(repost) intermittent failure to Server.CreateObject("MSXM..

hi,

our web site is in transition (a process that will take years in all --
there is too much needed code to re-write with a small team, particularly
given other priorities) from ASP to ASP.NET.

to help maintain configuration sanity, we set up our Application_OnStart()
in global.asa to read data base connection information out of the same
machine.config (and web.congif if appropriate) that our ASP.NET apps use.
(ASP doesn't automatically restart when these files change the way ASP.NET
does, but we don't change them often, know the facts and act accordingly.)

this has been working fine for a couple years. since Wednesday, however, a
number of servers have failed to complete this configuration step correctly
during their nightly reboot.

as far as we can tell the problem is at the step
Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0")

just before the script parses the machine.config file.

because the problem affected 6 of 12 servers the first night, 3 the 2nd and
3 again last night (each time a different sub-set of servers) (and because
an IISRESET appears *always* to solve the problem), i wonder whether there
might some kind of race condition happening. (maybe something having to do
with CreateObject in general or XML in particular sometimes isn't quite
ready when global.asa's Application_OnStart() fires?

what might have changed (just before Halloween!? that would cause this
race to occur much more frequently? (i can't rule out that this might have
happened occasionally in the past, but never 3 of 12 servers and never 3
nights in a row.)

i note that the www publishing service is set up depending on HTTP SSL, IIS
Admin, and RPC Services; a quick google gives me the impression these are
the recommended dependencies.

we run IIS6 on Windoes 2003 Server. (plus ASP.NET 2.0 Final, for what that
is worth -- we don't have any such problems with ASP.NET at the moment --
just with good ol' ASP)

i'd be grateful for any ideas.

cheers,

Tim

(accidentally posted this first in microsoft . public . de . inetserver .
iis . asp -- sorry)

"tbh" <femdev.TakeThisOut@newsgroups.nospam> wrote in message
news:OVrweiVHIHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> hi,
>
> our web site is in transition (a process that will take years in all --
> there is too much needed code to re-write with a small team, particularly
> given other priorities) from ASP to ASP.NET.
>
> to help maintain configuration sanity, we set up our Application_OnStart()
> in global.asa to read data base connection information out of the same
> machine.config (and web.congif if appropriate) that our ASP.NET apps use.
> (ASP doesn't automatically restart when these files change the way ASP.NET
> does, but we don't change them often, know the facts and act accordingly.)
>
> this has been working fine for a couple years. since Wednesday, however, a
> number of servers have failed to complete this configuration step
correctly
> during their nightly reboot.
>
> as far as we can tell the problem is at the step
> Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0")
>
> just before the script parses the machine.config file.
>
> because the problem affected 6 of 12 servers the first night, 3 the 2nd
and
> 3 again last night (each time a different sub-set of servers) (and because
> an IISRESET appears *always* to solve the problem), i wonder whether there
> might some kind of race condition happening. (maybe something having to do
> with CreateObject in general or XML in particular sometimes isn't quite
> ready when global.asa's Application_OnStart() fires?
>
> what might have changed (just before Halloween!? that would cause this
> race to occur much more frequently? (i can't rule out that this might have
> happened occasionally in the past, but never 3 of 12 servers and never 3
> nights in a row.)
>
> i note that the www publishing service is set up depending on HTTP SSL,
IIS
> Admin, and RPC Services; a quick google gives me the impression these are
> the recommended dependencies.
>
> we run IIS6 on Windoes 2003 Server. (plus ASP.NET 2.0 Final, for what that
> is worth -- we don't have any such problems with ASP.NET at the moment --
> just with good ol' ASP)
>
> i'd be grateful for any ideas.

MSXML doesn't depend on any external services so it seems unlikely that
service dependancies have any impact. Also Application_Start only occurs on
the first request not on reboot.

You haven't detailed what actually goes wrong. Is there an error or does it
simply not behave as expected?

Try using MSXML3 instead does that work?

--
Anthony Jones - MVP ASP/ASP.NET