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I've got a Windows 2008 Enterprise R2 Server running Ektron 8.02 SP3 that is causing me some trouble that I can't diagnose.

So my question isn't for a solution but simply how to better profile a .net application / windows server. Whenever you try to POST a form built by the software, it takes 8 seconds and change to return the page (on this specific server, it doesn't do it on other machines with the same codebase). It appears that it's trying to make a connection to something for 8 seconds, fails, then returns the page without error. Some more facts:

  • This is a beefy VM that is not being over utilized
  • The database is running on the same machine, so there is no lag there.
  • The 8 second delay even happens when submitting from the server itself
  • The event viewer for the server doesn't report any errors that seem related
  • Profile MSSQL doesn't report any issues either
  • Microsoft Network Monitor doesn't report any glaring networking issues, though its hard to say as the tool doesn't report long connection attempts clearly (from what I've seen of it)

I feel sufficiently confident that there is some process during the form POST on the server that is trying to make a connection somewhere, failing, and continue through the rest of the process. It doesn't report any errors and the forms all submit fine.

So, all that being said, is there anything else I can do to debug this? I feel like I'm shooting in the dark. Thanks for any help you can offer.

mattmcmanus
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  • Ektron does give you the ability to have an email message sent when a form is submitted. Is it possible you're sending email on form submission? If so, can you check to make sure the SMTP information is valid? – Bill Apr 23 '12 at 19:03
  • Hey Bill, the 8 second delay is for forms that send emails and forms that only submit to the database. We created test forms for any potential network iteration to see if we could pinpoint the problem to an external resource, but it happens on forms that only submit to a locally hosted DB. – mattmcmanus Apr 23 '12 at 20:04

1 Answers1

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It sounds like this isn't an application you wrote. If so, the potential solutions are different.

A first level step would be to use Windows' Performance Monitor. Select the options (process and/or performance attribute to watch), then run the process through its paces.

If Performance Monitor can't help, you'll need to get into the real guts of the app. Most likely this will be more difficult than you want unless you're writing the app. You can debug a .NET app that is not your own using Reflector (paid) or ILSpy (free). HOWEVER, this can violate the license agreement (and likely does if the app has been purchased).

Apart from that, you're going to need to contact the product developer if you want to both stay sane and find this problem quickly.

John Fisher
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  • Ektron is a giant, proprietary codebase. I'm not sure how productive it would be to search through it source. Is there a way I can monitor where a timeout is happening or where things are getting held up? – mattmcmanus Apr 17 '12 at 19:19
  • @mattmcmanus: If Ektron has provided Performance Counters for its users, you should try using those from the Performance Monitor application. – John Fisher Apr 18 '12 at 00:47