ArcGIS Server Sites Under Heavy Load
Anyway, shortly after release, we noticed that the lsass.exe (in task manager) process was starting to eat lots and lots of memory and the cpu was ranging upwards of 30-40% at times. Eventually, the entire server would be become totally unresponsive and needed a hard reset. Well, if I was smart, I would have searched the ESRI support center first, but I didnt. I hit the Google and tried every 'fix' for 'high cpu lsass.exe' I could find. Well, after no luck, I finally took a look at the ESRI support site, and it turns out that this is a known issue for ArcGIS Server sites that are under a heavy load, which this one certainly is. Its on the front page (on the right side of the page) FltPLan.com, which is one of the top destinations for the aviation industry.
So, if you have a site that is under heavy load, and you notice the lsass.exe processes getting a little carried away with itself, be sure to have a look at this Tech Article from esri. The long and short of the issue is this:
"Every time a Web service or application that uses impersonation handles a request, the underlying ASP.NET worker process must use the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service process (lsass.exe) to authenticate. Under normal load conditions, this authentication operation is insignificant.
When a Web service or application that is impersonating is under heavy load (more than 25 simultaneous connections per second) for extended periods of time, the per request authentication operations begin to severely affect the memory and processing footprint of the lsass.exe process."
so you're running the DOT NET server on the backend, not the java server? any particular reason?
When server runs on linux or on other OSs, it actually uses a piece of software provided by MainSoft that interprets COM libraries to Java. I'v heard that extra layer slows down Server.
i'm just not sure which way to jump (or even if we should just finally jump ship). lately we mostly need what google maps offers (more or less) with occasional heavy custom/local layers. since ESRI pulled the plug on AWS (at least the free bits), not sure what will happen with the on-line arcGIS.
and you can talk to the DOT NET thing w/cf ok (cf8 dot net integration like we talked about last year or so??)?
@donny,
you mean the java server's not native java?
9.3 is a different beast than anything previous. I (me personally) dont do a single thing with .net and have no plans to do so. But, you are right, should I have the need, Coldfusion 8 will talk to .net with no problems. 9.3 included the new REST and JS api's and they will work with both the .net and java flavor of server. Meaning, both java and .net ArcGIS server include the new js and REST api's.
Now, as to your question, is it time to jump ship? Short answer: Yes. The AWS has morphed into ArcGIS online. Its essentially the same, but better. I gotta tell ya, I have been so impressed with all the new stuff that esri has been putting out with 9.3. The javascript api, as it matures, will become the killer app. Using it with all the goodies that come with Coldfusion 8, you can really do some serious damage. No more clunky web adf or soap calls. So, yes, make the leap. Start <a href="http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/javascript/arcgis/index.cfm?fa=home">here</a>.
I'm not exactly sure how the whole thing works. But what I can gather is that the MainSoft software acts like an interpreter between C++ and Java. That makes server able to run on Linux and Unix. It supposedly decreases performance.
The MainSoft site should have more info.