Exporting to PDF on webserver freezes IIS and w3wp.exe process use

We are having major problems installing our project to our web server.
Everything works fine for exporting to pdf until more than one person tries
to create a PDF. It basically freezes and you have to restart IIS as it stops
responding.

It works fine on the developement machine without a problem. However when we
put it to the main server to test, it only works temporarily.

We are using a 3 page report with small fonts and VBScript to arrange the
format of the fonts (ie: using /par etc) and SQL 2000 database queries to
extract information from the database. The reporting tool is ComponentOne
reports for asp.net. The OS is windows server 2003 SBS. We have tried the
following.
1. Clearing the cache in code and disposing the object
2. set up the http handlers for images
3. set up the folders with full control for the images to save to
4. separated out each report into a separate report file
5. tried viewing the report to html and not exporting to PDF and still
after a while it crashes.

6. The following error ocures on the server:
"w3wp.exe (PID: 3004) was recycled because it was suspected to be in a
deadlocked state. It did not send any responses for pending requests in the
last 180 seconds. This timeout may be adjusted using the <processModel
responseDeadlockInterval> setting in machine.config."
We have tried setting this also without success.

We have tried setting AppPooling in the IIS to be much lower for the site
concerned. No Luck.

7. We have contacted componentone and don the sggestions they have
suggested. those being:
a) Clear the report cache directly in code:
c1webreport1.Cache.Clear()
b) Make a small change in the report to invalidate the cache:
c1webreport1.Report.Tag = DateTime.Now.Ticks
c) Add the necessary permissions
d) Change the ImageRenderMethod to http handler (please update
web.config as described in the readme file).
NO LUCK THERE.

I am at the end of my rope and don't know what to try next. Havent slept for
36 hours and NEED HELP!!!!

Please please help.......
Graeme

David
Wed Jul 13 22:55:20 CDT 2005

This really sounds like the component you use to generate PDF is not able to
work in a multi-user server environment. You need to obtain support from the
provider of that component on whether it supports your scenario. Clearing
out caches, etc sounds like a hack to me -- there is some common resource
under contention, and multi-user will simply exacerbate the flaw in the
component.

For confirmation, run IIS State on the hanging w3wp.exe -- it will likely
show the component at fault and you can start there.
http://www.iisfaq.com/default.aspx?view=P197

FYI: This sort of problem cannot be worked around. Components that steal
worker threads will hang the process no matter what -- and only recycling
the process will reclaim those stolen resources -- but that also destroys
in-process state (like session state, cookies, DB connections, etc). So, it
is no long term solution. The only right thing to do is to fix the
problematic code to not occupy IIS's worker threads.

--
//David
IIS
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
//
"Graeme" <Graeme@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:98CDE14B-363A-47F3-BC90-3646656C36BC@microsoft.com...
We are having major problems installing our project to our web server.
Everything works fine for exporting to pdf until more than one person tries
to create a PDF. It basically freezes and you have to restart IIS as it
stops
responding.

It works fine on the developement machine without a problem. However when we
put it to the main server to test, it only works temporarily.

We are using a 3 page report with small fonts and VBScript to arrange the
format of the fonts (ie: using /par etc) and SQL 2000 database queries to
extract information from the database. The reporting tool is ComponentOne
reports for asp.net. The OS is windows server 2003 SBS. We have tried the
following.
1. Clearing the cache in code and disposing the object
2. set up the http handlers for images
3. set up the folders with full control for the images to save to
4. separated out each report into a separate report file
5. tried viewing the report to html and not exporting to PDF and still
after a while it crashes.

6. The following error ocures on the server:
"w3wp.exe (PID: 3004) was recycled because it was suspected to be in a
deadlocked state. It did not send any responses for pending requests in the
last 180 seconds. This timeout may be adjusted using the <processModel
responseDeadlockInterval> setting in machine.config."
We have tried setting this also without success.

We have tried setting AppPooling in the IIS to be much lower for the site
concerned. No Luck.

7. We have contacted componentone and don the sggestions they have
suggested. those being:
a) Clear the report cache directly in code:
c1webreport1.Cache.Clear()
b) Make a small change in the report to invalidate the cache:
c1webreport1.Report.Tag = DateTime.Now.Ticks
c) Add the necessary permissions
d) Change the ImageRenderMethod to http handler (please update
web.config as described in the readme file).
NO LUCK THERE.

I am at the end of my rope and don't know what to try next. Havent slept for
36 hours and NEED HELP!!!!

Please please help.......
Graeme