Hi Bogdan,

First of all, thanks for all the efforts you're undertaking here!

Second, I think your conclusion of blaming Win32.pm might be a red herring.
The reason for including the newer version is quite simple - one of the
functions we use it for is to determine the actual version of Windows it is
running on. This is used in our Support Module. I added support for
detecting Windows 2012 Server and Windows 8, this was introduced in version
0.46.
The full list of changes is found on CPAN; you can also use metacpan to
make diffs between releases. Unfortunately there are lots of whitespace
changes in one of the releases so not all is fully trackable, but all the
changes seem not to have much impact.
https://metacpan.org/release/JDB/Win32-0.47

If you want to install a different version of Win32 you can install it like
this:

cpan JDB/Win32-0.43.tar.gz

Please note that this only works if you have installed OTRS in a path
without spaces, i.e. not in C:\Program Files, but in d:\Helpdesk would work.

Again, if the Win32 change would be the culprit, this would be super but I
have my doubts.

The Version.pm that you found introduced in OTRS was because we started
using Encode::Locale to fix encoding issues for command line utilities, and
they require Version.pm which is core, but only in perl 5.10 and later.

For the 2.4.9 version you tested I basically took the Perl and Apache
versions of an old, stable installer and put them into the new one. BTW
other people stated that for *them* the 2.4.9 actually works.

Was one of the versions of OTRS on Windows for you really stable? In my
experience the mod_perl based ones are generally stable, but sometimes the
web server restarts. This could be as simple as the worker restarting (see
the setting in the apache config). The last version of the windows
installer also stops, and you'd have to start it manually, of course this
is NOT desired and I'd like to learn why this is and what we could do about
it.
If there was a version that did work for you, can you use THAT one, and
replace the OTRS with 3.2.8 and see if THAT is stable? It *could* be we
simply introduced breakage by accident in the OTRS code base.

The best results on WIndows I found are when you install ActiveState perl
(x86) which comes with PerlEx, and you use Microsoft IIS as the web server.
This is also what the 'new' beta installer advertises.

Looking forward reading your answers,

--
Mike

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 6:54 PM, Bogdan Iosif <bogdan.io...@gmail.com>wrote:

> The problem still exists in a deployment made with
> otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9. The HTTPD process managed to survive a
> little longer in this version but it's still unstable and crashes with the
> same pattern.
>
> I'll first jump to conclusions. I think the problem's root cause was
> incorrectly identified so far and it's likely caused by changes in the Perl
> distribution deployed by the OTRS Windows installer. To be more exact, I
> think an upgraded Win32.pm deployed since otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.6 is
> close to the root cause.
>
> I downloaded all the 3.2 installation packages between
> otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.5 and the latest
> otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9 provided by Michiel. Then I proceeded to
> unpack them and to identify differences. Below are the results.
>
> I chose to start with otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.5 because my current
> prod env was deployed with otrs-3.1.10-win-installer-2.4.5 and I made the
> common sense assumption that the installer logic hasn't changed between
> these two packages.
>
> In the notes found below all dirs are written with a trailing \ and all
> root dirs are actually relative to $_OUTDIR\ dir found in their
> otrs-#.#.#-win-installer-#.#.#.exe package.
>
> Additional comments after these notes.
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.5 VERSUS otrs-3.1.10-win-installer-2.4.5
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = Some changes # Expected between two major
> versions
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.6 VERSUS previous
>     - \Scripts\         = Changed ConfigureOTRS.pl # Added single quotes
> around LogModule and LogModule::LogFile written in Config.pm
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = Lots of changes # UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor
> version upgrade?!
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.4-win-installer-2.4.7 VERSUS previous
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>     - \Scripts\         = ConfigureApache.pl changed to add LoadModule
> directives for mod_deflate.so and mod_headers.so # Ignorable? Is this safe
> to occur with an OTRS minor version upgrade?
>                         = Lots of other changes # Ignorable. Updates to
> copyright years, licensing details, file versions, etc.
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = Lots of changes # UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor
> version upgrade?! Many files seem to have just been relocated.
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.5-win-installer-2.4.7 VERSUS previous
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = perl\site\lib\version.pm moved here from
> \OTRS\Kernel\cpan-lib\ # UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor version upgrade?!
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.6-win-installer-2.4.7 VERSUS previous
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.7-win-installer-2.4.7 VERSUS previous
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.8 VERSUS previous
>     - \Apache\          = Replaced many bin\*.dll (including libapr-1.dll)
> with older versions from 2009 (versions from otrs:3.2.7 were from 2012) #
> UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor version upgrade?!
>                         = Added *.pdb files for the replaced *.dll #
> UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor version upgrade?! Ignorable? PDBs are
> presumably ignored by Apache.
>                         = Replaced many bin\iconv\*.so with older versions
> from 2008 (versions from otrs:3.2.7 were from 2012) # UNEXPECTED with an
> OTRS minor version upgrade?!
>                         = Added *.pdb files for the replaced *.so. #
> UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor version upgrade?! Ignorable? PDBs are
> presumably ignored by Apache.
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9 VERSUS previous
>     - \Apache\          = Lots of changes # Rolled back to the version
> included up to otrs:3.2.7 except for conf\httpd.conf which has some
> ignorable changes to default config values that will later be set anyway by
> the installer
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = Lots of changes # UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor
> version upgrade?!
>
> ~ otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9 VERSUS otrs-3.2.7-win-installer-2.4.7
>     - \Apache\conf\     = Changed httpd.conf # Ignorable. Different
> default config values that will later be set anyway by the installer.
>     - \OTRS\            = Lots of changes # Expected as a normal part of
> an OTRS version upgrade
>     - \StrawberryPerl\  = Lots of changes # UNEXPECTED with an OTRS minor
> version upgrade?!
>
>
> otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9 introduced some trivial changes in mysql
> and cronw that were ignored and not listed
>
> In this forum thread http://forums.otterhub.org/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=20288a 
> user reports the problem occurring with otrs-3.2.6-win-installer-2.4.7
> and otrs-3.2.5-win-installer-2.4.7. Looking at the differences listed
> above, it makes sense. These two package versions contain only differences
> in OTRS sources. HOWEVER, the old HTTPD DLLs were not yet deployed by
> otrs-3.2.6-win-installer-2.4.7 so they can't possibly be the root cause for
> the problem.
>
> My event log crash entries mention something about IPHLPAPI.DLL. Googling
> this dll and Perl I found lots of error reports, most having to do with
> using 64-bit Perl, which is not the case for me. However, then I tought
> that maybe something changed in the chain of scripts used by OTRS to call
> this DLL. IPHelper.pm hasn't changed in a long time but one of its
> dependencies, Win32.pm, made a rather large version jump from 0.44 (~2011)
> to 0.47 (~2013) in the Perl dist. deployed by
> otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.6.
>
> My current bet for the root cause of this problem is the aforementioned
> upgrade for Win32.pm. I'll install otrs-3.2.3-win-installer-2.4.5 and test
> how right I am about this.
>
> I'm hoping for some feedback from someone who knows about the reason
> behind the Win32.pm upgrade and maybe also knows how to test if this is
> actually the root cause of the problem.
>
> /bogdan
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 10:57 PM, Bogdan Iosif <bogdan.io...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I'll set it up and give feedback in about 6 - 10 hours. Thanks!
>>
>> My trouble is... I think I just missed a maintenance window for this
>> weekend to perform the upgrade to 3.2.8 because this situation looks like a
>> stability problem with my configuration that I simply haven't planned to
>> protect against.
>>
>> To tell the truth, I feel lucky it happened within the first few clicks
>> because if it would've appeared on QA after a couple hours of light testing
>> then I would've seen it in production within about 30 minutes to an hour
>> and I would've had no way to rollback to 3.1.10. That would've been a
>> nightmare.
>>
>> If I see that 3.2.8 doesn't crash immediately anymore, is there anything
>> you can think of that I can try to further ensure the stability of  the
>> configuration deployed by this latest installer?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Michiel Beijen <
>> michiel.bei...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Bogdan,
>>>
>>> We switched to a newer version of mod_perl which was compiled by someone
>>> from apache; aparently with iconv and libapr versions that are causing all
>>> sorts of trouble. Very annoying.
>>>
>>> I created a 3.2.8 version based on the 'old'  apache, mod_perl and
>>> strawberry, please let me know if it helps!
>>>
>>> http://users.otrs.com/~mb/otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.9.exe
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Bogdan Iosif <bogdan.io...@gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi list,
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to upgrade to 3.2.8, from 3.1.10, on Win 2008 R2 with SP1
>>>> and I'm running into an ugly problem that I think is related to the Apache
>>>> config deployed by OTRS's Windows installer 2.4.8. I used this 3.2.8
>>>> package because I made the common sense assumption that its installer is
>>>> more stable than the latest beta for OTRS's Windows installer 3.0.0.
>>>>
>>>> First, I performed a clean install (in a VM where Windows itself was
>>>> freshly installed) using otrs-3.2.8-win-installer-2.4.8.exe. When it came
>>>> time to run the web installer I instead switched to following instructions
>>>> for the upgrade from here:
>>>> https://github.com/OTRS/otrs/blob/rel-3_2_8/UPGRADING.md
>>>>
>>>> =Symptoms=
>>>>
>>>> Everything went OK with the upgrade up to, and through, step "12.
>>>> Restart your services".
>>>>
>>>> When I reached step 13 and needed to start using OTRS's admin
>>>> interface, I discovered the application is unusable because Apache's
>>>> process crashes very suddenly after a few HTTP requests and OTRS is
>>>> effectively shutdown afterwards. If I attempt to manually restart the
>>>> Apache service then it crashes again very soon, following the same pattern.
>>>> The Event Log contains some cryptic messages like:
>>>>
>>>> ==System Log==
>>>>
>>>> The Apache2.2 service terminated unexpectedly.
>>>>
>>>> ==Application Log==
>>>>
>>>> Faulting application name: httpd.exe, version: 2.2.22.0, time stamp:
>>>> 0x4f242d7a
>>>> Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
>>>> Exception code: 0xc0000005
>>>> Fault offset: 0x753a34c1
>>>> Faulting process id: 0x458
>>>> Faulting application start time: 0x01ce6cdea9707025
>>>> Faulting application path: C:\Program Files
>>>> (x86)\OTRS\Apache\bin\httpd.exe
>>>> Faulting module path: unknown
>>>> Report Id: 3c668618-d8d2-11e2-b6da-000c29f4581a
>>>>
>>>> Faulting application name: httpd.exe, version: 2.2.22.0, time stamp:
>>>> 0x4f242d7a
>>>> Faulting module name: IPHLPAPI.DLL_unloaded, version: 0.0.0.0, time
>>>> stamp: 0x4ce7b859
>>>> Exception code: 0xc0000005
>>>> Fault offset: 0x753a34c1
>>>> Faulting process id: 0x6bc
>>>> Faulting application start time: 0x01ce6cdeb6fa43b4
>>>> Faulting application path: C:\Program Files
>>>> (x86)\OTRS\Apache\bin\httpd.exe
>>>> Faulting module path: IPHLPAPI.DLL
>>>> Report Id: 3bfdbf74-d8d2-11e2-b6da-000c29f4581a
>>>>
>>>> =My Investigation=
>>>>
>>>> The following recent post (in German) describes almost the same exact
>>>> problem that I have:
>>>> http://stefan.pachlina.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=317:otrs-crash-apache-service-beendet-sich-ab-325&catid=21:itblog&Itemid=42
>>>>
>>>> Reading through Google Translate, I saw the author pinpointing the root
>>>> cause to a faulty version of \OTRS\apache\bin\libapr-1.dll. He said
>>>> the bad version is 1.4.5.0 and recommends instead either 1.3.6.0 or
>>>> 1.4.6.0. Note that I currently have 1.4.5.0 in production and haven't ran
>>>> into any problems. Also, I have no idea how the post author identified that
>>>> DLL to be the problem.
>>>>
>>>> The output from "httpd -v" is identical between my prod (3.1.10) and
>>>> test (3.2.8) envs but after doing a folder comparison I see a lot of
>>>> differences in files from apache\bin. First, there are a lot of *.DLL and
>>>> *.SO files that are different and the versions deployed with 3.2.8 seem a
>>>> lot older (from 2009) than those deployed with 3.1.10 (from 2012). Here is
>>>> a report (copy/paste in notepad to see it clearly):
>>>>
>>>> Name                   Version Size      Modified
>>>> Name                   Version Size       Modified
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> bin                            9`108`428 19-Jun-2013 15:52:38
>>>> bin                            28`155`388 19-Jun-2013 15:50:52
>>>> +libaprutil-1.dll      1.4.1.0 192`604   28-Jan-2012 12:15:46 >>
>>>> +libaprutil-1.dll      1.3.8.0 188`496    06-Jul-2009 23:21:36
>>>> +libapr-1.dll          1.4.5.0 139`347   28-Jan-2012 12:11:16 >>
>>>> +libapr-1.dll          1.3.6.0 135`239    06-Jul-2009 23:21:20
>>>> +libapriconv-1.dll     1.2.1.0 36`958    28-Jan-2012 12:11:24 >>
>>>> +libapriconv-1.dll     1.2.1.0 36`946     06-Jul-2009 23:21:24
>>>> +apr_dbd_oracle-1.dll  1.4.1.0 32`868    28-Jan-2012 12:15:54 >>
>>>> +apr_dbd_oracle-1.dll  1.3.8.0 32`856     06-Jul-2009 23:21:38
>>>> +apr_dbd_sqlite3-1.dll 1.4.1.0 28`773    28-Jan-2012 12:15:52 >>
>>>> +apr_dbd_sqlite3-1.dll 1.3.8.0 28`761     06-Jul-2009 23:21:38
>>>> +apr_dbd_pgsql-1.dll   1.4.1.0 28`771    28-Jan-2012 12:15:56 >>
>>>> +apr_dbd_pgsql-1.dll   1.3.8.0 28`759     06-Jul-2009 23:21:38
>>>> +apr_dbd_mysql-1.dll   1.4.1.0 28`771    28-Jan-2012 12:15:58 >>
>>>> +apr_dbd_mysql-1.dll   1.3.8.0 28`759     06-Jul-2009 23:21:38
>>>> +apr_dbd_odbc-1.dll            28`770    28-Jan-2012 12:15:50 >>
>>>> +apr_dbd_odbc-1.dll            28`758     06-Jul-2009 23:21:38
>>>> \apr_ldap-1.dll        1.4.1.0 24`671    28-Jan-2012 12:15:50 >>
>>>> \apr_ldap-1.dll        1.3.8.0 24`659     06-Jul-2009 23:21:36
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> There are more differences, amongst which the most notable are a lot of
>>>> *.SO files in \apache\bin\iconv that are even older (from 2008). Last but
>>>> not least, there are a lot of *.PDB files sprinkled through \bin 
>>>> subfolders.
>>>>
>>>> =Bottom Line=
>>>>
>>>> I don't know what to make out of this difference in DLL versions. It
>>>> seems the installer's author started to use older versions on purpose but I
>>>> don't know why.
>>>>
>>>> Can someone make sense of this problem or at least provide me with some
>>>> info about a 3.2.x release whose Windows installer works on Windows 2008 
>>>> R2?
>>>>
>>>> /bogdan
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> OTRS mailing list: otrs - Webpage: http://otrs.org/
>>>> Archive: http://lists.otrs.org/pipermail/otrs
>>>> To unsubscribe: http://lists.otrs.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/otrs
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
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