Wingate 6.0.4 with puresight, integrated with AD 2003

[daxyaphw]

Hello,

Please advise me why my Wingate CPU performance always reach up to 100% usage. I've puresight plug-in and all authentication by Active Directory. Is puresight resource hungry and authentication with AD will take up much resources. I'm running the Wingate on a Pentium Xeon 1.5 with 1GB Ram. Urgent help needed. Thanks

[safilo]

i've had the same problem just yesterday..
same environment..w2k3, active directory and last version of wingate
i've unistalled the plug-in and everything came back to work
bye

massimo

[daxyaphw]

i've had the same problem just yesterday..
same environment..w2k3, active directory and last version of wingate
i've unistalled the plug-in and everything came back to work
bye

massimo

Massimo,

You mean you don't use plug-in after uninstalled?

[safilo]

yes...i use other kind of products managed by my watchguard firewall (weblocker)

[jamesc]

1. What version of WinGate do you both have?
2. What version of Windows 2003 Server? Enterprise, SBS etc..
3. What Service Pack?

[safilo]

1. What version of WinGate do you both have?

6.0.4

2. What version of Windows 2003 Server? Enterprise, SBS etc..

standard edition

3. What Service Pack?

5.2 (3790) NO SERVICE PACK

[Pascal]

We've been unable to reproduce this problem on a standard installation of Windows 2003, so suspect this might be configuration related. Can you tell us a bit more about the setup of the system?

* Do you have any other tools such as Norton, etc. running on the system and performing live scans?

* Does the system run at 100% CPU useage even when there is NO traffic running through it?

* How many users are approximately using the system at any given time? (Concurrent sessions)

Would it be possible to get a copy of your WinGate configuration, please? You can save this from the Advanced Options tool in the WinGate Start Menu OR from within GateKeeper under the Advanced Options menu. Click the "Save Registry Settings" button.

[daxyaphw]

We've been unable to reproduce this problem on a standard installation of Windows 2003, so suspect this might be configuration related. Can you tell us a bit more about the setup of the system?

* Do you have any other tools such as Norton, etc. running on the system and performing live scans?

Yes, Norton Antivirus was installed

* Does the system run at 100% CPU useage even when there is NO traffic running through it?

Run at 100% when users start using it

* How many users are approximately using the system at any given time? (Concurrent sessions)

>20 users

I will email you the config file later

Would it be possible to get a copy of your WinGate configuration, please? You can save this from the Advanced Options tool in the WinGate Start Menu OR from within GateKeeper under the Advanced Options menu. Click the "Save Registry Settings" button.

[Pascal]

Ok, and how many users (roughly) in the AD?

[daxyaphw]

Ok, and how many users (roughly) in the AD?

Approx. 300++

[Pascal]

Just as a side thought - have you checked which version of PureSight you are using?

With an earlier release there could have been a problem when working with large User Databases. This sounds like it could be the same problem.

[daxyaphw]

Just as a side thought - have you checked which version of PureSight you are using?

With an earlier release there could have been a problem when working with large User Databases. This sounds like it could be the same problem.

Puresight version 1.1

[Pascal]

Ok, just getting an AD Database with 1000 users setup.

[Pascal]

Ok, noticed a few things. Firstly, with WinGate 6.0.4 and PureSight 1.1 there is a significant spike on first start of the engine. This is for two reasons. First, the startup of the PureSight library which always takes a startup chunk of CPU. This does die down once the library is loaded though. Second is the actual synchronisation with the database. This process will also take a certain CPU load while it is starting, but that will also drop off once the synch is done. On a 700 odd mhz Celeron once the engine was showing as started it was idling at 3% CPU useage.

Does your system stay constant at 100% CPU useage or does it eventually slow down? If it stays at 100% consistently try the following two things:

1. Backup then delete the history database files. (History.dbf / cdx in the WinGate folder). These are sometimes corrupted and whilst it does not seem like your problem could potentially be.

2. Verify that you are correctly logging the WinGate server into the AD. Our Knowledge Base has this excellent article on it.

Hope that helps.

[daxyaphw]

Hi Pascal,

It will peak at 100% for sometimes and slow down. But one thing I don't understand is why it is at the peak when only 20++ users accessing it?
Have you found out anything on the config file. I have checked and done which you advised me. Everything is ok and the service is started with local logon which is domain administrator. Thanks

[Pascal]

Hi Dax,

Been a bit of investigation into this. The fix I was discussing with you on the plugin versions earlier is only in the unreleased version. It is related to the storage of the plugin configuration, which with a large userdatabase can take some time.

That would be why the problem is ocurring. We are looking at releasing this soon - probably to coincide with the next major release but within the next month or so.

In the meantime, the only real fix would be to try and reduce the number of users that WinGate is aware of. This can be done by on-demand synchronisation / authentication, rather than a full synch as required. However, a lot of that depends on how intricate your policies is.

I'll let you know via email as soon as the new version goes out.

[daxyaphw]

Hi Pascal,

I sent you another email with attachment on config file. Any outcome and result on it? Thanks

[Pascal]

Trying to figure out how your configuration got into that state. It is missing all users for PureSight, which would explain why. But that doesn't explain it how.

[daxyaphw]

Pascal,

I hope you have some progress for me. Thanks

[Pascal]

Nope, we can't see how it is possible for PureSight to end up without any knowledge of users. Can you see them in the UI at all? Did you do anything different on that installation?

[daxyaphw]

Hi Pascal,

There is no other way for me to setup Wingate and Puresight.
The only thing I changed is Disable Wingate firewall, change WWW service port to 8080, Disable DHCP, Redirect wingate DNS to Internet provider and using Windows/Active Directory users database for authentication.

This few days I found out whenever I restart the server and Wingate started, the CPU Utilisation is very high up to 90% for whole day. Today I check the CPU utilisation reside to <15%.

Is there anything due to the system cache and page file? Hope you can assist me asap, I wish to continue to use the product else have to change if I receive orders from my superior. Thanks.

[Pascal]

Can you see them in the UI at all?

Them being the users. The only difference between the two setups you emailed through to me (On the PureSight side) was the users visible to PureSight.

[Pascal]

Dax, just chatted to Adrien regarding this. Would you like to try a pre-release version of PureSight 2 to see if that helps with performance? If so, I can email you the latest (approximately 13mb)

[adrien]

One thing

How big is your history file? (the files History.cdx and History.dbf in the WinGate directory). Also, in your history settings, what size did you specify for the size of the history file?

Adrien

[daxyaphw]

Hi Guys,

The history.dbf is only 1Mb coz this morning I've changed the location.

I would like to test the pre-release puresight asap. Thank. You can email me at dax.yap@gmail.com

Regards,
Dax

[Pascal]

Righto, will send it shortly.