tijujohn

complex custom configuration section in Web.Config in asp.net sample

tijujohn83 — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:03:00 GMT

lets say i have a custom configuration section like this

and My configuration is a complex xml like

// ProductsEndpoints.config



    https://xxx-dev-app03.devid.local/dfff/v1/mbemmMrs" />
    https://ppo-dev-app03.devid.local/gss/v1/Measures" />
    https://fff.hh.com/uu/v1" />




    https://mht-dev-db02/acce/v1/wwqbcdValue" />




    https://www.blahblah.com" />

so here are the classes needed to read/write into this configuration

    public class ProductsEndpointsConfiguration : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Products", IsRequired = true, IsKey = false)]
        public ProductCollection Products
        {
            get
            {
                return (ProductCollection)base["Products"];
            }
            set
            {
                base["Products"] = value;
            }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof(Product), AddItemName = "Product", CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap)]
    public class ProductCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        private const string ItemName = "Product";

        public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
        {
            get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMapAlternate; }
        }

        protected override string ElementName
        {
            get { return ItemName; }
        }

        protected override bool IsElementName(string elementName)
        {
            return (elementName == ItemName);
        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((Product)element).Name;
        }

        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new Product();
        }

        new public Product this[string productName]
        {
            get { return (Product)base.BaseGet(productName); }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }

}

    public class EndPointsConfiguration : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Endpoints", IsRequired = true, IsKey = false)]
        public EndpointCollection Endpoints
        {
            get
            {
                return (EndpointCollection)base["Endpoints"];
            }
            set
            {
                base["Endpoints"] = value;
            }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    [ConfigurationCollection(typeof(Endpoint), AddItemName = "Endpoint", CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap)]
    public class EndpointCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        private const string ItemName = "Endpoint";

        public override ConfigurationElementCollectionType CollectionType
        {
            get { return ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMapAlternate; }
        }

        protected override string ElementName
        {
            get { return ItemName; }
        }

        protected override bool IsElementName(string elementName)
        {
            return (elementName == ItemName);
        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((Endpoint)element).ServiceName;
        }

        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new Endpoint();
        }

        new public Endpoint this[string serviceName]
        {
            get { return (Endpoint)base.BaseGet(serviceName); }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }

}

    public class Product : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Name", IsRequired = true, IsKey = true)]
        public string Name
        {
            get { return (string)base["Name"]; }
            set { base["Name"] = value; }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("MemberKey", IsRequired = true)]
        public string MemberKey
        {
            get { return (string)base["MemberKey"]; }
            set { base["MemberKey"] = value; }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("Endpoints", IsRequired = false, IsKey = false)]
        public EndpointCollection EndPoints
        {
            get
            {
                return ((EndpointCollection)(base["Endpoints"]));
            }
            set
            {
                base["Endpoints"] = value;
            }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    public class Endpoint : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("ServiceName", IsRequired = true, IsKey = true)]
        public string ServiceName
        {
            get { return (string)base["ServiceName"]; }
            set { base["ServiceName"] = value; }
        }

        [ConfigurationProperty("Uri", IsRequired = true)]
        public string Uri
        {
            get { return (string)base["Uri"]; }
            set { base["Uri"] = value; }
        }

        public override bool IsReadOnly()
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

Different redirect (http response) status codes and how the browser (should) reacts. (301 vs 302 vs 303 vs 307)

tijujohn83 — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:48:00 GMT

This is a quick post about the difference between these HTTP response status codes. The difference is subtle however, when doing something like SSO(my last project), the difference could be substantial.

[1]. The 301 Response

GET https://www.gmail.com/ HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://mail.google.com/mail/

301 tells the browser that the resource at the uri has been changed permanently to the new location, typically to the value of the 'Location' response header. The browser makes a new request and subsequently, the browser will NOT make another request to the original link (even if manually typed in the address bar by the user), in this case https://www.gmail.com, instead, it will always make the call to https://mail.google.com/mail/

[2]. The 302 response

GET https://mail.google.com/mail/ HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false&continue=https://mail.google.com/mail/&scc=1<mpl=default<mplcache=2

302 tells the browser that the resource at the uri has been changed temporarily. The browser will redirect to the new location this time ONLY. The next time a request comes to the original uri, the browser will in fact hit the original uri.

[3]. The 303 response

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
HTTP/1.1 303 See Other
Location: https://example.org/other

303 is almost as the same as 302, the only difference being that it tells the browser to make the second request using the GET verb. so even a POST will be converted to a GET

[4]. The 307 response

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
HTTP/1.1 307 Temporary Redirect
Location: https://example.org/other

This is the same as 302 except it tells the browser that the next request should be made with the same verb as the original, in this case GET. In other words, even a POST to the original link, should redirected by a POST to the new link.

"503 - Service Unavailable" and "Load User Profile"

tijujohn83 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:46:00 GMT

Yesterday, I was kinda irritated after my site hosted on my local IIS7.5 suddently started me giving "Service Unavailable" error. I knew, I did not had made any changed neither did I install any updates or stuff. But I was fooling around with my windows Users profile a bit.

So here is what I found after a little troubleshooting and I thoght it would be good to share it here.

I was getting these kind of erros in the windows event logs.

Something got beaten up with my profile which I still need to research further.

==============
system logs
==============

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:19
Event ID:      5022
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
The Windows Process Activation Service failed to create a worker process for the application pool 'Default'. The data field contains the error number.
Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    5022
    0
    3
    0
    0
    0x80000000000000

    19631


    System
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local


    Default
    02000780

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:19
Event ID:      5022
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
The Windows Process Activation Service failed to create a worker process for the application pool 'Default'. The data field contains the error number.
Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    5022
    0
    3
    0
    0
    0x80000000000000

    19632


    System
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local


    Default
    02000780

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WAS
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:20
Event ID:      5002
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
Application pool 'Default' is being automatically disabled due to a series of failures in the process(es) serving that application pool.
Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    5002
    0
    2
    0
    0
    0x80000000000000

    19636


    System
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local


    Default

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================
Application logs
=================

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:20
Event ID:      1500
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:
User:          IIS APPPOOL\Default
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
Windows cannot log you on because your profile cannot be loaded. Check that you are connected to the network, and that your network is functioning correctly.

DETAIL - The system cannot find the file specified.

Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    1500
    0
    2
    0
    0
    0x8000000000000000

    22901


    Application
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local


    The system cannot find the file specified.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:20
Event ID:      1511
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:
User:          IIS APPPOOL\Default
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off.
Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    1511
    0
    2
    0
    0
    0x8000000000000000

    22900


    Application
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
Date:          04-01-2012 18:50:20
Event ID:      1515
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:
User:          IIS APPPOOL\Default
Computer:      TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local
Description:
Windows has backed up this user profile. Windows will automatically try to use the backup profile the next time this user logs on.
Event Xml:
https://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


    1515
    0
    2
    0
    0
    0x8000000000000000

    22899


    Application
    TijuJohn-PC.xxxxchn.local

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So apparently there is one setting in Application pool advanced setting called "Load User Profile" which is a boolean.

So what is the quick fix, You guessed it right. Change the value to 'false'.

SELECT * not working for IIS WMI providers

tijujohn83 — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:24:00 GMT

recently I was working on one issue where a simple WMI query was not returning all the proper results. It was a simple query as "SELECT * FROM IISWebVirtualDirSetting"

even tried using adsutil like this directly to get the results, still same results. We checked that the WMI functionality was itself working fine. So what was the issue ?

It turned out that IIS WMI provider cannot handle custom IIS metabase setting like following entry:

                >
                                                Name="AccessFlags"
                                ID="6016"
                                Value="AccessExecute | AccessRead"
                                Type="DWORD"
                                UserType="IIS_MD_UT_FILE"
                                Attributes="INHERIT"
                />
                                                Name="AppFriendlyName"
                                ID="2102"
                                Value="eas-web"
                                Type="STRING"
                                UserType="IIS_MD_UT_FILE"
                                Attributes="INHERIT"
                />

The Workaround

1. Cerate a new virtual directory called "MyCustom-web-backup" and point the target folder to the same windows folder path.

2. iisreset -stop

3. look out for " , and merge MyCustom-web elements into MyCustom-web-backup elements.

4. iisreset -start

5. Delete the old entries after renaming back the new entry from MyCustom-web-backup to MyCustom-web

speical thanks to Hui Zhu for finding this.

cool feautre in Process explorer.

tijujohn83 — Mon, 23 May 2011 07:55:50 GMT

I had a scenario where i was getting a random popup from some exe. Was not able to make sure which process was actually the culprit as the error message was also bit misleading. Task list before and after closing the popup was also giving the same list. Event Notification Application: Unable to register with Framework, Program will not exit.

So finding out which process is causing this turned out to be very simple.

Use a tool, process explorer (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx). It has a cool feauture, you can drag and drop your mouse to any window and it will show the corresponding process.

Thats what we did and we had the culprit in just 2.2 seconds :)

GC flavours and memory usage.

tijujohn83 — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:51:55 GMT

Memory Allocation, processor bitness and number of processors

I had recently worked on an issue where the customer has noticed a high virtual memory usage by the worker process. It was more than 5 GB. The working set is around 300 Mbs. The interesting part is the memory size will bloat even if there is a single request. It turns out that whenever the first time Application domains are created, the virtual memory shot to 5 GB.

So why is this high memory usage. The process is practically doing nothing and still so muh memory usage. The answer comes from the point that there are multiple flavours of GC that are available and added with the bitness of the CPU, the memory usage will significatntly differ.

Here is the thing. The customer had a 64 bit machine with 4 logical processors. By default the server variant of GC will run. Now what happens is that when the first request comes, all the application domain get created and memory is allocated to the .net components. Specifically speaking 1 heap is allocated to 1 processor. Since there are 4 processors, 4 heaps will get created, so 4 GB of heap memory will be allocated as soon as the application domain gets created. Additionally, and LOH of 256 mb is also created and allocated per heap. This all results in a memory allocation of (1+.25)*4 = 5GB.

This behavior is because in a 64 bit process, the address space is 8TB(user mode) + 8TB(kernel mode), compared to 2GB(user mode) + 2GB(kernel mode). The process is expected to use more memory and this is a tradeoff for performance.

Having said that, there will not be a performance hit because of these allocations as all of it will not be in RAM. Only the “working set” will be in RAM and you can verify by enabling that column in task manager. So bottom line is that this behavior is OK and no performance hit will happened because of this.

server version of the GC and on 64-bit process:
initial_segment_size = 1 GB
initial_large_segment_size = 256 MB

server version of the GC and on 32-bit process:
initial_segment_size = 64 MB
initial_large_segment_size = 32 MB

workstation version of the GC and on 64-bit process:
initial_segment_size = 256 MB
initial_large_segment_size = 128 MB

Note: for server version, if there are more than 4 processors, the
initial_segment_size is cut in half.

We can change the default behaviour by making the configuration change in Aspnet.config file in the Framework folder.

More Information

Lets start with task manager as how it shows the memory usage data.

Memory - Private Working Set = The amount of memory a process is using that can't be shared by other processes.

Memory - Working Set = Memory - Private Working Set + the amount of memory the process is using that can be shared by other processes(eg. ntdll).

Memory - Commit Size = Amount of virtual memory that's reserved for use by a process.

In a 64 bit process, the address space is 8TB(user mode) + 8TB(kernel mode), compared to 2GB(user mode) + 2GB(kernel mode) in a 32 bit process.

So how many flovours of GC are available in different flavours of .net?

.net 1.1 There are 2 versions of GC, implemented in either mscorwks.dll or mscorsvr.dll.  mscoree.dll loads either mscorwks.dll or mscorsvr.dll based on number of processors.

.net 2.0 Here, mscoree.dll loads mscorwks. Both Server version and Workstation version is packaged into the single assembly. i.e. mscorwks!Svr and mscorwks!Wks.

.net 4.0 We have a new dll altogether, CLR.dll. That has the implementations of server and workstation GC.

you can quickly see which processes have loaded a specific module by this command

C:\Users\tijujohn>tasklist /m mscorwks.dll

Image Name                     PID Modules
========================= ========
MsDtsSrvr.exe                 2704 mscorwks.dll
MagicMouse.exe                2776 mscorwks.dll
MagicMouse.exe                2784 mscorwks.dll
DcaTray.exe                   3064 mscorwks.dll
EasyAssistLaunchpad.exe       3572 mscorwks.dll
msmdsrv.exe                   2424 mscorwks.dll
XobniService.exe              4196 mscorwks.dll
SQLAGENT90.EXE                5024 mscorwks.dll
OUTLOOK.EXE                   5372 mscorwks.dll
PresentationFontCache.exe     9764 mscorwks.dll
InetMgr.exe                   4504 mscorwks.dll

How To use WebAdministration for IIS7/7.5 using PowerShell

tijujohn83 — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:05:00 GMT

Summary

A simple how-to walkthrough of using powershell WebAdministration module for IIS to modify ApplicationHost.config.

Description

Powershell is an excellent tool for running admin tasks on a server. WebAdministration an excellent out of the box powershell snap-in for configuring an mangaing IIS. This provider implements one virtual drive named IIS. It has three logical groupings AppPools,Sites and SslBindings. We can also leverage the capabilities of the built in cmdlets for various operations.
Here we will be modifying "Ftp firewall Support" Data Channel port range settings and Firewall IP settings. Although this particular example is specific to that, these methods can be applied for any applicationHost.config setting.

and this is would show these settings in IIS GUI

More Information

By default the "Execution Policy" powershell is "Restricted". So that means if you just run the import command or WebAdministration, you will get an Exception from powershell. We can set the this policy to "RemoteSigned" that will allow your custom scripts to be run but will not allow any internet downloaded script which is not trusted. We then do this by ruinning the command

PS Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Oouch..you get another error, "access denied". Did you forgot to run powershell as Administrator? Once you run as Administrator, this will successfully run now. Now import the module, it should be a success again.

Probably the first command you should know would be how to get help, here it is

PS Get-help

for getting help about specific commandlets,

PS Get-help

to get a list of all supported cmdlets,

PS get-command -pssnapin WebAdministration

more information can be found at https://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/447/managing-iis-with-the-iis-70-powershell-snap-in/