IIS7 - what does MaxProcesses do?

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IIS7 - what does MaxProcesses do?

Does anyone know what this value is for?

If it is set to 1, then it seems that you can only have one request going to the server at once. For example, we have a classic ASP file that loads fine, but also has images in it (which come from the same script on the server). The page will load, but the images will never load in... the page just spins forever.

Upping the MaxProcesses value in IIS7 fixes this, but then each time a new process is spawned we then run into problems with session values not persisting as well as long page loads that we don't get when MaxProcesses is set to 1.

There is probably some other setting I don't know about that works in tandem with this.

See this question for the answer (server side debugging was on).

Gets or sets the number of worker processes associated with the application pool. Default = 1; A value other than 1 indicates a Web garden. In this scenario, if you want to preserve your session you need to choose an out of proc method for sessions (for example using SQL Server).

Otávio Décio 2009-01-09 20:25:38

Er, ok, but what does that mean? What is a "Web Garden" and should most apps have it set to 1 or set to some other value.

Michael Pryor 2009-01-09 20:27:00

A web garden allows multiple processors to respond to requests, and each one runs on its own process. That's why you need to use session service or sql server to preserve sessions across processes.

Otávio Décio 2009-01-09 20:28:42

Another possible configuration is "web farm" where now you have multiple machines responding to requests, and the same applies in regards to session preservation.

Otávio Décio 2009-01-09 20:29:52

So most applications should indeed have MaxProcesses set to 1. There must be something else that is preventing IIS from responding to multiple requests at the same time then...

Michael Pryor 2009-01-09 20:34:44

Try to use a network sniffer (wireshark) or an http sniffer (fiddler) to see how the image requests are being handled. Also check IIS's logs to see if IIS is actually receiving the requests for the images.

Otávio Décio 2009-01-09 20:38:13

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IIS7 - what does MaxProcesses do?

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