ActivePython/IIS Request Concurrency

[Robert Brewer]

Erik Rose wrote:
> First, thanks to everybody who's helped me with this problem,  
> especially Robert Brewer, who continually provided 
> encouragement that yes, my setup _can_ be made to work. :-)
> 
> Here's the beef: Python was acting serialized on my server 
> because IIS  
> goes to extra trouble to forcibly serialize _all_ ASP 
> requests made by  
> a given user within the scope of a given ASP "application". This  
> applies equally to Python, PerlScript, VBScript, etc. and has 
> nothing  
> to do with Python per se. Isn't that fun? IIS sets a cookie 
> (something  
> like Set-Cookie: 
> ASPSESSIONIDSQCARCQR=PPBNINLCAPCFOCDHMNPGCCFB; path=/)  
> on your first request and checks it on subsequent ones. It 
> apparently  
> keeps a separate queue of requests for each cookie, and no more than  
> one ASP script requested by an identically-cookied browser is 
> allowed  
> to run at a time. Thus, as long as you turn off cookies or 
> use a couple  
> different browsers in your testing, everything is nicely 
> concurrent. In  
> the wild, obviously, it will be unproblematic because each user will  
> get his own cookie. Phew!!  
> (http://groups.google.com/groups? 
> threadm=uopADcr%23DHA.4060%40TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl provided 
> the needed  
> breakthrough.)
> 
> Many thanks again to everybody who replied. I'm off to enjoy 
> my lovely  
> new language!
> 
> Cheers,
> Erik Rose
> Programmer/Analyst
> Pennsylvania State University
> 
> P.S. Robert was reporting that his stuff runs concurrently no matter  
> what he does. I'm guessing he either has cookies off or else has  
> unchecked "Enable session state" in IIS Manager for that 
> site. Either  
> of these true, Robert?

Why yes, I did turn off "Enable session state"! That was something I ran
into so early on in my foray into Python and ASP that I had forgotten
about it. :) So, turnabout being fair play, you just answered my
long-standing questions about how to get Sessions working with IIS!
Thank YOU. Now my web framework can be more complete, even if I don't
have a need for sessions myself. ;)


Robert Brewer
MIS
Amor Ministries
fumanchu at amor.org