Running CF2016 on Windows Server 2012

[ACS LLC]

I moved from CF8.01 a while ago to CF2016, however my server is still on Windows 2008 Server R2.

Every time I need to add a new SSL cert for a domain I have to add and pay monthly fees for another IP number as Win 2008 has to have one IP to one SSL.

I'm thinking of moving to Windows Server 2012 R2 which would allow me to use one IP for lots of SSL's.

I don't want to do a bare metal install as I don't have time, so I'm thinking and presuming I can do an upgrade over the top of my existing Win 2008

The question is, has anybody done such an upgrade and has it worked fine, or am I likely to suffer problems and down time or is it as simple as running and upgrade and making a coffee? I believe CF2016 is officially supported on Win2012 now, right?

Will 2012 give any performance advantage with a newer version of IIS.

Correct me if I'm wrong, CF won't run on Windows 2016. I think 2012 might be a better option anyway as it's had plenty of time to weed out all the bugs.

Appreciate some feedback

Thanks

Mark

[Carl Von Stetten]

I've never successfully done in-place upgrades from one server OS release to another.  I'd especially be surprised if jumping from Windows 2008 straight to Windows 2012R2 (skipping 2008R2 and 2012) would work cleanly.

As to "bare metal installs", my experience of late has been with running virtual servers (using VMWare).  Once the virtual machine is up and running, a complete install of Windows and ColdFusion (including applying the Lockdown Guide) can easily be done in a single day, often in just a couple of hours.

I would expect that the IIS 8.5 (the version in Windows 2012R2) would perform better than IIS 7.0 (the version in Windows 2008).

ColdFusion 2016 is compatible with Windows Server 2016 (per https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/coldfusion2016-support-matrix.pdf ).  Windows 2016 has been out for  almost 2 years now - enough time that patches should have resolved any significant bugs.

HTH,

-Carl V.

[ACS LLC]

I'm going to clone my VPS and see if I can get an upgrade to work. I'm also going to jump from 2008 R2 to 2016 as it does seem as you say that CF2016 will work with Win 2016.

I'm having a huge amount of trouble with SSL, I made my while site SSL to avoid the warning messages that browsers like to push in the URL bar now, however it runs very, very slow, I've tried Godaddy and RapidSSL certs with the same results.

I read that Win 2016 has HTTP/2 , so I'm hoping that the latest IIS will help resolve this. I did read there might be an issue where the client is verifying the SSL cert on every single hit rather than first handshake, but I could not find any solution or futher information.

I will report back.

[BKBK]

I have done two migrations similar to the one you intend to do. Mine were from:

ColdFusion 9.0.1/9.0.2 on Windows Server 2008 to ColdFusion 11 on Windows Server 2012 R2

and

ColdFusion 9.0.2 on Windows Server 2008 to ColdFusion 2016 on Windows Server 2012 R2

We chose Windows Server 2012 rather than Windows Server 2016 for the same reason you mentioned. It is the more tried and tested.

However, in both cases, we installed Windows Server 2012 R2 on brand new servers rather than "upgrade over the top of Win 2008". The result: higher clock speed, greater RAM and greater expected lifespan.

Like @Carl Von Stetten, I too will expect problems if you do the in-place upgrade. The new Windows version will certainly overwrite settings that ColdFusion uses. This might happen in a manner that is too complex to figure out. Besides, in doing an in-place upgrade you miss the chance to modernize the hardware and to properly test your new ColdFusion environment.

In any case, we proceeded as follows to ensure success of the migration and to minimize risks:

1) Migration

We undertook the migration as a project. We included in the project-plan all the migration steps, from installation to production roll-out. The plan also included all conceivable risks and the measures we would take to mitigate them. Naturally, the project's risk analysis also included, for example, the choice of appropriate dates for installation, test and production roll-out, to minimize inconvenience and downtime. (From our experience, you cannot avoid some downtime. Trying to do so is akin to trying to make an omelette without breaking eggs). The framework of a project enabled buy-in from the stakeholders and on-going communication. (The interests of the clients were represented by the biggest client)

2) Test

We tested the new environment - new ColdFusion version on new Windows Server version - as thoroughly as we could. Unit tests were crucial. As the new environment was separate from production, we could experiment freely and make new choices. We involved clients in the final acceptance tests.

[ACS LLC]

I have decided to take the leap of faith for 2016, it's got HTTP/2 in there, that apparently speeds things up, no idea if it's defaulted in, needs config or what. The current 2008 is killing my site, it's not loading images and style sheets on HTTPS, so I really hoping after all this work that the newer IIS will take care of it.

I found that an upgrade was not an option, the only ISO that I could find was the EVAL one from Microsoft, and you can't upgrade from it, you need the retail or OEM one for an update (from what I read), and I could not find this anywhere, so it's start from scratch with a new machine. Oh well, what else would I do with the weekend!

Did you come across any issues with CF2016? (although this is the big leap to 2016)

[BKBK]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/ACS+LLC  wrote

Did you come across any issues with CF2016? (although this is the big leap to 2016)

We encountered no major issues. What we had to replace were mostly deprecated ColdFusion features.

[ACS LLC]

OK, great, it sounds like it'll be straight forward.

I did do a little searching and came across a YouTube link ColdFusion + IIS 10 HTTP/2 - Safari Bug - YouTube

In this video it showed how Safari was going into a never ending loop opening up connections. This was however CF11, so I'm optimistic that this is not an issue in an up to date CF2016.

One of the reasons I want 2016 is to try and get HTTP/2 into play to see if it fixes the slow and erratic serving of my pages since moving to HTTPS so I don't want to turn that feature off.

[Bardnet]

There was one known issue with Windows 2016, HTTP/2 and CF:

The issue is it appears every page on our site is being loaded twice by Firefox when it is called over https

https://forums.iis.net/t/1236747.aspx?Firefox+double+loading+SSL+pages+I+turn+off+SSL+and+it+works+f...

Update: This issue has been fixed in the Windows update released by Microsoft. The update's key is: KB4093120.

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/CF-4198446

[ACS LLC]

Thanks for that. I am actually using a URL rewrite as mentioned in that forum, so that I can automatically have IIS redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS URL's.

Doing a Google search on KB4093120 it looks like this is passed as part of the WIndows Updates. So as long as I make sure that the server is up to date I'd HOPE that this update is applied.

[ACS LLC]

I looked in the update history (server updated to 3rd of September 2018) and did not find KB4093120

I found the update at Microsoft Update Catalog

Tried to install it but it says that it is not applicable to this computer.

So either it's been fixed with something else, or that fix is rolled in with another fix.

I will test this firefox issue once I've finished the set up