FrontPage 2000 UNIX Extensions Monopolize Portmap (240968)


The information in this article applies to:

  • FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions from Microsoft
This article was previously published under Q240968

SYMPTOMS

If you are running the FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions on Apache 1.3.6 on Digital Unix 4.0D with HTML files stored on NFS partitions, Fpcount.exe and Shtml.exe can be seen monopolizing portmap. For example: 

   PID  USERNAME PRI  NICE  SIZE   RES  STATE   TIME   CPU    COMMAND
   318  root      49    0   2176K  122K  run    0:46   43.50% portmap
   6197 wfp09446  42    0   2376K  172K  WAIT   0:28   25.90% fpcount.exe
The added time in portmap means that the CPUs are spending 70 - 80% time in the kernel. This extra kernel time makes the system slow/unresponsive.

Following are response rates that you may see when Shtml.exe monopolizes the portmap: 
 CPU states:  6.4% user, 36.8% nice, 56.7% system,  0.0% idle
 Memory: Real: 182M/494M act/tot  Virtual: 129M/953M use/tot  Free: 17M
 
   PID USERNAME PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE   TIME    CPU COMMAND
   300 daemon    55    0 2152K   90K run    44.7H 13.30% portmap
  5865 wfp04179  56    5   18M   11M run     0:13  8.60% author.exe
 32512 wfp05029  56    5   28M 9969K run     4:35  8.40% author.exe
  9857 wfp02450  56    5   29M   18M run     2:43  8.20% author.exe
  8252 wfp02628  42    5 8288K  352K WAIT    0:56  7.80% shtml.exe

CAUSE

The FrontPage Server Extensions use the Fcntl function to lock files. When the file is located on a network drive, the lock daemon makes calls through the RPC portmap to implement the lock on the remote NFS files. Flock is for file locking locally which is implemented in the kernel. Flock is a subset of Fcntl.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a).

To obtain SR-1/SR-1a, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

245025 OFF2000: How to Obtain and Install Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a)

WORKAROUND

You can implement the FrontPage 97 hit counter and modify the code to use flock rather than the Fcntl function. You can also create a cron job that constantly checks for FrontPage processes the uses portmap excessively and kills the process.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1/SR-1a.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/3/2002
Keywords:kbbug KB240968
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.