Fix for ICEPDF Deadlocks Under Load

[altascene]

We have CF2018-based systems that heavily utilize the CF PDF creation subsystem.  These systems were initially deployed on CF Standard Ed., but we found the PDF single-thread limitation in that version to be too constraining.  We upgraded to Enterprise, as the PDF subsystem is supposed to be multi-threaded.  However, there are some situations where PDF generation requests can deadlock, and negatively impact overall system performance.  The only fix for this situation has been to restart the CF App Server service.

Adobe has a hotfix available, https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/CF-4198342, which they will provide on request.  This fix has also been included in CF2021.

[Charlie Arehart]

Thanks for sharing, and that's very interesting to hear. But that link finds no such tracker ticket. Could it be that the number is right but this is a private ticket? That can happen.
 
If that's the case, then as you say folks can still ask for it via cfinstal@adobe.com. As for installing such a special hotfix, I have a blog post with more information:

https://coldfusion.adobe.com/2019/11/how-to-implement-a-special-cf-hotfix/

Finally, we can hope that the fix will be included in an upcoming full update to cf2018.

[altascene]

Charlie,

It's that naughty trailing comma, at the end of the URL, that is causing the problem.  Of course, I do not see a way to edit my original post, either!

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/CF-4198342

[Charlie Arehart]

Ah, yes that's an annoying feature of this forum which happens sometimes (punctuation ending up in the link). And fwiw I did actually try the bug id in the tracker site search, but I see now that the comma was included when I did (but on my phone it's so small that I missed it.) 

Anyway, in trying to make lemonade out of lemons, when you say you couldn't edit your post, is it possible you were not logged in? If you do that, you should be able to edit any message you write. But that comma has already been removed for you.

(As for logging in to make such a quick edit when you may return later, note that for better or worse a "good thing" is that the forum app here does let you sign in by just clicking the login button. No need to provide username and password, if it detects you've been logged in before from that browser.)

As for the bug fix being discussed, so yep the bug report comments confirm what I posed: that people could request it via the cfinstal address. Hope it helps some.

I won't be surprised if it fails to help all. And there's a lot more I could say about such cfdocument hang issues, and about the comments. I wish I'd seen the bug much sooner, as I have thoughts and techniques that could have helped others much sooner--and which may still help folks going forward. I hope to do a blog post addressing that, and if I do I'd add a link here and there.

In the meantime, hope you'll report here if the fix works for you. 

[altascene]

Charlie,

I was logged in, and was still unable to edit my post.  I also found lots of comments from other users, who were having the same issue.

Regarding the whole CF/PDF generation issues, yes, a blog post with alternatives, work-arounds, etc., would be beneficial.

As for the hotfix,

[Charlie Arehart]

Altascene, any update on how well things have gone since last week?

Also, as for any inability that people may report being able to edit their comments, I would wonder if it's similar to other problems like it that I've heard over the years, where the problem seems to have to do with the cookies for the Adobe site.

If you're interested, a work-around to try would be to visit the same page, login, and try to edit the comment in a) another browser (one where you have not visited the adobe site before) or b) using an incognito Window/private window in your browser (if it would not present any current cookies for the site), or c) try clearing the cookies for adobe.com and any subdomains.  I realize the last option may not interest some.

Indeed, I realize that will say that it's "not their job" to workaround such issues and that Adobe should fix it. I do agree with the latter. I can only help with the former, if it may help. 🙂

[BKBK]

@altascene , thanks for sharing that.

Talking about multi-threading, might it perhaps help to do something like this:

<cflock name="pdfGenerationLock" timeout="10" type="exclusive">
<!--- Code to generate PDF --->
</cflock>
...
<cflock name="pdfGenerationLock" timeout="10" type="exclusive">
<!--- Another code to generate PDF --->
</cflock>
...
<cflock name="pdfGenerationLock" timeout="10" type="exclusive">
<!--- Yet another code to generate PDF --->
</cflock>

This is a suggestion for the time being, while waiting for the hot-fix.