Microsoft Content Management Server - Irregular web-author cookie expiration.

Author

Irregular web-author cookie expiration.

alistair

2004-10-15, 9:13 pm

Hi
We are using CMS forms authenitaction to persist web-author credentials.
We have a development CMS solution that exhibits irregular web-author cookie
expiration.
Well, I this bothered the living daylights out of us....???
The ASP.NET cookie lifespan had been set and was equal to the CMS
authentication cookie setting managed within the SCA.
I was investigating my CMS root's IIS security directory settings and
noticed that
Anonymous guest access was checked (which is correct), however in the
"Authenicated Access" block that "Integrated Windows authentication" was
checked as well?
I unchecked it (the authenticated Access block is only applicable to windows
authentication) with the hope the issues of this irregular web-author cookie
expiration would be resolved

Could the "Integrated Windows authentication" setting interfere with forms
authentication as I have explained about?
thanks
Alistair

Stefan [MSFT]

2004-10-15, 9:13 pm

Hi Alistair,

actually this can not be the case.
Are you accessing the site through a proxy or firewall?
Then you might have to disable the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
as proxy arrays will create connections with different source IPs.
This is a common cause of cookie invalidation.

Cheers,
Stefan.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MCMS FAQ:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm
MCMS Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossner/category/4983.aspx
MCMS Sample Code:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver
MCMS Whitepapers and other docs:
http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossne...2/07/41859.aspx
--------------------------------

"alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5DF433FC-8C51-4ABF-8539-FD2E4D911B2A@microsoft.com...
> Hi
> We are using CMS forms authenitaction to persist web-author credentials.
> We have a development CMS solution that exhibits irregular web-author
cookie
> expiration.
> Well, I this bothered the living daylights out of us....???
> The ASP.NET cookie lifespan had been set and was equal to the CMS
> authentication cookie setting managed within the SCA.
> I was investigating my CMS root's IIS security directory settings and
> noticed that
> Anonymous guest access was checked (which is correct), however in the
> "Authenicated Access" block that "Integrated Windows authentication" was
> checked as well?
> I unchecked it (the authenticated Access block is only applicable to
windows
> authentication) with the hope the issues of this irregular web-author
cookie
> expiration would be resolved
>
> Could the "Integrated Windows authentication" setting interfere with forms
> authentication as I have explained about?
> thanks
> Alistair

alistair

2004-10-15, 9:13 pm

Hi Stefan
thanks for replying.
Yes, we are accessing the site via a proxy ...
Cool will try that
Cheers man

"Stefan [MSFT]" wrote:

> Hi Alistair,
>
> actually this can not be the case.
> Are you accessing the site through a proxy or firewall?
> Then you might have to disable the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
> as proxy arrays will create connections with different source IPs.
> This is a common cause of cookie invalidation.
>
> Cheers,
> Stefan.
>
> --
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> MCMS FAQ:
> http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm
> MCMS Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossner/category/4983.aspx
> MCMS Sample Code:
> http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver
> MCMS Whitepapers and other docs:
> http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossne...2/07/41859.aspx
> --------------------------------
>
>
> "alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5DF433FC-8C51-4ABF-8539-FD2E4D911B2A@microsoft.com...
> cookie
> windows
> cookie
>
>
>

alistair

2004-10-17, 5:49 pm

Well, we disabled the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
and are still experiencing this erratic authenitication cookie issue.

Here's some info about the environment...
We have development CMS solution installed on a box running Virtual Server
2005, behind our corporate firewall / proxy. THe virtual machine (on which
the CMS solution is running) only has approx. 300 Megs RAM allocated to
it....?
Thats pretty low.....for CMS.
The SQL server instance is running on the same box.
All authentication accounts are domain accounts as this facilites
development from our seperate dev PC's (number of developers working on this
project)

Does any one have any other ideas of what could be causing the cookie issue,
based on the additional info I've given ?
Stefan, you aware of any other issues that could cause these symtoms?

thanks
Alistair

"alistair" wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Hi Stefan
> thanks for replying.
> Yes, we are accessing the site via a proxy ...
> Cool will try that
> Cheers man
>
> "Stefan [MSFT]" wrote:
>

Angus Logan [MVP]

2004-10-17, 8:48 pm

Hi Alistair,

If the RAM is low enough the aspnet worker process may be cycling ...

Your system needs to meet and/or exceed the Minimum System Requirements see
http://www.microsoft.com/cmserver/d...uation/sysreqs/
otherwise things like this issue may occur for what seems to be no reason.

Regards
--
________________________________________

Angus Logan (MCAD/MCDBA/MCP/MVP for MCMS)
Product Specialist
Microsoft Application Solutions
Data#3 Limited
E angus_logan@data3.com.au
BLOG www.anguslogan.com
________________________________________

"alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D3EFB795-D511-49CA-8507-702798C70BA3@microsoft.com...[vbcol=seagreen]
> Well, we disabled the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
> and are still experiencing this erratic authenitication cookie issue.
>
> Here's some info about the environment...
> We have development CMS solution installed on a box running Virtual Server
> 2005, behind our corporate firewall / proxy. THe virtual machine (on which
> the CMS solution is running) only has approx. 300 Megs RAM allocated to
> it....?
> Thats pretty low.....for CMS.
> The SQL server instance is running on the same box.
> All authentication accounts are domain accounts as this facilites
> development from our seperate dev PC's (number of developers working on
> this
> project)
>
> Does any one have any other ideas of what could be causing the cookie
> issue,
> based on the additional info I've given ?
> Stefan, you aware of any other issues that could cause these symtoms?
>
> thanks
> Alistair
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>

Stefan [MSFT]

2004-10-18, 7:47 am

Hi Alistair,

I have never heard about such an issue.
You should open a support ticket for this.

Cheers,
Stefan.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MCMS FAQ:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm
MCMS Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossner/category/4983.aspx
MCMS Sample Code:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver
MCMS Whitepapers and other docs:
http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossne...2/07/41859.aspx
--------------------------------

"alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D3EFB795-D511-49CA-8507-702798C70BA3@microsoft.com...
> Well, we disabled the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
> and are still experiencing this erratic authenitication cookie issue.
>
> Here's some info about the environment...
> We have development CMS solution installed on a box running Virtual Server
> 2005, behind our corporate firewall / proxy. THe virtual machine (on which
> the CMS solution is running) only has approx. 300 Megs RAM allocated to
> it....?
> Thats pretty low.....for CMS.
> The SQL server instance is running on the same box.
> All authentication accounts are domain accounts as this facilites
> development from our seperate dev PC's (number of developers working on
this
> project)
>
> Does any one have any other ideas of what could be causing the cookie
issue,[vbcol=seagreen]
> based on the additional info I've given ?
> Stefan, you aware of any other issues that could cause these symtoms?
>
> thanks
> Alistair
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>
SCA[vbcol=seagreen]
rights.[vbcol=seagreen]
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm[vbcol=seagreen]
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver[vbcol=seagreen]
credentials.[vbcol=seagreen]
web-author[vbcol=seagreen]
and[vbcol=seagreen]
the[vbcol=seagreen]
was[vbcol=seagreen]
web-author[vbcol=seagreen]
forms[vbcol=seagreen]

alistair

2004-10-18, 5:50 pm

Thanks for the replys Stefan and Angus...
I'm getting the networks guys here to beaf-up the server RAM ... make it at
least 512 Megs of RAM.

Will let you know if this solves the issue.
Really appreciate your advice
Thanks
Alistair

"alistair" wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Well, we disabled the cookie against IP validation in the SCA
> and are still experiencing this erratic authenitication cookie issue.
>
> Here's some info about the environment...
> We have development CMS solution installed on a box running Virtual Server
> 2005, behind our corporate firewall / proxy. THe virtual machine (on which
> the CMS solution is running) only has approx. 300 Megs RAM allocated to
> it....?
> Thats pretty low.....for CMS.
> The SQL server instance is running on the same box.
> All authentication accounts are domain accounts as this facilites
> development from our seperate dev PC's (number of developers working on this
> project)
>
> Does any one have any other ideas of what could be causing the cookie issue,
> based on the additional info I've given ?
> Stefan, you aware of any other issues that could cause these symtoms?
>
> thanks
> Alistair
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>

alistair

2004-11-10, 5:48 pm

Well, we have moved the development site to a another box with 1GB of RAM and
we are still experiencing the irregular cookie expiration, that is using I.E.
6x

I decided to test the web-authoring functionality with Mozilla FireFox...

Testing the web-authoring paret of the application in FireFox, the cookie
issue did not rear its head again. IT appears to be some issue within IE?

I was wondering if there was a setting within IE that could interfere with
the authenication cookie created by CMS and cause a failure in the
authentication process?
Are there any indications that IE fails to communicate properly with the
server?

Thanks Alistair

"alistair" wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Thanks for the replys Stefan and Angus...
> I'm getting the networks guys here to beaf-up the server RAM ... make it at
> least 512 Megs of RAM.
>
> Will let you know if this solves the issue.
> Really appreciate your advice
> Thanks
> Alistair
>
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>

Stefan [MSFT]

2004-11-10, 5:48 pm

Hi Alistair,

this can only be verified using a network monitor trace.

Cheers,
Stefan

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MCMS FAQ:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm
MCMS Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossner/category/4983.aspx
MCMS Sample Code:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver
MCMS Whitepapers and other docs:
http://blogs.msdn.com/stefan_gossne...2/07/41859.aspx
--------------------------------

"alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CFF1DC81-1DD7-4ED6-B054-5C8A737B4041@microsoft.com...
> Well, we have moved the development site to a another box with 1GB of RAM
and
> we are still experiencing the irregular cookie expiration, that is using
I.E.[vbcol=seagreen]
> 6x
>
> I decided to test the web-authoring functionality with Mozilla FireFox...
>
> Testing the web-authoring paret of the application in FireFox, the cookie
> issue did not rear its head again. IT appears to be some issue within IE?
>
> I was wondering if there was a setting within IE that could interfere with
> the authenication cookie created by CMS and cause a failure in the
> authentication process?
> Are there any indications that IE fails to communicate properly with the
> server?
>
> Thanks Alistair
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>
at[vbcol=seagreen]
Server[vbcol=seagreen]
which[vbcol=seagreen]
to[vbcol=seagreen]
on this[vbcol=seagreen]
issue,[vbcol=seagreen]
the SCA[vbcol=seagreen]
no rights.[vbcol=seagreen]
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...6a/MCMS+2002+-+(complete)+FAQ.htm[vbcol=seagreen]
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/...t+S
erver[vbcol=seagreen]
credentials.[vbcol=seagreen]
web-author[vbcol=seagreen]
CMS[vbcol=seagreen]
settings and[vbcol=seagreen]
in the[vbcol=seagreen]
authentication" was[vbcol=seagreen]
applicable to[vbcol=seagreen]
web-author[vbcol=seagreen]
with forms[vbcol=seagreen]

Liam Leane

2004-11-24, 7:52 am

Hi Alistair,

We are currently experiencing what sounds like a very similar problem.
We recently finished upgrading our templates to using the RadEditor
and on 2/3 of our environments authors get logged out when they hit
the "Edit" button. You wouldn't happen to be running Rad as well would
you?

Like you we are also experiencing, sometimes, Firefox will work fine
which certainly does point to a cookie issue (although it seems more
likely something is getting confused by the sheer number of cookies
floating about, as Firefox does log users out on the more complicated
templates too) and as the only thing that has changed about the
cookies being issued is the fact the RadEditor is dumping in a new one
for every placeholder on the page nothing else seems logical to be
causing our troubles.

One workaround we have employed successfully is making our authoring
sites challenge response (previously they where using CS auth) and
this seems to provide a workaround for the issue.

Seems that with two of us experiencing what appears to be the same
problem this is not an isolated issue.

Liam

"alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:<CFF1DC81-1DD7-4ED6-B054-5C8A737B4041@microsoft.com>...[vbcol=seagreen]
> Well, we have moved the development site to a another box with 1GB of RAM and
> we are still experiencing the irregular cookie expiration, that is using I.E.
> 6x
>
> I decided to test the web-authoring functionality with Mozilla FireFox...
>
> Testing the web-authoring paret of the application in FireFox, the cookie
> issue did not rear its head again. IT appears to be some issue within IE?
>
> I was wondering if there was a setting within IE that could interfere with
> the authenication cookie created by CMS and cause a failure in the
> authentication process?
> Are there any indications that IE fails to communicate properly with the
> server?
>
> Thanks Alistair
>
>
> "alistair" wrote:
>
> cookie
> windows
> cookie

alistair

2005-02-24, 2:50 am

Hey Liam
Thanks for your post, I really appreciate it....about to pull out my hair.

Yes, we are using the Telerik CMS RadControl.
We are also using CMS authenication.....its really funny....there seems to
be no set pattern to this behavior either...
I thought it was something to do with our development environment and
network setup.
Will look into using Windows C/R
Take care
Alistair

"Liam Leane" wrote:

> Hi Alistair,
>
> We are currently experiencing what sounds like a very similar problem.
> We recently finished upgrading our templates to using the RadEditor
> and on 2/3 of our environments authors get logged out when they hit
> the "Edit" button. You wouldn't happen to be running Rad as well would
> you?
>
> Like you we are also experiencing, sometimes, Firefox will work fine
> which certainly does point to a cookie issue (although it seems more
> likely something is getting confused by the sheer number of cookies
> floating about, as Firefox does log users out on the more complicated
> templates too) and as the only thing that has changed about the
> cookies being issued is the fact the RadEditor is dumping in a new one
> for every placeholder on the page nothing else seems logical to be
> causing our troubles.
>
> One workaround we have employed successfully is making our authoring
> sites challenge response (previously they where using CS auth) and
> this seems to provide a workaround for the issue.
>
> Seems that with two of us experiencing what appears to be the same
> problem this is not an isolated issue.
>
> Liam
>
> "alistair" <alistair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:<CFF1DC81-1DD7-4ED6-B054-5C8A737B4041@microsoft.com>...
>