.net/philg/wtr/thebook/databases-choosing.html and search for "Solid". You might find a bargain. ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development. markd@aol.net "Q: I need a random number generator. A: Count errors in Herbert Schildt's C books. No one has detected any consistent pattern." -- Peter Seebach, from The *other* C FAQ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 06:56:47 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Larry W. Virden" Subject: Re: SSL and other questions... In-Reply-To: <19980907172349.26377.qmail@hotmail.com> of Mon, 7 Sep 1998 10:23:49 PDT Re: SSL There is a binding between SSL and Tcl - perhaps one could start there. -- Larry W. Virden INET: lvirden@cas.org <*> O- "We are all Kosh." Unless explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should be construed as representing my employer's opinions. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 09:05:52 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: Re: SSL and other questions... In-Reply-To: <199809080403.AAA24845@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Tue, 8 Sep 1998 00:03:07 -0400) > Are there plans to add support for SSL3 (maybe using the publicly > available SSLeay libraries)? AOLServer 2.3.1 will have some architectural work in it for supporting SSL3, and we'll release drivers once the toolkit we're using gets out of Beta (and we give it an internal shakedown) > If not, how realistic would it be for another developer to have a go > at it? Depending on your skill as a C whacker, it could range from trivial to intractable :-) The AOLServer communication driver interface is pretty straight-forward. If you really want to give it a shot, I can give you some sketchy docs. [I don't want _too_ many folks to get those since we have a comm-layer overhaul in our long-range plans that may render existing drivers obsolete or second-class citizens] Probably the hardest part will be thread-safety. Doing thread-safe code is hard, and if your SSL library isn't thread safe, you either have to make it safe, or put a big mutex around it which will dog your performace. > In a nutshell, what is the future of AOLServer? For the sake of my job, I hope it's extremely bright! :-) In concrete terms, a 2.3.1 maintenance release is due at the end of the week or early next week, and then we'll be doing some major work. Being a typical software, I don't want to say exactly what we're planning (in case something has to be cut - I hate to overpromise and underdeliver), but there will definitely be a more modern version of Tcl in there (so the Scriptics tools can be used), and I personally want to improve the database layer. ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development. markd@aol.net "3. Send large donations, checks, and money orders to the author of the FAQ, or the moderator of the group, whichever you prefer. Then, cross the top question off the FAQ, answer the question at the bottom, and mail it to three people. Within two weeks, you will receive 729 answers to various questions! Do not break the chain; Emily Postnews broke the chain, and now no one listens to her." -- Peter Seebach, from The *other* C FAQ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 09:37:02 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Kriston J. Rehberg" Organization: America Online, Inc. Subject: Re: db help needed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, have you tried using the "extill" database driver instead of "illustra"? This requires a little more configuration on your part but it is documented in the setup server and in the online docs. From what I can see, any db that works with "illustra" can be configured to talk with "extill". It uses the "nsillpd" program to connect to the database which is just like how the Sybase driver works. This might give you finer granularity in your tuning. The other advice about managing Illustra better (autocommits) is good advice, too, but Illustra just isn't a very good database anymore. Most high volume database-backed sites that I know of have moved to Sybase and others to Solid. Incidentally, Illustra has been discontinued for quite some time now -- it pretty much died after it was acquired by Informix. Kris -- Kriston J. Rehberg Systems Development http://kriston.net/ America Online, Inc. Vienna, Virginia USA endeavor to persevere ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 11:05:31 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: Re: AolServer on Solaris/x86 In-Reply-To: <199809071735.KAA02914@mail.shelby.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" It sounds like an individual thread is using 40%. We're running AOL Server on RedHat Linux, which shows nsd as multiple processes, one for each thread. We have had several occasions where a thread will go wild, usually because of a TCL programming error on our part. Having the threads listed as separate process is very helpful, because all ns_logs contain the process id and the offending thread is easy to isolate. If Solaris reports nsd as one process, that could be your problem. Jim At 10:46 AM 9/7/98 -0700, John Buckman wrote: >I'm wondering if anyone on this list has any experience with running >AolServer on Solaris/x86 in a production setting. > >I just moved a web site from an UltraSparc 1/140, where "top" was >reporting that "nsd" used about 2% of the CPU at a constant rate. Now >that I've moved the web site over to Solaris/x86, it's using about 40% of >the cpu. The PC is a Pentium/133 w/128mb of RAM, which should be able to >handle this ok. > >When I kill nsd and restart it, the cpu usage goes back to 4%, which >seems about right. > >Anyone have any thoughts on this? > >john > > >John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com >Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 10:30:31 EDT Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Malte Sussdorff Subject: AOLServer on Linux with Postgres Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi, has anyone experience with the use of the AOLServer under Linux with PostgresSQL as database backend ? I installed AOLServer 2.2 (2.3 doesn't work) on Linux 2.0.35 and connect to PostgresSQL via the postgres.so module. And there the problem starts. I can actually insert tables into my postgres database, but i can`t retrieve any information about it. I can't insert new entrys or anything elsse but the creation of the table. Or do you have any othe idea for a freeware solution for AOLServer and Linux (mySQL databse driver for example ;) ) ? Furthermore AOLServer 2.3 behaves strange under my Linux installation (Suse, libc, 2.0.35 kernel). Starting the nsd (via bootstrap or else) results in Linux going down with a lot of harddisk traffic before. Any idea for a solution ? Thanx in advance Yours Malte ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 10:14:30 -0700 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: John Buckman Organization: Lyris Technologies Inc. Subject: libthread fault on Solaris/x86 In-Reply-To: <199809080134.VAA22072@services.web.aol.com> I've determined what the problem is with AolServer on Solaris/x86. After running nsd in the foreground for a while, I get the following error: signal fault in critical section signal number: 11, signal code: 1, fault address: 0xffffffff, pc: 0xffffffff, sp: 0xe06d6fe4 libthread panic: fault in libthread critical section (PID: 22490 LWP 1) then, a new nsd is spawned, and 3 nsd processes are now running. I'm running Solaris x86 v2.51, fully patched (with today's recommended patch set). john John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 23:42:11 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Patrick Giagnocavo Organization: Quadrant International Subject: Re: AOLServer on Linux with Postgres MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Malte Sussdorff wrote: > > Hi, > > has anyone experience with the use of the AOLServer under Linux with > PostgresSQL as database backend ? Hello Malte, Yes! I have been exceedingly pleased with the combination. > I installed AOLServer 2.2 (2.3 doesn't work) on Linux 2.0.35 and connect to > PostgresSQL via the postgres.so module. And there the problem starts. I can > actually insert tables into my postgres database, but i can`t retrieve any > information about it. I can't insert new entrys or anything elsse but the > creation of the table. Use the setup server to turn on extended SQL logging and any other extended error logging for your server. Open 2 browser windows, one with the "Ad Hoc TCL Evaluation" window, and the other with the "Show Log" window. Enter a simple tcl/SQL command, like (from memory; may contain errors) set db (ns_db gethandle) ns_db select $db "select * from table1" and exec it. Then look at the log in the other window. Set to view the last 8192 bytes, and hit Refresh to see what has been reported as happening. > Or do you have any othe idea for a freeware solution for AOLServer and Linux > (mySQL databse driver for example ;) ) ? No go on the MySQL driver; besides, MySQL does not currently support SQL subselects, so really does not have the power you need(you may not think you need this but you do!) I did ask already on the MySQL list though :-) > Furthermore AOLServer 2.3 behaves strange under my Linux installation (Suse, > libc, 2.0.35 kernel). Starting the nsd (via bootstrap or else) results in > Linux going down with a lot of harddisk traffic before. Any idea for a > solution ? Basically you can only use 2.3 under a "glibc" installation; I use Debian v2.0 with no problems. You might be having a problem if you turned on the ExtendedTableInfo setting when setting up the database pool; I understand that this was not reliable under v2.2 when running with Postgres. But it was fixed under 2.3 . Cordially -- +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Patrick Giagnocavo phone 610.408.7479 | | APM fax 610.695.2592 | | Quadrant International email pgiagnoc@qi.com | +-------------------------------------------------------+ ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:54:43 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Poriel Jean-Marc Subject: unsuscrib MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -----Message d'origine----- De : Jim Wilcoxson À : Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Date : jeudi 10 septembre 1998 01:38 Objet : Re: AolServer on Solaris/x86 >It sounds like an individual thread is using 40%. We're running AOL Server >on RedHat Linux, which shows nsd as multiple processes, one for each >thread. We have had several occasions where a thread will go wild, usually >because of a TCL programming error on our part. Having the threads listed >as separate process is very helpful, because all ns_logs contain the >process id and the offending thread is easy to isolate. > >If Solaris reports nsd as one process, that could be your problem. > >Jim > > >At 10:46 AM 9/7/98 -0700, John Buckman wrote: >>I'm wondering if anyone on this list has any experience with running >>AolServer on Solaris/x86 in a production setting. >> >>I just moved a web site from an UltraSparc 1/140, where "top" was >>reporting that "nsd" used about 2% of the CPU at a constant rate. Now >>that I've moved the web site over to Solaris/x86, it's using about 40% of >>the cpu. The PC is a Pentium/133 w/128mb of RAM, which should be able to >>handle this ok. >> >>When I kill nsd and restart it, the cpu usage goes back to 4%, which >>seems about right. >> >>Anyone have any thoughts on this? >> >>john >> >> >>John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com >>Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server >> > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:55:01 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Poriel Jean-Marc Subject: unsuscrib MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -----Message d'origine----- De : John Buckman À : Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Date : jeudi 10 septembre 1998 01:52 Objet : libthread fault on Solaris/x86 >I've determined what the problem is with AolServer on Solaris/x86. After >running nsd in the foreground for a while, I get the following error: > >signal fault in critical section >signal number: 11, signal code: 1, fault address: 0xffffffff, pc: >0xffffffff, sp: 0xe06d6fe4 >libthread panic: fault in libthread critical section (PID: 22490 LWP 1) > >then, a new nsd is spawned, and 3 nsd processes are now running. > >I'm running Solaris x86 v2.51, fully patched (with today's recommended >patch set). > >john > > >John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com >Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:55:24 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Poriel Jean-Marc Subject: unsuscrib MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit -----Message d'origine----- De : Kriston J. Rehberg À : Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Date : jeudi 10 septembre 1998 01:34 Objet : Re: db help needed >Hi, have you tried using the "extill" database driver instead of >"illustra"? This requires a little more configuration on your part but >it is documented in the setup server and in the online docs. From what >I can see, any db that works with "illustra" can be configured to talk >with "extill". It uses the "nsillpd" program to connect to the database >which is just like how the Sybase driver works. This might give you >finer granularity in your tuning. The other advice about managing >Illustra better (autocommits) is good advice, too, but Illustra just >isn't a very good database anymore. Most high volume database-backed >sites that I know of have moved to Sybase and others to Solid. > >Incidentally, Illustra has been discontinued for quite some time now -- >it pretty much died after it was acquired by Informix. > >Kris > >-- >Kriston J. Rehberg >Systems Development http://kriston.net/ >America Online, Inc. >Vienna, Virginia USA endeavor to persevere > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:32:13 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Malte Sussdorff Subject: suexec Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, is there any possibility to execute TCL scripts under another (UNIX-)username than the one running the AOLserver (like suexec under apache)? Currently i've added nsadmin to sudoers list, and execute external programms with sudo to get the results. But it would be easier to handle, if there is another possibility. Thanx in advance Yours Malte Sussdorff ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:33:28 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Matt Pease Subject: AOLserver Java Servlet Questions MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Is anyone out there using Java servlets with AOLserver? What is the NcgiServletGate.class for, and more importantly.. where do I get it? Second question is, does AOLServer support the full functionality of the JSDK, namely session tracking? Thank you- Matt Pease ____________________________________________________ Matthew Pease matt@fullscreen.com Fullscreen, Inc. http://www.fullscreen.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 15:04:53 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Sebastian Skracic Subject: AOLServer database driver for InterBase 4.0 released In-Reply-To: <199809100406.AAA11908@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hello, This is it. Sources are at: Good Luck, Seb. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:45:21 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Do It Sports Staff Subject: Solid drivers In-Reply-To: <199809100404.AAA11739@services.web.aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I saw a posting on Phil's web/db forum that said the AOLServer driver for Solid didn't support transactions: =====================quote===================== The supplied solid.c driver from AOL doesn't support transactions. So my friend Sebastian hacked the driver and added the transaction features. Now, the problem is that solid.c is Copyright by AOL and I guess I am not permitted to distribute the hacked version. Without it the port, of course, doesn't work. Does anybody has an idea what I should do? Answered by Branimir Dolicki (bdolicki@tel.hr) on May 17, 1998. Either mail it to feedback@aolserver.com, or mail it to me, and we'll integrate the changes. Answered by Mark Dalrymple (markd@aol.com) on May 26, 1998. =================end quote=========================== Is this still the case? Also, is there a driver for AOLServer for MySQL? Thanks. +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | o _ _ _ | | _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) | | _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ | | (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ | | --------^ ---^--- ---^--- ------- ----------- | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ "Doesn't matter where you finish, as long as it's not behind slow people!" -DoMan Brad Chick doman@doitsports.com Do It Sports, Inc. Tel: (734) 998-0007 x27 150 S. Fifth Ave. Fax: (734) 998-0056 Suite C, Ann Arbor, MI 48014 http://www.doitsports.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 12:07:29 -0700 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: John Buckman Organization: Lyris Technologies Inc. Subject: Re: libthread fault on Solaris/x86 In-Reply-To: <199809100007.UAA07014@services.web.aol.com> I wanted to follow up on this message, as it appears that I have determined the cause of my problem. Here's the scenario: * I have a bunch of threads running on Solaris/x86, and one of them causes a fault of some sort. * the AolServer signal handler receives the signal, caused by the fault * the signal handler assumes that the process has dies (based on the thread's fault signal) and spawns a new process to gracefully recover * BUT, the original process itself did not crash, on the only thread of that process exited. * So, because AolServer thought that the signal meant the process was crashing, it launched a new process, but the original process was fine, so I now have two nsd processes. * By changing adding "CatchExceptions=0" in nsd.ini, we solved the problem, as the faulty threads now disappear on their own, and nsd continues along nicely. john > I've determined what the problem is with AolServer on Solaris/x86. After > running nsd in the foreground for a while, I get the following error: > > signal fault in critical section > signal number: 11, signal code: 1, fault address: 0xffffffff, pc: > 0xffffffff, sp: 0xe06d6fe4 > libthread panic: fault in libthread critical section (PID: 22490 LWP 1) > > then, a new nsd is spawned, and 3 nsd processes are now running. > > I'm running Solaris x86 v2.51, fully patched (with today's recommended > patch set). John Buckman - Lyris Technologies Inc. - www.lyris.com Developers of MailShield Anti-Spam Software and Lyris Email List Server ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:07:20 -0700 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Huber Subject: How to Unsubscribe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ---------------------------------------------------- For those who have forgotten how to unsubscribe from this mailing list or spell unsubscribe. There is two ways to remove yourself from the list. One is to use the ADP on aolserver's web site at: http://www.aolserver.com/server/listserv.adp or you can send a message to LISTSERV@SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM with the subject being blank and the body of the message being signoff AOLserver. I have manually removed poriel@micronet.fr de la liste. -- --------------------------------------------------- | Jeff Huber | Web Applications Developer | | jeff@alienbob.com | AM.net - http://am.net | --------------------------------------------------- -=- Visit Me on the Web: http://alienbob.com/ -=- ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 12:16:05 +0200 Reply-To: Branimir Dolicki Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Branimir Dolicki Subject: Re: Solid drivers In-Reply-To: <199809120405.AAA28804@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Brad Chick wrote: > I saw a posting on Phil's web/db forum that said the AOLServer driver for > Solid didn't support transactions: [snip] > Either mail it to feedback@aolserver.com, or mail it to me, and we'll > integrate the changes. > Answered by Mark Dalrymple (markd@aol.com) on May 26, 1998. [snip] > Is this still the case? Brad, Mark said the changes will be integrated in the next release of AOLServer. Meanwhile you can download the patched driver from: Good luck, -- Branimir ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 07:19:26 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Larry W. Virden" Subject: In case you haven't heard Beginning Monday, Sept 14, the 1998 Tcl conference begins in San Diego. The first two days are tutorials on programming with Tcl, use of various extensions, etc. The last 2.5 days are talks on what people are doing with Tcl, announcement of new programs and extensions, demos, and get togethers. Feel free to look me up if you are able to attend. Larry W. Virden comp.lang.tcl FAQ maintainer -- Larry W. Virden INET: lvirden@cas.org <*> O- "We are all Kosh." Unless explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should be construed as representing my employer's opinions. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 15:21:25 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Branimir Dolicki Subject: ns_db releasehandle OR ns_db flush ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hello everybody, Recently I have noticed that my AolServer 2.1 site hosted at PrimeHost becomes useless at peak hours. The reason is that the majority of requests involve pretty heavy SQL queries and I can have only two (!) simultaneous connections to Illustra. I have asked the PrimeHost guys if they could increase the number of connections and I hope they will do it, but I would like to give my share of improving performance. Does it make sense to do ns_db releasehandle imediatelly after the last row i care about has been fetched, hoping the handle will be returned faster than automatically? The manual says: When your operation has finished running, the server will automatically return any handles to their pools, so you don't normally have to call this function. What does "your operation" mean? The database operation (fetching the last row), or the Tcl script? The tcl script may last much longer, because it ends only after returning the contents to the (presumably slow) client. Or should I use "ns_db flush" ? Thanks, ------------------------------------ Branimir Dolicki bdolicki@tel.hr Lavsa d.o.o., Zagreb http://lavsa.com/bdolicki/ ____________________________________ ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 15:11:07 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Kerry Barlow Subject: Developers library website Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi all I cant seem to find the AOL server developers library of perl scripts that used to be on AOl. Since the new WWW site everything is a mess. I was specifically looking for a program to cycle banners on a webpage I thought there was such an animal on the developers page years ago.Either it was a TCL or perl script I cant recall. Thankyou Sincerely Kerry Admin@MntnWeb.Com WWW server hosting Http://mntnweb.com Binghamton online Webcam Http://MntnWeb.Com/bing.htm CHRISTMAS Web Page Http://mntnweb.com/xmas.htm ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:44:23 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Mark Dalrymple Subject: AOLserver 2.3.1 Released The AOLServer development team is happy to announce the official AOLserver 2.3.1 release. It contains several important bug fixes detailed in the release notes at http://www.aolserver.com/server/docs/2.3.1/notes/index.html Enjoy, ++Mark Dalrymple, America Online Web Server Development. markd@aol.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 15:09:42 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: Re: ns_db releasehandle OR ns_db flush ? In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" My understanding is that ns_db releasehandle would get called at the end of your TCL source file that was loaded with a URL reference. If it is a very long running procedure and you have several of these, you would need to call ns_db releasehandle yourself, or arrange for some way to share the handle(s) among your various procedures. I'm not sure if handles are directly related to connections, i.e., it may be possible to have many different handles are serviced by a handful of connections, -OR- an AOL handle may directly correspond to a (persistent) database connection. ns_db flush is only used after a select call to tell the database driver to kill the results of the select, i.e., you aren't going to fetch any more rows. This happens automagically if you fetch all the rows. I have never used flush in practice... Jim At 09:21 AM 9/14/98 , Branimir Dolicki wrote: >Hello everybody, > >Recently I have noticed that my AolServer 2.1 site hosted at PrimeHost >becomes useless at peak hours. The reason is that the majority of >requests involve pretty heavy SQL queries and I can have only two (!) >simultaneous connections to Illustra. > >I have asked the PrimeHost guys if they could increase the number of >connections and I hope they will do it, but I would like to give my >share of improving performance. > >Does it make sense to do ns_db releasehandle imediatelly after the last >row i care about has been fetched, hoping the handle will be returned >faster than automatically? The manual says: > > When your operation has finished running, the server will automatically > return any handles to their pools, so you don't normally have to call > this function. > >What does "your operation" mean? The database operation (fetching the >last row), or the Tcl script? The tcl script may last much longer, >because it ends only after returning the contents to the (presumably >slow) client. > >Or should I use "ns_db flush" ? > >Thanks, > >------------------------------------ >Branimir Dolicki bdolicki@tel.hr > > Lavsa d.o.o., Zagreb > http://lavsa.com/bdolicki/ >____________________________________ > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:16:18 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Branimir Dolicki Subject: Re: ns_db releasehandle OR ns_db flush In-Reply-To: <199809150411.AAA03925@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 15:09:42 Jim Wilcoxson wrote: > If it is a very long running procedure and you have several of these, > you would need to call ns_db releasehandle yourself [...] In practice that means that one should _always_ call ns_db releasehandle manually as soon as the last database operation has finished. The reason is that the Tcl procedure finishes only after the whole contents has been returned to the client (often on a slow modem link). Worse even, if the connection gets interrupted, the handle will be occupied until some timeout (how long?). That means that one should _never_ write anything back to the client if the handle is still in hands. I would like to conclude this with one observation: If you are a PrimeHost customer, which means that you have only two database handles (Illustra) and AolServer 2.1, you have an almost useless server. AolServer 2.1 doesn't even have nonblocking versions of ns_db gethandle, so I can't even tell the user "Database not available, please try later". ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 11:16:08 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Lamar Owen Subject: Using PostgreSQL 6.3 and higher with AOLserver 2.3.x MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit For those trying to get PostgreSQL 6.3.x to work with AOLserver 2.3.x, a note: The line in the postgres startup script (that starts the postmaster process) needs to have the -i option set, or AOLserver will never be able to connect to it. My postmaster line (the RedHat default /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql script): su postgres -c '/usr/bin/postmaster -i -S -D/var/lib/pgsql' The default has no -i. This option enables listening on the default TCP port (5432 is factory). Even if the AOLserver and postmaster are running on the same machine, the communication still is on a TCP socket -- try using localhost:5432:database without the -i and see. Fortunately, the default $PGLIB/pg_hba.conf file enables localhost access. However, if the AOLserver is on a different machine, you need to allow access from the AOLserver host in $PGLIB/pg_hba.conf (RedHat's default location is /var/pgsql/pg_hba.conf). Also, the datasource format for the database pool is documented in the examples/c/postgres/postgres.c file: host:port:database. If the machine name is wgcr.org, the port is 5432, and the database is 'intranet', the datasource is wgcr.org:5432:intranet . I have now been using postgresql with AOLserver for a year: I had a 2.2.1 server properly modified to use it. Now running 2.3 on RedHat 5.0. To use 2.3.1 under RedHat 5.0, simply upgrade your 5.0 glibc to version 2.0.7. Then install the AOLserver for RedHat 5.1. It works fine. Enjoy! Lamar Owen WGCR Internet Radio ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 13:33:19 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: Using ns_dbquotevalue with Solid Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ns_dbquotevalue looks for null values and returns NULL, so queries end up: select * from table where colname=NULL Solid doesn't support this syntax, but only: select * from table where colname is null or select * from table where colname=nullval_char() select * from table where colname=nullval_int() I have no idea what to do if the datatype for colname isn't char or int... Anybody have any good ways of handling this?? Thanks, Jim ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 18:38:46 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Subject: ns_mktemp Comments: To: tom@rubylane.com, david@rubylane.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Warning: when using ns_mktemp to create temporary file names, it will return the same "unique" sequence if called twice in a row. Totally a bug... Linux, RedHat 5.0, AOL Server 2.30 J ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 09:18:49 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Patrick Giagnocavo Organization: Quadrant International Subject: Re: AOLserver 2.3.1 Released MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello All, V 2.3.1 does indeed solve the urlencode problem I was seeing, and just in time, as I had not needed it up till now but now do for a new project. I am trying to put a relatively long trailer (which also includes :LASTMOD: ) in my virtual server, but it seems to be getting truncated. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Sometimes when I have upgraded I have needed to re-create the trailer; but once I did so the problem was fixed. In this case once I have done so the problem still occurs. ./patrick ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:10:29 +0200 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Sebastian Skracic Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lusenet98 for InterBase released In-Reply-To: <199809220404.AAA15446@services.web.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Lusenet98, a database backed threaded discussion system is now available for InterBase. It works in conjuction with AOLServer database driver for InterBase, and all that with full documentation can be reached at For those who don't want to spend their time constantly reloading pages in order to track changes, the mailing list that will keep you informed about any progress in this project can be reached at above URL as well. Good Luck, Seb. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 12:28:28 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Ken Overton Subject: setup server doesn't show existing users, perms MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit We're running AOLServer 2.2.1 under Solaris 2.5.1 w/Illustra (I'm not telling our humble hardware platform). We seem to have a problem related to the /NS/Admin scripts and/or nsperm module. All the users and permissions work correctly (they restrict access and handle user/passwords correctly, etc.). However, these users, groups and permissions that are functioning correctly are not showing up in /NS/Perm/Admin -- there it appears as if it was a fresh, untouched installation. For most things I don't care, I'm perfectly happy to just edit nsd.ini and the appropriate .dat files in my filesystem, but I'm curious if it's a harbinger of worse things under the surface. -- Ken Overton Finger kov@mitpress.mit.edu The MIT Press, NE25-409 kov@mit.edu for Five Cambridge Center (617) 258-0579 PGP Public Key Cambridge, MA 02142-1399 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 09:47:00 -0400 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Lamar Owen Subject: Upgrade issues from 2.2.1 to 2.3. MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I was curious if anyone else noticed this behavior: I upgraded from 2.2.1 to 2.3b2 to 2.3b3 to 2.3b4. I have not yet upgraded to 2.3.1 on my production machine, as b4 is solid. I then received an e-mail to the effect that one of my virtual servers was wide open. I immediately found that the nsadmin user's password for all virtual servers EXCEPT the setup server had been changed -- to having NO password! In fact, upon checking the files in servers/v_server/modules/nsperm, I found that the users.dat file had been corrupted with various non-printable characters in the encrypted password field as well as the description field. The corruption was identical between virtual servers, and it was only the nsadmin user. Now, I'm willing to accept that something else may have caused this, but it all happened when I upgraded. Keep you eyes open! Lamar Owen WGCR Internet Radio User of AOLserver since April, 1997.