So, here are the symptoms:
I have an ASP distribution of Crystal Reports using the Crystal Reports viewer. I've been very happy with the site, for the most part, and all the users love it. Periodically, however, the site will suddenly fail. By fail I mean that on selecting a report, which attempts to open load a report into a CrystalReportsViewer, the viewer thrown an "invalid file path" exception. When the server begins doing this, it stays in this state until IIS is reset (in other words, no report can be opened and the file paths are all "invalid" until reset). Resetting IIS resolves the problem and the site goes on as normal again. I've poked around in the logs attempting to find the source of the periodic crashing, but can't find anything definite. There are a couple of things that I've found, however. Generally around the time that the site goes down we see in the website log statements to this effect:
#Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0
#Version: 1.0
#Date: 2007-08-23 15:55:38
#Fields: date time s-sitename s-ip cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port cs-username c-ip cs(User-Agent) sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status
This looks to me as though the server "resets" in some sense as this is also the header of the log file. These are the actual site logs. Looking in the system event log, we also find warnings/errors of this sort:
Event code: 3005
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred.
Event time: 8/22/2007 11:34:23 AM
Event time (UTC): 8/22/2007 3:34:23 PM
Event ID: 5ed75d4004274102b747616a7d615b92
Event sequence: 82
Event occurrence: 1
Event detail code: 0
Application information:
Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/784269995/Root-2-128322701447343750
Trust level: Full
Application Virtual Path: /
Application Path: D:\IIS Web Roots\Crystal\
Machine name: WWW
Process information:
Process ID: 5312
Process name: w3wp.exe
Account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Exception information:
Exception type: COMException
Exception message: The types of the parameter field and parameter field current values are not compatible.
Request information:
Request URL: http://crystal.carnegielearning.com/reports/crystalReport.aspx?report=Stage7
Request path: /reports/crystalReport.aspx
User host address: 10.3.1.18
User:
Is authenticated: False
Authentication Type:
Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Thread information:
Thread ID: 6
Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Is impersonating: False
Stack trace: at CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.Controllers.ParameterFieldControllerClass.SetCurrentValues(String ReportName, String ParameterFieldName, Values Values)
at CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ParameterFieldDefinition.ApplyCurrentValues(ParameterValues currentValues)
at _Default.ConfigureCrystalReport() in D:\IIS Web Roots\Crystal\reports\crystalReport.aspx.vb:line 131
at _Default.Page_Init(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\IIS Web Roots\Crystal\reports\crystalReport.aspx.vb:line 26
at System.Web.UI.Control.OnInit(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Page.OnInit(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
This is ASP.NET of type Web Event with EventID: 1309 .
I've poked around a bit and found some information which suggests that EventID: 1309 is related to a form of the authentication key expiring, so when a user hits the page or posts back after a long time afk, it generates this error. Now, I don't have the exception handled in the code (clearly), so that's one issue. I actually do have it handled, but apparently didn't properly wrap a different load() in a try-catch. Anyway, I'm not as concerned about unhandled exceptions as I am with the site going down and not being able to recover. Fair is fair, if I don't handle an exception, I can hardly expect the application to quit gracefully... but when the page is reloaded a new authentication key is provided, I would expect it to work again.
Does anyone have any idea why the ASP server seems to go down entirely? Why is an IIS reset required to get the site back up? What can I do to fix this? Will finding my unhandled load() suffice? Thanks in advance,
Pont