WebSTAR 4 Manual & Technical Reference

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Server Troubleshooting

How to Get Help

WebSTAR Support on the Web

The WebSTAR Support area contains the FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions List), Technical Notes, updated Troubleshooting, and additional online help about such topics as memory allocation and performance optimization. It can be found at:

 
http://www.starnine.com/support/

WebSTAR-Talk Mailing list

The email discussion list, WebSTAR-Talk, provides an excellent resource for questions and discussions. In addition to StarNine support and engineering staff, other web administrators and third-party developers provide answers and advice.

 

http://www.starnine.com/support/mailinglists/mailinglist.html

Or send an email message with the word "subscribe" in the subject to:

 

mailto:webstar-talk-request@starnine.com

You can search the archives of this mailing list as well:

 
http://search.starnine.com/talklists.html

Email and US Mail Technical Support

StarNine's Support staff will answer email and mail in a timely manner. Email and mail support is free.

 
mailto:support@starnine.com

US Mail

StarNine Technologies, Inc.
ATTN: Support
2550 Ninth St. Suite 112
Berkeley, CA 94710 USA

Telephone and Fax Support

StarNine provides telephone support on weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm, Pacific Time. Telephone support is free for the first ninety (90) days after your purchase. Some charges may apply for additional telephone support.

phone: (510) 704-1272

fax: (510) 548-0393

WebSTAR Debug Plug-In

The WebSTAR Debug Plug-In is a troubleshooting tool that can help StarNine Support track down the causes of repeated server crashes. It will store information about your system, memory, server configuration and current applications, WebSTAR callbacks, internal data about the most recent functions called.

When the Debug Plug-In is installed, however, it will use some of the system resources, slowing down your server. You should only install it if you are having repeated crashes and someone at StarNine requests the information. Then, the next time your server crashes, you will find a file named WebSTAR Debug.log in your WebSTAR folder. When you launch WebSTAR again, the file will be renamed to include the date and time the server crashed, and the Debug Plug-In will create a new file for tracking any future problems.

If you wish to read the contents of the file, open it in a good text editor such as BBEdit, but don't make any changes to the file if you intend to send it to StarNine.

If someone at StarNine has requested the information, you can email this file to them. To avoid sending the file as part of the message, stuff it before attaching it.

Do not send the debug files to mailing lists. They are too long, and the information should be kept private for your security.

Installing and Enabling

WebSTAR Debug is not installed by default. You should launch the WebSTAR Server Suite Installer and select Custom Install, then WebSTAR Server Suite 4 > WebSTAR Plug-Ins > Extra Plug-In Modules > WebSTAR Debug. If you select the folder above the WebSTAR folder, and have not changed the folder name, the Installer will place the Plug-In in the Plug-Ins folder. Otherwise, it will make a new folder containing a new Plug-Ins folder. In that case, drag the ! WebSTAR Debug file into your main Plug-Ins folder.

You must quit and restart the WebSTAR application to enable the WebSTAR Debug to start tracking the server's activities.

Removing and Disabling

To disable the Plug-In, remove it from your Plug-Ins folder. Then quit the WebSTAR application and restart it.

Debug Files

While WebSTAR is running, there will be a file named WebSTAR Debug.log . This file remains empty unless your server crashes. If that happens, data is written to the file.

If you relaunch your server, the file will be renamed to include the date and time, such as WebSTAR Debug 19990507.122133 . This system retains old log files after restarts.

General Server Troubleshooting Guidelines

Please note that updated information for all troubleshooting is available at http://www.starnine.com/support/ .

See also Web Server Troubleshooting , WebSTAR FTP Troubleshooting , Mail Server Troubleshooting and Proxy Server Troubleshooting .

WebSTAR crashes, quits, reports "out of memory" errors, or has intermittent network problems.

If the server crashes more than once, install the WebSTAR Debug Plug-In (described WebSTAR Debug Plug-In ).

If WebSTAR crashes, it may be due to conflicting software, hardware, or other application processes on the server machine.

Most crashes are caused by a Plug-In or CGI. If you have recently added a new Plug-In or CGI to your configuration and the server become less stable, you should first try removing the recently installed item(s). If that helps, be sure to check the web site of the publisher to make sure that you have the most recent version of the Plug-In or CGI, and to determine if there are known conflicts.

For more information, see Plug-In Problems .

If Plug-Ins are not the culprit, try these steps:

Run a disk repair utility and rebuild the desktop file (with Extensions off). This will fix any resource problems that can cause the file system to report errors.
Do not use a screen saver.
Temporarily disable any background applications or scripts that are running on the server machine.

You may want to install Apple's MacsBug low-level debugger to log crashes and facilitate troubleshooting.

Minimize extensions. Install only the minimal or base Mac OS Extensions. If you continue to experience problems, disable third-party Extensions and Control Panels. The only extensions needed to run WebSTAR are Open Transport TCP/IP, and AppleScript.
If you're upgrading your system software, we recommend following the Apple guidelines which suggest a clean install. If you experience server instability following an OS upgrade, it may be resolved by reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling the system.
Bad RAM can cause intermittent crashes or other inconsistent behavior. If you've recently installed additional RAM, try removing it, installing alternate RAM chips, or running WebSTAR on a different machine.

WebSTAR may have run out of memory. The most common reason for this is an attempt to process too many concurrent connections. If you have increased the Maximum Connections setting, you should also increase the WebSTAR server application RAM allocation.

For best stability, set the RAM allocation according to the guidelines in Server Application Issues .

If you have followed the guidelines on RAM allocation, you should also check the documentation for any Plug-Ins you have installed as they may require additional memory.

There may be a problem with your TCP/IP settings and memory fragmentation. See Keep Open Transport Loaded for instructions on avoiding fragmentation

A bad Ethernet cable can produce intermittent network errors. Try substituting a different cable.

Error message: -42 too many open files

Newer versions of the Mac OS use up more of the allowed files, so you may see this error. There are various ways you can reduce the load on the server:

Increase the size Data Cache to load more files into memory rather than reading them from disk.
Avoid using your WebSTAR server machine for other tasks.
Close unused applications.
Move some external functions to other servers, such as DNS servers or FileMaker databases.
Run copies of WebSTAR on different machines, so the Web, FTP, Mail and Proxy servers can each handle specific requests. Contact sales@starnine.com for multiple-license pricing.

Server Fails To Respond

On early Power Macintosh computers with built-in Ethernet (6100s-9500s), some server machine may lose all networking communications (go "deaf") after large data transfers. This can be triggered by backup systems such as Retrospect, but is not caused by these programs.

The solutions are:

upgrade to Mac OS 8.6 and the Apple Enet extension, version 2.1.2.

use a third-party Ethernet card

use Mac OS 8.1, remove the Ethernet (Built-In) extension and replace it with the Apple Enet extension, version 2.1.2.

Bad Ethernet drivers can cause intermittent server "deafness". Check Apple software updates or technical notes or consult with the manufacturer of your Ethernet card.
Open Transport problems can also make your server fail to respond to any TCP connections. The only solution is to restart the server machine. Future versions of the Mac OS, after 8.6, may solve this problem.
The Mac OS Energy Saver may have shut down your hard drive. Open the Energy Saver Control Panel, choose Server Settings from the Preferences menu, and check the boxes to automatically restart and never put the hard disk to sleep.

Error -120 while resolving alias path to log folder

The server has lost track of one of the log folders. Use the Admin application to specify the correct location of your logs. If this fails, quit your WebSTAR Server Suite, move your logs out of the WebSTAR folder, and relaunch. New logs will be created in the locations specified by your settings in the Admin application.

Red "Memory Error" light appears in the Status window

If you have recently added Plug-Ins or increased a cache, you may have used up all the server's available memory. Look at the Status window displays on Memory to see more information.

If you are low on memory on the machine, you can remove Plug-Ins or decrease cache sizes.
If you have more RAM available on the machine, allocate more to the server. Quit the WebSTAR application, select it, choose Get Info from the File menu. For Mac OS 8.5 and later, you should select Memory from the Show menu. Increase the number in the Preferred Size field, and close this window. Restart the WebSTAR server.
If you have plenty of memory when you launch the server, but run out if you use the Directory Indexer Plug-In, you may be the victim of a corrupted resource fork. Try running Norton Utilities or another hard drive diagnostic tool, and fix any files on your server with a bad resource fork.

Error: Log Archive FSSpec in the Web monitor or log

If you see this error, you have selected a disk other than the disk where the WebSTAR application is running as the location of your log archive folder. Copying log files to other disks can slow down the server considerably, so WebSTAR will only allow you to archive log files locally.

To fix this problem, open the WebSTAR Admin application, choose the Log Options panel for each server, and set the Log Archive location to a folder on the same hard drive as the WebSTAR folder. For instructions see Log Archiving .