AuthCookie on Win32

["Gary M. Spieler" <sp...@freeshell.org>]

We're running Apache 1.3.20, modperl 1.25_01-dev, and AuthCookie 3.00 
(yeah, I know they're old, but I don't have any say about that).

We were having reports of some slowness issues as of late, so I got access 
to the access logs.  What I found out is that any time AuthCookie is used 
to authenticate, apache queues any other requests until the file for that 
first request is completely transmitted.  If we are transmitting a 300k 
file over a LAN, it's not terribly noticeable, but if we do the same thing 
over a modem, it "freezes" the web site for a few seconds or more.  Having 
to wait an extra half second may not seem that noticeable to users (or it 
might), but I think them not having to wait would make things fly!

Earlier this week, I found out mp for win32 is single threaded.  Hmmm.... 
Our stuff is fast and simple, so let's just assume single-threading is 
okay as far as response time goes.  Given this, I'd like to know why 
apache is holding on to that instance of modperl until that file is 
completely transmitted.  I would expect it to release as soon as it has 
been authenticated.

BTW, I'm pretty sure we've ruled out AuthCookie as we ran a bare bones 
version that did virtually nothing and we had the same problem.

Any ideas on how to get modperl to release right away?  What I'm hoping to 
hear is something simple like upgrade to modperl 1.99.  What I'm expecting 
to hear is upgrade to 2.0....

Thanks,
Gary



http://spieler.freeshell.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

Re: AuthCookie on Win32

[Octavian Rasnita <or...@fcc.ro>]

I'm not a big specialist, but try setting Apache to KeepAlive Off.

It might wait until a certain request is finished before allowing a new
request.

Teddy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary M. Spieler" <sp...@freeshell.org>
To: <mo...@perl.apache.org>
Sent: vineri, 28 ianuarie 2005 23:46 PM
Subject: AuthCookie on Win32


We're running Apache 1.3.20, modperl 1.25_01-dev, and AuthCookie 3.00
(yeah, I know they're old, but I don't have any say about that).

We were having reports of some slowness issues as of late, so I got access
to the access logs.  What I found out is that any time AuthCookie is used
to authenticate, apache queues any other requests until the file for that
first request is completely transmitted.  If we are transmitting a 300k
file over a LAN, it's not terribly noticeable, but if we do the same thing
over a modem, it "freezes" the web site for a few seconds or more.  Having
to wait an extra half second may not seem that noticeable to users (or it
might), but I think them not having to wait would make things fly!

Earlier this week, I found out mp for win32 is single threaded.  Hmmm....
Our stuff is fast and simple, so let's just assume single-threading is
okay as far as response time goes.  Given this, I'd like to know why
apache is holding on to that instance of modperl until that file is
completely transmitted.  I would expect it to release as soon as it has
been authenticated.

BTW, I'm pretty sure we've ruled out AuthCookie as we ran a bare bones
version that did virtually nothing and we had the same problem.

Any ideas on how to get modperl to release right away?  What I'm hoping to
hear is something simple like upgrade to modperl 1.99.  What I'm expecting
to hear is upgrade to 2.0....

Thanks,
Gary



http://spieler.freeshell.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

Re: AuthCookie on Win32

[Randy Kobes <ra...@theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca>]

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005, Gary M. Spieler wrote:

> We're running Apache 1.3.20, modperl 1.25_01-dev, and AuthCookie 3.00
> (yeah, I know they're old, but I don't have any say about that).
>
> We were having reports of some slowness issues as of late, so I got access
> to the access logs.  What I found out is that any time AuthCookie is used
> to authenticate, apache queues any other requests until the file for that
> first request is completely transmitted.  If we are transmitting a 300k
> file over a LAN, it's not terribly noticeable, but if we do the same thing
> over a modem, it "freezes" the web site for a few seconds or more.  Having
> to wait an extra half second may not seem that noticeable to users (or it
> might), but I think them not having to wait would make things fly!
>
> Earlier this week, I found out mp for win32 is single threaded.  Hmmm....
> Our stuff is fast and simple, so let's just assume single-threading is
> okay as far as response time goes.  Given this, I'd like to know why
> apache is holding on to that instance of modperl until that file is
> completely transmitted.  I would expect it to release as soon as it has
> been authenticated.
>
> BTW, I'm pretty sure we've ruled out AuthCookie as we ran a bare bones
> version that did virtually nothing and we had the same problem.
>
> Any ideas on how to get modperl to release right away?  What I'm hoping to
> hear is something simple like upgrade to modperl 1.99.  What I'm expecting
> to hear is upgrade to 2.0....
>
> Thanks,
> Gary

You may indeed have hit upon the multithreading limitations
of mod_perl-1.x on Win32:
  http://perl.apache.org/docs/1.0/os/win32/multithread.html
If possible, you could try upgrading to mod_perl-2:
  http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/os/win32/install.html
to see if that helps (mod_perl-1.99_xx is the development
version of mod_perl-2 - the mod_perl ppm package at
  http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/
is currently at 2,0,0-RC4,0, which is the latest
mod_perl-2 release candidate). Note that mod_perl-2, as
well as requiring Apache-2, requires perl-5.8.x (an
ActivePerl 8xx build) on Win32.

-- 
best regards,
randy kobes