Wingate Performance Issues

[rebelldtu]

Hi
I am having some performance issues with Wingate 7. Over a few days the delivery of web pages becomes slower and slower to the point of non retrieval. If I restart the Wingate services via the taskbar icon all becomes very speedy again. Are there any system settings I should be looking at or Anti Virus exclusions set on Wingate files? I am not using the Wingate firewall or any Wingate plugins at all. I am only using NAT and one instance of the WWW Proxy Service. I am using the 100 Concurrent user Professional Edition and so far have only hit 43 odd licences and average around 300 sessions.
Cheers
Paul

[adrien]

Hi

What about the cache? What database is that using?

Also timeline. There are performance and memory issues with the jet DB (MDB)

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
I have disabled the cache altogher and the timeline to see how the system behaves. Performance is.. so far much improved! Does the cache serve all NAT requests as well as WWW Proxy Server Requests? Do you have a setup scenario for SQL or any support documents to facilitate the use of Wingate with such a database.
Many Thanks
Paul

[adrien]

Hi

if intercepts are turned on in the WWW proxy, then NAT connections to port 80 (or whichever ports are intercepted by the WWW proxy) will be intercepted, and therefore go through the same processing (including caching) as any other traffic that connects directly to the proxy.

For SQL etc, we have a video, it's a fairly painless process if you have an existing database, all you need to do is

a) create a new database in your DBMS
b) create a system DSN (on 64 bit windows use 32 bit version of the ODBC manager - c:\windows\syswow64\odbcad32.exe) that points to that database
c) configure the HTTP cache in WinGate to use that DSN. For MS SQL server / Native client (quicker) you will need to enter the user/pass in WinGate (it's not stored in the DSN). For other DBMSes we tested (MySQL, PostgreSQL) you don't need to.

that will require a restart of WinGate... it should then create the tables in the database that it needs, and start using them.

We normally recommend using a DB server on another computer, so you don't have WinGate competing with the DB engine for CPU.

Adrien

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
Unfortunately things have gone from bad to worse! Performance is better without the cache but I am getting a blue screen after my 2008R2 server grinds to a halt. Attached dump with files causing issue. Do you have any suggestions or pointers as to what may be causing this? Looks like it may be a remnant of 6.6.4 possibly as I didn't have V7 installed back in November 2011? (see qbik amdvistadriver below) Think I will do a fresh install of OS and go again unless you have any ideas?
Many Thanks...

[adrien]

Hi

I can have a look at the system remotely if you like.

That date stamp on the driver is when it was built, which is correct for WInGate 7 post 7.0.1

Just send connection details (we normally recommend Teamviewer) to support@wingate.com

Regards

Adrien

[adrien]

p.s. I'm concerned about what makes it grind to a halt - possibly a kernel memory leak for some reason.

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
Thanks for remoting in. Unfortunately on reboot the Max Network Buffers and Pre-allocate Hash Entries had reverted back to their defaults. I set them again (4096 and 2000) and rebooted but they still reverted back. Still having same issues with performance. CPU process for wingate shows around 56% when system is unresponsive. Shutting down the service drops CPU usage to around 2% overall but jumps straight back up when the service is restarted unless server is rebooted. Once rebooted CPU usage runs constantly at around 2% until the system goes awry again. Memory usage is generally good at around 46MB but when unresponsive is showing around 150MB.

Will take a screen shot for you to see when it goes topsy turvy!

Cheers
Paul

[adrien]

Hi Paul

there's a problem with the advanced options applet on 64 bit systems. It doesn't pick up the correct location for the registry values, and therefore shows default values.

I'm pretty sure we changed the values in the registry which the driver should be using. The values are in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\QbikhkVistaAMD32\Parameters

Regards

Adrien

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
this is as close as I can get to the registry path you have given and I'm not seeing it? Maybe the required entry is missing altogether?
Cheers

[adrien]

Ah

if you only ever used the WinGate Advanced Options applet, it would never have put them in.

We do have a fixed one... I'll email you a link... it's WinGate 7.1 pre-release though - soon to be released with user localisability. And a few fixes:

* NTLM in WinGate UDB provider crash when NTLM messages out of sequence.
* Lock up in WinGate UDB provider with nested groups
* Added support for multi-select when browsing for UDB objects (e.g. in editing group membership in WinGate UDB, permissions, access control rules, policy user/group check)
* various other fixes.

Adrien

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien
The page you have requested cannot be found with that link... diverts me back to main Wingate Page after 3 seconds...

[adrien]

sorry - a typo

3379 not 3779

Regards

Adrien

[l.dellisola]

Hi there,
I'm having a similar problem on a Win 2008 server:
after moving wingate 6.1 from 2003 to 2008 server we had a 100% cpu usage on Wingate.exe that continuosly hung the machine (running only wingate); this happened at first once in a while, but soon started to need a restart almosta every half an hour.
So we decided to create a new server and upgrade to Wingate 7, (7.0.8.3364), and after migrating licenses and users , yesterday the 100% Cpu usage issue started showing again...
Today the wingate is completely stuck, ten minutes after rebooting it hangs again and again,
Users are angry and I have no solution...

Can u plz help me?
Thank you!
Luca

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
FYI... I have completed a fresh install of 2008R2, running 7.1.0.3379. The AD connector is not functional when you install this version from scratch. I can log into the console using my AD credentials but am presented with no options or information for configuration. Looked like it was logging me on as an unknown user with no permissions at all for the console. I had to uninstall 3379 and install 3364 to enable AD authorisation. However, I have installed 3379 over the top and it works that way. Still has the hang when amending policies and not expanding the window, have to kill the process to continue..
Cheers
Paul

[adrien]

Hi there,
I'm having a similar problem on a Win 2008 server:
after moving wingate 6.1 from 2003 to 2008 server we had a 100% cpu usage on Wingate.exe that continuosly hung the machine (running only wingate); this happened at first once in a while, but soon started to need a restart almosta every half an hour.
So we decided to create a new server and upgrade to Wingate 7, (7.0.8.3364), and after migrating licenses and users , yesterday the 100% Cpu usage issue started showing again...
Today the wingate is completely stuck, ten minutes after rebooting it hangs again and again,
Users are angry and I have no solution...

Can u plz help me?
Thank you!
Luca

Hi

If you can contact our support desk by emailling support@wingate.com, we can set up a remote assist session to look at your server. We find that's the quickest way normally to deal with urgent issues.

We normally recommend Teamviewer, in which case if you send in the ID and password, we can save a round-trip as well.

Regards

Adrien de Croy

[adrien]

Hi Adrien,
FYI... I have completed a fresh install of 2008R2, running 7.1.0.3379. The AD connector is not functional when you install this version from scratch. I can log into the console using my AD credentials but am presented with no options or information for configuration. Looked like it was logging me on as an unknown user with no permissions at all for the console. I had to uninstall 3379 and install 3364 to enable AD authorisation. However, I have installed 3379 over the top and it works that way. Still has the hang when amending policies and not expanding the window, have to kill the process to continue..
Cheers
Paul

thanks for the update. I'll re-check the AD connector.

in general, we find 99% of issues relating to the AD connector are underlying OS config issues - e.g. DNS. Have you double-checked the DNS settings on the adapters on that computer?

Also, there should be something logged about why the connector couldn't initialise properly.

Regards

Adrien

[adrien]

Hi Adrien,
FYI... I have completed a fresh install of 2008R2, running 7.1.0.3379. The AD connector is not functional when you install this version from scratch. I can log into the console using my AD credentials but am presented with no options or information for configuration.

Did you get a login dialog pop up? Normally when the UDB provider fails to initialise (e.g. cannot contact the domain) you don't see a login, but also if you have WinGate Management set to automatically log in you wouldn't see it either.

Looked like it was logging me on as an unknown user with no permissions at all for the console. I had to uninstall 3379 and install 3364 to enable AD authorisation. However, I have installed 3379 over the top and it works that way. Still has the hang when amending policies and not expanding the window, have to kill the process to continue..
Cheers
Paul

when you did a fresh install, did you import any old registry? Normally you should (after activation) get a pop-up asking you to select a user database provider.

[adrien]

Hi Paul

I just did a code review of any changes to that UDB connector between those 2 versions. There was nothing (we moved some strings into resources for localisation).

there were no code changes at all to the UDB manager (which manages the UDB providers).

So I can only conclude it was a temporary issue accessing your AD server. That then also explains why it works now, since the provider does nothing different on initial run to a subsequent one (nothing material anyway).

Logs should prove it one way or the other.

I think I found that policy editor problem as well... can I send you another link to confirm? It's hard to replicate here (although I've seen it several times).

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
I have checked the event viewer and have these two errors repeated through "Windows Logs - Application and Administrative Events" both with 3379. This would back up the inability to gain access to the console with the AD login. I had chosen the correct type of database for AD integration and was presented with a login screen to which I entered my AD credentials(username, password, domain). It accepted these, presented the console but allowed me no access whatsoever to configuration. The server was a completely fresh install, 2008R2 SP1 with no other software present, or registry imports, had been joined to our domain and has no DNS issues.

Error 1 "Wingate Engine"
"Unknown exception calling notify on component {af1d0cb3-2760-47ed-95db-7f48e3fd00f3}."

Error 2
The program GateKeeper.exe version 7.1.0.3379 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: b70
Start Time: 01ccebe075d2d816
Termination Time: 29
Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\WinGate\GateKeeper.exe
Report Id:


Above errors were generated at the first attempt to install with 3379, reverted back to 3364 and installed 3379 over the top and no further errors have been listed.

I am running Sophos AV on the server but this was installed after Wingate was running and stable so had no effect on the issue but was wondering if there should be any exclusions re the Wingate App that might cause excessive CPU or Mem Usage?

Hope this is of some use...

Glad to try the fix please send the link over and I'll give you an update as soon as...

Cheers
Paul

[adrien]

Hi

try replacing that build number in your URL with 3383

I'll keep looking re that AD error. Looks like something definitely awry there. that UUID is for WebActivity.

thanks for the info.

Regards

Adrien

[rebelldtu]

Hi Adrien,
That build has resolved the issue with the policy window... also when dragging an Item into the policy it opens the options automatically now which it didn't previously... not sure if thats on purpose but a nice little modification if it is!!

Cheers
Paul

[adrien]

Actually it's done that for a couple years... I guess it wasn't working for you...

most odd.

The fix to the flicker was to remove a nasty hack someone had put into our scroll helper class.... sigh...

it was reducing the window size by 1px each dimension each time you set its size....