Session Variable dissappears between post backs on Win 2003

[Dirc Khan-Evans]

I have a problem with a Session variable that dissapears after a
postback of one of my pages.

This only happens on WIn 2003 servers.. it is fine on my XP dev box.

This page opens in another window, but I have ascertained that is is
definitely using the same session ID.

Nowhere on the page do I clear the session variable.. it is only ever
retrieved... this page only works if it is there.

Has anyone had as similar problem? Any help gratefully received!

Dirc
--

 

[S. Justin Gengo]

Is the Windows 2003 server (you say servers which leads me to ask this) part
of a webfarm? You may be losing sessions as you are moved from one server to
another. If this is a the case one way to fix this would be to store session
state on the SQL Server, if you're using one.

Here's an article on how to move session state to the SQL Server. It's easy
to do and has some other benefits such as users not losing their sessions
even if a server in the farm needs to be restarted, etc.

http://idunno.org/dotNet/sessionState.aspx

--
Sincerely,

S. Justin Gengo, MCP
Web Developer / Programmer

www.aboutfortunate.com

"Out of chaos comes order."
Nietzsche

 

[Dirc Khan-Evans]

No, no, no..

I mean in multiple environments.. dev, testing and live.

BTW, I have also tried using StateServer, since I have been told it is
more reliable.. but something as simple as this should not happen on a
lightly used test server!

--

 

[S. Justin Gengo]

Dirc,

Ok, I didn't realize you meant between multiple environments. So, you've
already stated that this is not hapenning on your development box. Is it
happening on the testing and production servers both? Are other developers
deploying code to the testing or production servers at the same time?

--
Sincerely,

S. Justin Gengo, MCP
Web Developer / Programmer

www.aboutfortunate.com

"Out of chaos comes order."
Nietzsche

 

[Dirc Khan-Evans]

Dirc,

Ok, I didn't realize you meant between multiple environments. So,
you've already stated that this is not hapenning on your development
box. Is it happening on the testing and production servers both? Are
other developers deploying code to the testing or production servers
at the same time?

No.. I am the only one changing anything in the bin folder... I know
where you are coming from.. There are no changes going on that would
cause an IIS restart.

To reiterate: The interesting things to note is that
(a) it always happens with this page.. it is in no way an intermittent
problem,
(b) this only happens when the new page is displayed in another window.
The first page loads fine but after that the session variable totally
dissappears for no apparent reason.. there is no explicit removal of
any Session variables in the code.
(c) It only happens on IIS6/ win 20003 servers. Not XP
(d) The session has the same sessionID for both windows (as expected).

This really smells of a bug to me.....

Dirc

--

 

[S. Justin Gengo]

Dirc,

Ok, here's a test to try. In the first window create a button that, when
clicked, response.writes the session variable to the page.

Open the page and click the button to confirm the session variable is there.
Then open your second page. Click the first page's session variable button
again to see if the session variable has disappeared. I'm wondering if the
pop-up window is somehow using a different session.

--
Sincerely,

S. Justin Gengo, MCP
Web Developer / Programmer

www.aboutfortunate.com

"Out of chaos comes order."
Nietzsche