# Mongrel as service....odd **URL:** \ **Category:** Deployment\ **Created:** [February 20, 2007, 11:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166 "2007-02-20T11:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/21 "2007-02-26T21:31:13Z")
Here comes more useful info. Using mongrel’s direct link, instead of routing through lighttpd gives me about a 1 in 7 or 8 (same amount) of popping up with an error 500. It makes very little sense to me because I know lighttpd routed properly (had it not, I’d never have seen a rails error). Confusion still there… Hmm…I ran another stress run (20 pages at once) and the login screen gave me a 500 error once as well… Something’s up…I don’t think one mongrel can handle 20 connections, but since the failure rate goes -way- up when I have a database involved, I’m uncertain… C.jay Martin wrote: > Can’t totally rule out Mongrel routing, because the test was so simple > and I was unable to enforce two simultaneous attempts, but the hello > program, loaded on over 20 panes simultaneously, had zero errors… > > Second-check. I did the same exact thing with the login screen for the > real program (it doesn’t link to the database…that’s -IT- for > differences) and not one error. It has to be DB related. > > I think all that leaves is the DB, Rails’ link to the database, or > Mongrel’s treatment of the processes in regards to the DB. It’s > definitely related to the DB though. > > Luis L. wrote: > > > On 2/26/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > with me having to push it with simultaneous connections. Either > > > > something is drastically wrong with mongrel’s concurrency capabilities, > > > > or something’s up with SQL Server. At this point, I’m pretty convinced > > > > there’s nothing in my code or NTFS permissions doing this. > > > > > > NTFS Permissions update: > > > > > > Tossed the whole thing onto a test box, gave ruby, my app, mongrel, etc > > > full user permissions. Still seems to happen. > > > > You still use the SQL Server as backend, right? > > > > Could you try a clean rails app as service? put some test controller > > (like hello world action). > > > > If that don’t fail, is related to our SQL Server connection that > > timeout and raise some issues (randomly it seems). > > > > ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems > > > > Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, > > which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that > > is worthwhile. > > Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/22 "2007-02-26T23:38:24Z")
On 2/26/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > DBA just got back to me. The user logging in to the table has no > connection limit. That means it has to be either the ADO.rb linking to > SQL Server, or Mongrel’s handling of the database…Or unhandled > timeouts… Most usual are unhandled timeouts. Mongrel CAN serve 20+ request, but not with Rails, since isn’t Thread-Safe and require a big lock around it to avoid random and madness due ActiveRecord: [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/docs/frameworks.html](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/docs/frameworks.html) Also pointed in the FAQs: [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/faq.html](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/faq.html) > How would I go about making a timeout infinite, or handling one? > This is an enterprise grade Database on a server that doesn’t get hit > hard… I really don’t see why it’d be timeouts, honestly…but I’ll > keep the possibility in mind. Previously you was serving your rails applications with lighttpd and fastcgi, right? That means a bunch of ruby process to “balance” the load of every request that get into lighty. Since you’re running one instance (as service), several hits to the same instance will timeout, mostly due slow answers from DB (most of the cases). Could someone contribute more with SQL Server setups? I’m not a user of them, could try to re-create Jays scenario but will take time. ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/23 "2007-02-26T21:04:13Z")
DBA just got back to me. The user logging in to the table has no connection limit. That means it has to be either the ADO.rb linking to SQL Server, or Mongrel’s handling of the database…Or unhandled timeouts… How would I go about making a timeout infinite, or handling one? This is an enterprise grade Database on a server that doesn’t get hit hard… I really don’t see why it’d be timeouts, honestly…but I’ll keep the possibility in mind. C.jay Martin wrote: > Can’t totally rule out Mongrel routing, because the test was so simple > and I was unable to enforce two simultaneous attempts, but the hello > program, loaded on over 20 panes simultaneously, had zero errors… > > Second-check. I did the same exact thing with the login screen for the > real program (it doesn’t link to the database…that’s -IT- for > differences) and not one error. It has to be DB related. > > I think all that leaves is the DB, Rails’ link to the database, or > Mongrel’s treatment of the processes in regards to the DB. It’s > definitely related to the DB though. > > Luis L. wrote: > > > On 2/26/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > with me having to push it with simultaneous connections. Either > > > > something is drastically wrong with mongrel’s concurrency capabilities, > > > > or something’s up with SQL Server. At this point, I’m pretty convinced > > > > there’s nothing in my code or NTFS permissions doing this. > > > > > > NTFS Permissions update: > > > > > > Tossed the whole thing onto a test box, gave ruby, my app, mongrel, etc > > > full user permissions. Still seems to happen. > > > > You still use the SQL Server as backend, right? > > > > Could you try a clean rails app as service? put some test controller > > (like hello world action). > > > > If that don’t fail, is related to our SQL Server connection that > > timeout and raise some issues (randomly it seems). > > > > ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems > > > > Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, > > which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that > > is worthwhile. > > Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/24 "2007-02-27T14:41:07Z")
Previously, it was Webrick for me… I expected to have access to apache with fastcgi when I was developing the project… apparently only certain purchased apps are allowed to use the apache server… so the webserver guy gave me the admin pass to the webserver and said “get your rails app working here”. I think I’m going to try lighttpd with fastcgi instead, honestly… It’ll mean another midnight, but if I can’t get mongrel working…bleh Luis L. wrote: > On 2/26/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > DBA just got back to me. The user logging in to the table has no > > connection limit. That means it has to be either the ADO.rb linking to > > SQL Server, or Mongrel’s handling of the database…Or unhandled > > timeouts… > > Most usual are unhandled timeouts. Mongrel CAN serve 20+ request, but > not with Rails, since isn’t Thread-Safe and require a big lock around > it to avoid random and madness due ActiveRecord: > > [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/docs/frameworks.html](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/docs/frameworks.html) > > Also pointed in the FAQs: > > [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/faq.html](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/faq.html) > > > How would I go about making a timeout infinite, or handling one? > > This is an enterprise grade Database on a server that doesn’t get hit > > hard… I really don’t see why it’d be timeouts, honestly…but I’ll > > keep the possibility in mind. > > Previously you was serving your rails applications with lighttpd and > fastcgi, right? That means a bunch of ruby process to “balance” the > load of every request that get into lighty. > > Since you’re running one instance (as service), several hits to the > same instance will timeout, mostly due slow answers from DB (most of > the cases). > > Could someone contribute more with SQL Server setups? I’m not a user > of them, could try to re-create Jays scenario but will take time. > > ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems > > Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, > which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that > is worthwhile. > Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/25 "2007-02-28T19:03:53Z")
Eh…I had to rewrite all the Rails sql statements on the swap, but otherwise, SQL was fine till I swapped to mongrel as a service. My opinions/decisions bear very little weight upon IT, sadly, but any solution I can confirm and prove, will probably be accepted if I spin it as “still using only one system as a webserver”… long story…I think I’m going to try to use lighttpd with fastcgi instead… we’ll see what happens Luis L. wrote: > On 2/27/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Previously, it was Webrick for me… I expected to have access to apache > > with fastcgi when I was developing the project… apparently only > > certain purchased apps are allowed to use the apache server… so the > > webserver guy gave me the admin pass to the webserver and said “get your > > rails app working here”. > > > > I think I’m going to try lighttpd with fastcgi instead, honestly… > > It’ll mean another midnight, but if I can’t get mongrel working…bleh > > I don’t know how SQL Server from \*nix will for for you, but deploying > isn’t a thing so simple that “you drop a file here and you’re ready to > roll”. > > It requires a lot of thinking and often a re-thinking based on the > initial results. Often it takes me 3 rounds to get a good deployment > environment, without counting DB communication issues. > > Guess Zed will agree with me on this: If your company is “constrained” > to windows environment (that includes IIS), you should find a > workaround… hey, you could even add pen [1] to the equation and do > some load balancing to a bunch of mongrel via ISAPI rewrite: > > IIS → ISAPI rewrite → Pen (cygwin) → Bunch of Mongrels. > > If your decisions have height at your company, use a scenario that > makes you feel better, nothing stops you, all we want is that you be > happy 🙂 > > Your questions are welcome, but ignoring issues regarding DB\<-\>App > communication (I guess since you’re running just one instance of your > application) isn’t right. > > There are things inherent to each solution that you must know (or at > least try), even if you coded your app in a “magical” framework like > rails. > > I’m here to contribute and help the community, so feel free to ask 🙂 > > ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems > > Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, > which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that > is worthwhile. > Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/26 "2007-02-28T19:13:26Z")
Sorry, forgot to log in. That last message was me ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/27 "2007-02-27T16:25:10Z")
On 2/27/07, C.jay Martin [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Previously, it was Webrick for me… I expected to have access to apache > with fastcgi when I was developing the project… apparently only > certain purchased apps are allowed to use the apache server… so the > webserver guy gave me the admin pass to the webserver and said “get your > rails app working here”. > > I think I’m going to try lighttpd with fastcgi instead, honestly… > It’ll mean another midnight, but if I can’t get mongrel working…bleh I don’t know how SQL Server from \*nix will for for you, but deploying isn’t a thing so simple that “you drop a file here and you’re ready to roll”. It requires a lot of thinking and often a re-thinking based on the initial results. Often it takes me 3 rounds to get a good deployment environment, without counting DB communication issues. Guess Zed will agree with me on this: If your company is “constrained” to windows environment (that includes IIS), you should find a workaround… hey, you could even add pen [1] to the equation and do some load balancing to a bunch of mongrel via ISAPI rewrite: IIS → ISAPI rewrite → Pen (cygwin) → Bunch of Mongrels. If your decisions have height at your company, use a scenario that makes you feel better, nothing stops you, all we want is that you be happy 🙂 Your questions are welcome, but ignoring issues regarding DB\<-\>App communication (I guess since you’re running just one instance of your application) isn’t right. There are things inherent to each solution that you must know (or at least try), even if you coded your app in a “magical” framework like rails. I’m here to contribute and help the community, so feel free to ask 🙂 ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/28 "2007-04-10T22:25:14Z")
On 4/10/07, Kevin A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ``` > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:249:in > > ``` > > `paginator\_and\_collection\_for’ > xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new Kevin, What you describe sounds like a pre-0.3.1 version of mongrel\_service. Also, write operations (since guess you’re creating a file) will be affected by Access Control List on Windows (most of the times known as Permissions and LUA bugs). Have you tried latest version? (0.3.1) Anyway, space issues are odd, but found since started with ruby on windows that tabs, carrier returns (\r) and new lines (\n) in models, controllers and worse on views produce a lot of weirdness around your applications (and most of the times impossible to trace or debug). ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. Vince Lombardi ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/29 "2007-04-10T18:34:15Z")
I had a similar problem using Mongrel as a service. Application worked fine when run from the command line, but stopped working when I switched it over to a service. Below is the error I was receiving: Processing DesignController#entity\_operations (for 10.5.5.34 at 2007-04-10 11:12:25) [POST] Session ID: 2a296cf41d598819d3271119c7ef2c74 Parameters: {“action”=\>“entity\_operations”, “id”=\>“34”, “controller”=\>“design”, “sort”=\>“name”} Errno::EINVAL (Invalid argument): /app/models/operation.rb:166:in `write’ The next time I attempted to call the “entity\_operations” method I would get a totally different error which was: LoadError (Expected c:/web/cincom\_design/config/…/app/models/operation.rb to define Operation): c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:249:in `load_missing_constant' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:452:in`const\_missing’ c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:464:in `const_missing' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:250:in`constantize’ c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/string/inflections.rb:148:in `constantize' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/pagination.rb:195:in`paginator\_and\_collection\_for’ c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action\_controller/pagination.rb:130:in `paginate' /app/controllers/design_controller.rb:351:in`entity\_operations’ It has taken me several hours to resolve this, but finally figured out that this error was being caused by a “space” in the model file between a method name and the left “(” of the parameter listing. Specifically, I was using a Builder::XmlMarkup variable calling the “Row” and “Cell” methods as shown below: ``` xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new xml.Row ("ss:Height" => "64.5", "ss:StyleID" => "s23") { xml.Cell ("ss:StyleID" => "s22") { xml.Data("Entity Name", "ss:Type" => "String") } ``` As soon as I removed all the spaces between the method and parameter list, the application began to work. Don’t know if this helps anyone else, but I thought it may be useful to someone. Kevin ---
**Author:** ![dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dieffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dieffe)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166/30 "2007-04-11T01:10:54Z")
Yeah…final update… I nixed Mongrel and used apache/fcgi, everything works perfectly, and significantly faster than 4 mongrel processes (the number I found worked fastest in the first place) Luis L. wrote: > On 4/10/07, Kevin A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > ``` > > c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.4.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:249:in > > > > ``` > > > > `paginator\_and\_collection\_for’ > > xml = Builder::XmlMarkup.new > > Kevin, > > What you describe sounds like a pre-0.3.1 version of mongrel\_service. > > Also, write operations (since guess you’re creating a file) will be > affected by Access Control List on Windows (most of the times known as > Permissions and LUA bugs). > > Have you tried latest version? (0.3.1) > > Anyway, space issues are odd, but found since started with ruby on > windows that tabs, carrier returns (\r) and new lines (\n) in models, > controllers and worse on views produce a lot of weirdness around your > applications (and most of the times impossible to trace or debug). > > ## – Luis L. Multimedia systems > > Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, > which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that > is worthwhile. > Vince Lombardi [Previous page](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-as-service-odd/86166.md?page=1)