Remote Console Applet: Admin Preferences

You can use the Remote Console Applet Admin Preferences to perform the following tasks:

Starting and Stopping Proxy Services

After you make certain administrative setting changes, you must start the proxy service.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Start/Stop node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.

    proxy.gif (6563 bytes)

    The right-hand pane displays the current status of the proxy service and the following controls:

    proxy01.gif (839 bytes)

  4. To change the current status, click the activated button.

Changing the Proxy Service Port Number

The proxy service port number can be any number between 1 and 65535, but it is typically a random number greater than 1024. For security reasons, you should consider changing the port number regularly.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Port node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    console1c.gif (1934 bytes)
  4. Type a new port number.
  5. Click the Save button to save the change or the Revert button to revert to the previous setting.
    NOTE: You must restart the web server and proxy service in order for the change to take effect.

Configuring the Proxy Service Session Tracking

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Session Tracking node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    console1f.gif (2080 bytes)

    The following table explains the controls.

    Setting Description
    Session Tracking A mechanism for building a sophisticated, stateful model on top of the web's stateless protocol When Session Tracking is enabled, the session state is maintained by the server.
    Session Timeout The number of milliseconds that pass before an idle connection is dropped
    The default is 1200000 milliseconds.
    Maximum sessions The maximum number of sessions
    The default is 512.

  4. Specify session tracking preferences as appropriate.

  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: You must restart the proxy service in order for the changes to take effect.

Configuring the Proxy Service Pool Handler

Use the pool handler to specify the pool size (the number of ASP applications which will be stored in the server after running properly).

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Pool Handler node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    console1g.gif (1832 bytes)

    The following table explains the controls.

    Setting Description
    Initial Pool Size

    The number of pooled ASP applications that are available when iASP starts
    The default is 1.

    Maximum Pool Size The maximum number of pooled ASP applications
    The default is 256.
    Pool Timeout The expiration timeout for an idle handler thread
    The default is 300 seconds.
  4. Specify pool handler preferences as appropriate.

  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: You must restart the web server in order for the changes to take effect.


Configuring the Proxy Service Tuning

The Service Tuning page allows you to set or adjust properties that affect service performance.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Tuning node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    proxy4.gif (1901 bytes)

    The following table explains the controls.

    Setting Description
    Proxy Service Buffer Size You can set the right buffer size to get the fastest throughput.
    Proxy Service Minimum Handler Threads The minimum number of threads the service maintains in its handler pool to service incoming requests.
    Because thread creation adds overhead to the service's response time, it's recommended that you set this property to a non-zero value. The default is 5 threads.
    Proxy Service Maximum Handler Threads The maximum number of threads the service maintains in its handler pool to service incoming requests
    The default is 100 threads.
    Proxy Service Backlog The maximum queue length for incoming connection indications (a request to connect) is set to the count parameter.
    If a connection indication arrives when the queue is full, the connection is refused.
  4. Specify tuning preferences as appropriate.
  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: You must restart the proxy service in order for the changes to take effect.

    Proxy Service: Allows the addition of a proxy for improved caching and faster performance.

    Threads: One thread is required per connection. Adding threads consumes more memory, but can yield better response time for your clients on a server that concurrently serves multiple connections that are either high latency or involve access to some high-latency resource.

Configuring the Proxy Service Class Path

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Classpath node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    proxy5.gif (1389 bytes)

  4. Specify a new class path for the proxy service in the text field.

  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

Configuring the Proxy Service Heap Size

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Heapsize node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    proxy6.gif (1112 bytes)
  4. Specify the maximum heap size in bytes, megabytes (m), or kilobytes (k).
    NOTE: The maximum heap size must be greater than or equal to 16 megabytes (the default is 16 megabytes).

  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

Configuring the Proxy Service Load Balancing

The Load Balancing is used to optimize the performance on your web site by controlling the distribution of hits to two or more web servers based on server capacity. When your web site becomes busy, this is a very important feature which provides you the following benefits:

  • It maximizes the performance of each of your web servers.
  • It minimizes the "Server busy" messages.
  • It guarantees that visitors get consistent and fast responses from your web site with Fault Tolerance.

When you configure proxy service load balancing, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Enable or disable load balancing
  • Add a secondary server to share the task load
  • Edit a server's task load percentage
  • Delete a server

Enabling or Disabling Load Balancing

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Load Balancing node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.
  4. Select the Enable Load Balancing check box to share the task load across servers as the Server list indicates, or deselect this check box to have the primary server handle 100 percent of the task load (whether or not secondary servers appear in the xxx list).
    NOTE: You must have at least one secondary server in the list for the load balance to be shared.
  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

Adding a New Secondary Server

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Load Balancing node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
  4. Click the Add button.
  5. Specify the server name and assign a percentage of the task load to this server.
  6. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until the task percentages for all servers (the primary server and all secondary servers) add to 100 percent.
    You can add up to 15 secondary servers.
  7. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: You must enable load balancing for these task allocations to take effect.

Editing a Secondary Server

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Load Balancing node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
  4. Select a server.
  5. Click the Edit button.
  6. Change the task percentage as appropriate.
  7. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: The task percentages for all servers (the primary server and all secondary servers) must add to 100 percent before you can save your changes.


Deleting a Secondary Server

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Proxy Service Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Load Balancing node under the Proxy Service Settings branch.
  4. Select a server.
  5. Click the Delete button.
  6. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.
    NOTE: The task percentages for all servers (the primary server and all secondary servers) must add to 100 percent before you can save your changes.

Configuring the Console Applet Port

The console applet port number can be any number between 1 and 65535, but it is typically a random number greater than 1024. For security reasons, you should consider changing the port number regularly.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Console Applet Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Port node under the Console Applet Settings branch.

    console.gif (5061 bytes)

    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    console1.gif (2867 bytes)

  4. Type a new port number.
  5. Click the Save button to save the change or the Revert button to revert to the previous setting.
    NOTE: You must restart the proxy service in order for the changes to take effect.

Configuring the Console Applet Tuning

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Console Applet Settings branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Tuning node under the Console Applet Settings branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    console2.gif (1808 bytes)

  4. Specify the maximum number of handler threads for the Remote Console Applet Service.

  5. Specify the maximum length for an incoming connection in the Remote Console Applet Service Backlog field.

  6. Click the Save button to save the change or the Revert button to revert to the previous setting.
    NOTE: You must restart the proxy service in order for the changes to take effect.

Configuring Load Balancing Settings

This feature is available only for the iASP Enterprise version. By default, the feature is disabled.

You can use iASP Load Balancing to distribute your web service requests over clustered hosts to avoid transmission congestion and bottlenecks. To use this feature, your system should have one or more mirrored Web servers all configured with the ability to respond directly to the same requests.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Select the Load Balancing branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls
  3. Select the Enable Cluster Enable check box to share the task load across the servers the List of available web servers indicates, or deselect this check box to have the primary server handle 100 percent of the task load (whether or not additional servers appear in the available web servers list).
  4. When you select the Cluster Enable check box, you can add additional web servers (click add, and then type in the host IP address of the computer and its port number) , edit current web servers (select a web server and change the web server's host IP address or port number) or delete a web server.
  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

When you configure one or more clustered hosts, the iASP load balancing system will dynamically distribute requests over all active hosts.


Getting Information on your iASP license and Component Licenses

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the License Management branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Information node under the License Management branch.
    license.gif (5587 bytes)

    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    license1.gif (3793 bytes)
    You can see whether the product ( iASP ) is licensed and what components are licensed.

Managing the iASP License File

You can use Instant ASP license management to edit the license file within the Remote Console Applet interface rather than use other editors manually modify the license file. This way, you can just cut and paste the license key and save it in the license file directly.

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the License Management branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Managing file node under the License Management branch.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.

    license2.gif (7412 bytes)
  4. Modify the iASP license file in the text field above as necessary.
    NOTE: Do not modify the file rashly, otherwise you may encounter problems later.
  5. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

Configuring Log Options

You can use the iASP server log files to monitor your server and troubleshoot any problems you may be experiencing.

NOTE: Instant ASP creates its server log files in the Common Log File Format. These Log Settings are invalid for any 3rd party servlet interface (such as Zeus, Sun WebServer, Apache JServ etc).

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Log Management branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the Log Options node under the Log Management branch.



    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.



    You can enable three types of logs, all of which are located in the server root directory by default:
    Access Log This log records information about server requests and responses returned from the server.
    Proxy Service Error Log This log lists all errors the proxy service has encountered, and can be quite useful for troubleshooting.
    Script Error Log This log lists all errors encountered when running ASP scripts and can be useful for script debugging.

    The following table explains the controls available for each log type.

    Setting Description
    Enable log When this check box is selected, the corresponding entries are made as appropriate in the corresponding logfile.
    File name The fully qualified path to the logfile.
    Log to This setting has two options:

    Rolling file: A rolling file collects log data until it reaches the size set in the Rollover File Size setting. It will keep the old and generate a new file to save the log message without affecting the running service.

    Single file: A file that collects log data until it reaches the maximum size allowed. This size is variable, and can be defined by the disk space allotted to the log directory. When it reaches the maximum size, it goes back to the beginning of the file and overwrites the previous entries.
    File Size Type

    This setting has two options:
    Unlimited: No filesize limitations are enforced.
    Limited: When you specify "limited," you can specify the maximum size of the logfile.

    FileSize (range:100-1000) The maximum size of a logfile (in kilobytes).
    The number you specify must be greater than or equal to 100 and less than or equal to 1000.
  1. Specify preferences for log options as appropriate.
  2. Click the Save button to save the changes or the Revert button to revert to the previous settings.

Viewing a Log File

  1. Click the Admin Preferences button to display the Admin Preferences tree in the left-hand pane of the Remote Console Applet.
  2. Expand the Log Management branch by clicking the + sign adjacent to it.
    A list of available options displays.
  3. Select the log you want to view: Access Log, Service Error Log (Proxy Service Error Log), or Script Error Log.
    These instructions use the Access Log to demonstrate additional steps.
    The right-hand pane displays the following controls.



  4. Specify the number of log entries to view.

  5. Specify a string to narrow your search.
    For example, if you only wish to display entries that contain the word "POST", enter "POST" in this field.
    NOTE: This field is case sensitive.

  6. Click the OK button to apply your changes or the Reset button to revert to the previous settings.

    The following is a sample of an access log in the Common Log file Format:

    192.9.200.207 -- [Thu Dec 17 09:44:31 CST 1999] "GET /iisproxy/vbscript/general/helloworld/helloworld.asp HTTP/1.1"
    192.9.200.207 -- [Thu Dec 17 09:44:36 CST 1999] "GET /iisproxy/vbscript/general/form/form.asp HTTP/1.1"
    192.9.200.207 -- [Thu Dec 17 09:44:40 CST 1999] "POST /iisproxy/vbscript/general/form/form.asp HTTP/1.1"


    Each line of the access log can have several fields each of which is defined in the table below:

    Setting Description
    Hostname or IP address of client user.mozilla.com. In this case, the hostname is shown because the server is using DNS lookups; if a DNS server cannot resolve the name or if DNS lookups are disabled, the client IP address appears here. 
    Username A username entered by the client during authentication. For example, johnw
    Date and time of the request The date and time of the request. For example, 29/Mar/1999:4:36:53 -0800
    Request The type of request. For example, GET /help 
    Protocol HTTP/1.0 
    Status code 401

If you encounter any problems or errors, please contact support@halcyonsoft.com


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