aspnet_wp.exe Restarts with Heavy SOAP traffic

[Littlejohn2003]

Hi, I hope this is the appropriate forum for this:

I have looked in alot of places but have not seen
anybody with this exact problem. It only seems to be
happening on one server.

It runs fine in production on another server which is a
Dell Poweredge 2650 Dual Xeon 2.4 GHz
2 GB RAM
Windows Server 2000
..NET Framework 1.1

However it is a SuperMicro Server and here are the specs:
SuperMicro Server Dual Pentium 1 GHz
2 GB RAM
Windows Server 2000
..NET Framework 1.1

I have a stress test program that sends a request for
alot of SOAP data from the web box which the web box then
pulls from a backend SQL database. I also launch these
in bulk like 20-60 of them at a time. When I launch them
against the existing production server, everything is
fine, it runs consistently and returns valid data.

However, when I point it over to the SuperMicro Server,
I consistently get one or both of the following errors:

begin error messages-----------------------------------

aspnet_wp.exe (PID: 3468) stopped unexpectedly.

----and/or------


The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( .NET
Runtime ) cannot be found. The local computer may not
have the necessary registry information or message DLL
files to display messages from a remote computer. The
following information is part of the event: .NET Runtime
version 1.1.4322.573- aspnet_wp.exe - Common Language
Runtime Debugging Services: Application has generated an
exception that could not be handled.

Process id=0xd8c (3468), Thread id=0x440 (1088).

Click OK to terminate the application.
Click CANCEL to debug the application..

end error messages-----------------------------------


I can usually run about 15-20 against the SuperMicro
Server without any problems. Maybe one every 20 minutes
or so after constant load testing. However, when I run
50-60 I immediately get the errors.

I was thinking, maybe it's just too much work for the
Dual Pentium Processors because the CPU usage is pegged
pretty much the whole time there are ASP.NET requests in
queue.

My questions are here:
Is there anyway I can prove that this is indeed a
hardware problem and not a software problem?
--OR-
Should I approach this problem from a software
perspective?

I appreciate any help anybody can give me. Let me know
if you need any more information.

Thanks,
Chris Littlejohn

 

[chiph]

When installing your OS on the SuperMicro, did you install the drivers that came with it (disk drive DMA, North-Bridge driver (VIA chipset?)) etc? Because it sounds like the OS isn't integrating with the board that well under high load. Windows NT & 2k use a driver called a HAL (Hardware Adaptation Layer) to implement board-specific functions. Most of the time the generic HAL from MS is good enough, but some of the specialty boards from vendors like HP/Compaq need their own HAL.

You might also want to give SuperMicro a call and see what they say - they're been moving into the entry-level Wintel server market, so they ought to be interested in making sure their product runs with .NET I wouldn't email them (I've had language difficulties with some of the motherboard mfrs, where they answered a different question from what I asked). Speaking in person minimizes that occurring.

Chip H.