I have finally traced the problem and resolved it.
We had gone through a period where cfserver was locking up at 100% CPU utilization. We
were using the services console to stop and restart cfserver.
I went to several of the users whose session or client variables were switching during
the session. It turned out that the persons whose variables were switching had the
same CFID and CFTOKEN cookies for the groups that were having
the problem. I deleted the CFTOKEN and CFID cookies and had the users login again.
None of the users have experienced the problem in over a week. They were experiencing
the problem many times per day before.
This of course brings several questions to mind.
1) Can this occur on an e-commerce site and what will be the effects?
2) If a busy site decides to use parallel servers and have the DNS help with the load
balancing, could the problem occur more often?
3) If using parallel servers, should CFCOOKIE be used instead of session or client
variables?
4) If a server is replaced with a new server using the same DNS name, will the same
problem occur if new users contact the server before established users?
Chuck
Cameron Childress wrote:
> > We are behind
> > both a firewall and proxy server. All of the users are also
> > behind the same firewalls and proxy servers.
>
> I would bet that your proxy/firewall is the culprit.
>
> > The problem did not appear until the number of users on the
> > system increased. It looks like we will have to go to setting
> > cookie variables.
>
> I would also bet that this will not solve your problem. Why? CF uses two
> automagically set cookies, CFID and CFTOKEN to track both session and client
> variables. In some cases, naughty or misconfigured proxies can sometimes
> cache these cookies and re-serve the same cookies for more than one client.
> This causes CF to send the wrong client data back to the browser. This
> could also happen if any pages are getting cached and served to multiple
> clients in their entirety, but I doubt this is the case.
>
> The reason I don't think switching to client cookies is because if your
> proxy is screwing up CFID and CFTOKEN cookies, it's going to do the same
> with all cookies. I would check the proxy setting before spending too much
> time re-writing your code.
>
> > We tried ODBC but the performance was too bad.
>
> Really? I have not heard this to ever be the case? What sort of datasource
> were you using? I have used SQL7 databases for client var storage and found
> them to be very fast.
>
> If you don't need the data to persist for a long time (IE: days), and you
> don't plan on scaling this app out over multiple servers, session vars might
> be a good alternative to think about.
>
> -Cameron
>
> --------------------
> Cameron Childress
> ElliptIQ Inc.
> p.770.460.7277.232
> f.770.460.0963
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chuck Holzwarth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 1:31 PM
> > To: CF-Server
> > Subject: Re: Client variables switching
> >
> >
> > Cameron,
> > Thanks. We installed the system from scratch using Cold fusion
> > 4.5 and upgraded to 4.5.1 and 4.5.1 Patch 1. In services, there
> > is only one cfserver. None of the other cf processes are
> > duplicated. I also checked with Task Manager and
> > could not find duplicates. We are using registry. We are behind
> > both a firewall and proxy server. All of the users are also
> > behind the same firewalls and proxy servers.
> >
> > The problem did not appear until the number of users on the
> > system increased. It looks like we will have to go to setting
> > cookie variables. We tried ODBC but the performance was too bad.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Chuck
> >
> > Cameron Childress wrote:
> >
> > > Long shot, but I've seen it several times....
> > >
> > > Check to see if two CF Services are running in the Control
> > Panel. Once upon
> > > a time a certain version of the CF installer would not disable the older
> > > one. If you think this is the case, disable the older one, and your
> > > problems will go away.
> > >
> > > A few more things to check:
> > >
> > > Are these clients behind a firewall or proxy server?
> > > Do they have cookies enabled?
> > > I would suggest NOT storing your client vars int he registry,
> > though this is
> > > almost certainly not the cause of your problem. Use an ODBC datasource
> > > instead.
> > >
> > > -Cameron
> > >
> > > --------------------
> > > Cameron Childress
> > > ElliptIQ Inc.
> > > p.770.460.7277.232
> > > f.770.460.0963
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Bryan LaPlante [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 12:46 PM
> > > > To: CF-Server
> > > > Subject: Re: Client variables switching
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Try wrapping a cflock around the creation of the client
> > variables and make
> > > > them read only. See if that remedies the problem.
> > > >
> > > > Bryan LaPlante
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Chuck Holzwarth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > To: "CF-Server" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 11:37 AM
> > > > Subject: Client variables switching
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > We are having users login to our application. When they do
> > we set client
> > > > > variables with their user information. We are having a
> > problem with the
> > > > > user information switching as they move through the
> > different screens of
> > > > > the application. We have Cold Fusion set to store client
> > variables in
> > > > > the registry. I have looked through the entire application using
> > > > > Extended Find for "Client." The only place these are set is
> > in the login
> > > > > screen. Not all users are experiencing the problem. The
> > problem does not
> > > > > always occur when moving between the same screens. Anyone have any
> > > > > ideas?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Chuck
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
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