Invalid_Viewsta te

[Chris Sutton]

I have a production asp.net application that is getting seemingly random
Viewstate errors.

It is a single server, so there isn't any issue with posting viewstate to a
different server that what it was received from. Also, it happens with users
that have to go through a firewall and users that don't.

It happens across the a broad array of pages, most of them are simple grid
pages that you can drill down into to collect more input data.

Also, the viewstate size is typically 5-30K depending on the page. Never
gets anywhere near 1024K.

We have also installed sp1 for the 1.1 release of the .net framework, so we
can collect more detailed viewstate errors.

I'll post the most typical error that we get in a follow up message.

If anybody knows what actually causes this I would be very interested in
knowing. A resolution would be even better.

Chris Sutton

[Chris Sutton]

This is the stack with the error message. I have removed the viewstate to
save on some space, it definitely looks like it is truncating the viewstate
though:

<Exception>Syst em.Web.HttpExce ption: Invalid_Viewsta te
Client IP: 64.167.38.121
Port: 1531
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
CLR 1.1.4322)
ViewState:
Http-Referer:
Path: /Reports/Default.aspx. ---> System.Web.Http Exception: Authentication
of viewstate failed. 1) If this is a cluster, edit <machineKey>
configuration so all servers use the same validationKey and validation
algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster. 2) Viewstate can only
be posted back to the same page. 3) The viewstate for this page might be
corrupted. ---> System.Web.Http Exception: Unable to validate data.
at System.Web.Conf iguration.Machi neKey.GetDecode dData(Byte[] buf, Byte[]
modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength)
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageVie wState()
at System.Web.UI.P age.ProcessRequ estMain()</Exception>

"Chris Sutton" wrote:

I have a production asp.net application that is getting seemingly random
Viewstate errors.

It is a single server, so there isn't any issue with posting viewstate to a
different server that what it was received from. Also, it happens with users
that have to go through a firewall and users that don't.

It happens across the a broad array of pages, most of them are simple grid
pages that you can drill down into to collect more input data.

Also, the viewstate size is typically 5-30K depending on the page. Never
gets anywhere near 1024K.

We have also installed sp1 for the 1.1 release of the .net framework, so we
can collect more detailed viewstate errors.

I'll post the most typical error that we get in a follow up message.

If anybody knows what actually causes this I would be very interested in
knowing. A resolution would be even better.

Chris Sutton

[Chris Sutton]

We have found two ways this error can be reproduced now. If you have a page
that has been served with viewate in it, and then you change the credentials
on the worker process, it will throw a viewstate error when you post back.

Also, if the worker process recycles in between posts on a given page (a
fairly common scenario) we are throwing a viewstate error.

Once again, this is a single server (not a garden or farm). It is a two
processor server though, if that makes a difference.

The second scenario seem like it would more likely be our problem. But why
would a recycled worker process cause a viewstate error?

Any suggestions here would be great.

Chris

"Chris Sutton" wrote:

This is the stack with the error message. I have removed the viewstate to
save on some space, it definitely looks like it is truncating the viewstate
though:

<Exception>Syst em.Web.HttpExce ption: Invalid_Viewsta te
Client IP: 64.167.38.121
Port: 1531
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
CLR 1.1.4322)
ViewState:
Http-Referer:
Path: /Reports/Default.aspx. ---> System.Web.Http Exception: Authentication
of viewstate failed. 1) If this is a cluster, edit <machineKey>
configuration so all servers use the same validationKey and validation
algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster. 2) Viewstate can only
be posted back to the same page. 3) The viewstate for this page might be
corrupted. ---> System.Web.Http Exception: Unable to validate data.
at System.Web.Conf iguration.Machi neKey.GetDecode dData(Byte[] buf, Byte[]
modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength)
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageVie wState()
at System.Web.UI.P age.ProcessRequ estMain()</Exception>

"Chris Sutton" wrote:

I have a production asp.net application that is getting seemingly random
Viewstate errors.

It is a single server, so there isn't any issue with posting viewstate to a
different server that what it was received from. Also, it happens with users
that have to go through a firewall and users that don't.

It happens across the a broad array of pages, most of them are simple grid
pages that you can drill down into to collect more input data.

Also, the viewstate size is typically 5-30K depending on the page. Never
gets anywhere near 1024K.

We have also installed sp1 for the 1.1 release of the .net framework, so we
can collect more detailed viewstate errors.

I'll post the most typical error that we get in a follow up message.

If anybody knows what actually causes this I would be very interested in
knowing. A resolution would be even better.

Chris Sutton

[Alvin Bruney [MVP - ASP.NET]]

Chris,
This is not the case. The viewstate issue seems to be a new issue that I am
digging into. If you have any other relevant information, please don't
hesitate to send it to me at va******@hotmai l.com subject: Invalid Viewstate

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney - ASP.NET MVP

[Shameless Author Plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now available @ www.lulu.com/owc
"Chris Sutton" <Ch*********@di scussions.micro soft.com> wrote in message
news:62******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com...

We have found two ways this error can be reproduced now. If you have a
page
that has been served with viewate in it, and then you change the
credentials
on the worker process, it will throw a viewstate error when you post back.

Also, if the worker process recycles in between posts on a given page (a
fairly common scenario) we are throwing a viewstate error.

Once again, this is a single server (not a garden or farm). It is a two
processor server though, if that makes a difference.

The second scenario seem like it would more likely be our problem. But
why
would a recycled worker process cause a viewstate error?

Any suggestions here would be great.

Chris

"Chris Sutton" wrote:

This is the stack with the error message. I have removed the viewstate
to
save on some space, it definitely looks like it is truncating the
viewstate
though:

<Exception>Syst em.Web.HttpExce ption: Invalid_Viewsta te
Client IP: 64.167.38.121
Port: 1531
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
CLR 1.1.4322)
ViewState:
Http-Referer:
Path: /Reports/Default.aspx. ---> System.Web.Http Exception:
Authentication
of viewstate failed. 1) If this is a cluster, edit <machineKey>
configuration so all servers use the same validationKey and validation
algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster. 2) Viewstate can
only
be posted back to the same page. 3) The viewstate for this page might be
corrupted. ---> System.Web.Http Exception: Unable to validate data.
at System.Web.Conf iguration.Machi neKey.GetDecode dData(Byte[] buf,
Byte[]
modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength)
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.L osFormatter.Des erialize(String input)
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageSta teFromPersisten ceMedium()
at System.Web.UI.P age.LoadPageVie wState()
at System.Web.UI.P age.ProcessRequ estMain()</Exception>

"Chris Sutton" wrote:

> I have a production asp.net application that is getting seemingly
> random
> Viewstate errors.
>
> It is a single server, so there isn't any issue with posting viewstate
> to a
> different server that what it was received from. Also, it happens with
> users
> that have to go through a firewall and users that don't.
>
> It happens across the a broad array of pages, most of them are simple
> grid
> pages that you can drill down into to collect more input data.
>
> Also, the viewstate size is typically 5-30K depending on the page.
> Never
> gets anywhere near 1024K.
>
> We have also installed sp1 for the 1.1 release of the .net framework,
> so we
> can collect more detailed viewstate errors.
>
> I'll post the most typical error that we get in a follow up message.
>
> If anybody knows what actually causes this I would be very interested
> in
> knowing. A resolution would be even better.
>
> Chris Sutton

[mattburnside]

We're experiencing the same issue. The servers are within a cluster,
but we have a hardware load balancer that assures client-server
affinity based on client IP address, so I don't think it's an issue of
viewstate posting back to a different server.

Any resolution or suggestions on what may be causing this error would
be greatly appreciated.

[Alvin Bruney [MVP - ASP.NET]]

working on it still, no resolution yet. more and more incidents are starting
to pop up.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney - ASP.NET MVP

[Shameless Author Plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now available @ www.lulu.com/owc
<ma**********@g mail.com> wrote in message
news:11******** **************@ g14g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .

We're experiencing the same issue. The servers are within a cluster,
but we have a hardware load balancer that assures client-server
affinity based on client IP address, so I don't think it's an issue of
viewstate posting back to a different server.

Any resolution or suggestions on what may be causing this error would
be greatly appreciated.

[danpak6]

Try this...

Protected Overrides Sub SavePageStateTo PersistenceMedi um(ByVal
viewState
As Object)

Dim _formatter As New LosFormatter

Dim key As String = Request.Url.ToS tring & "__VIEWSTAT E"
Dim memStream As New System.IO.Memor yStream
_formatter.Seri alize(memStream , viewState)
memStream.Flush ()
Session(key) = memStream

End Sub

Protected Overrides Function LoadPageStateFr omPersistenceMe dium()
As Obj
ect

Dim _formatter As New LosFormatter
Dim key As String = Request.Url.ToS tring & "__VIEWSTAT E"

If Not Session(key) Is Nothing Then
Dim memStream As System.IO.Memor yStream = _
CType(Session(k ey), System.IO.Memor yStream)
memStream.Seek( 0, IO.SeekOrigin.B egin)
Return _formatter.Dese rialize(memStre am)
End If

End Function
Best,

Daniel Pak

[schott19]

Hi Dan,

Thnaks for the code snippet. Looks like it could be promising.

I am also having the viewsate problem. Does this code need to go i
every code behind page? or just in the global?

Regard

--
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[P.J]

We, too, are experiencing 'Invalid_Viewst ate' error since a couple of
weeks. I have been investigating the problem lately, and this is what
I have to say about it:

-All development servers (virtual servers) and development workstations
do not have the problem. As someone mentionned, the problem is only on
the production server (no farm here - single server setup): a multi-cpu
Xeon (hypethreading) machine. I've asked to replicate the production
environment in a lab test on the same hardware (or almost the same) and
I succeeded in replicating the problem: Each time the the worker
process of an application pool shuts down, any Post made to a web page
already in-session in IE would result in the error. So I've asked to
remove all cpus except one, and to disable HT on it, just to check if
any relation could be made. No succes, the error still happens.

-Next item that I did check is the Application Pool security. On
development servers, the IIS Application Pool identity is always set to
the default Network Service and I can not replicate the error on them.
On the production server though, we set up the Application Pool to run
with a NT Domain service account and the application works just fine.
We do that so our application data layer can communicate with the
database through a trusted SQL connexion (thus avoiding the dilema of
having a userid and password in clear text somewhere in the web.config
file - like we do in development environment). So what I did this
morning is to set back (on the production environment in the lab) the
identity of Application Pool of our application to Network Service: the
problem is gone and I can not replicate it.

So what I can conclude right now is that there is some problem in the
way the security context of an Application Pool is applied to the
validation of an ASP.NET Viewstate when the worker process of the pool
shuts down for being idle.

As a work around I did last week is to 'uncheck' the 'Idle timeout'
from the Application Pool so people here won't experiment the error.
And I also set the application to recycle each night when no one is
using it.

I hope that this can help someone in some ways, and also help gurus
pinpointing the problem and fix it.

Our setup is:
Windows Server 2003 Standard
..Net Framework 1.1 + SP1 + SP1 Update
Application is developed in C# and we are using some of MS Application
Blocks (Data Access, Exception, etc)

Workstation are XP and 2000 and are using IE6 with the latest patches.

[Alvin Bruney [MVP - ASP.NET]]

I'm aware that the application pool restarts cause this issue. However, I
also have this error occuring on a server where application pools are not
allowed to recycle under any circumstance.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney - ASP.NET MVP

[Shameless Author Plug]
The Microsoft Office Web Components Black Book with .NET
Now available @ www.lulu.com/owc
"P.J" <pj*********@sn clavalin.com> wrote in message
news:11******** **************@ f14g2000cwb.goo glegroups.com.. .

We, too, are experiencing 'Invalid_Viewst ate' error since a couple of
weeks. I have been investigating the problem lately, and this is what
I have to say about it:

-All development servers (virtual servers) and development workstations
do not have the problem. As someone mentionned, the problem is only on
the production server (no farm here - single server setup): a multi-cpu
Xeon (hypethreading) machine. I've asked to replicate the production
environment in a lab test on the same hardware (or almost the same) and
I succeeded in replicating the problem: Each time the the worker
process of an application pool shuts down, any Post made to a web page
already in-session in IE would result in the error. So I've asked to
remove all cpus except one, and to disable HT on it, just to check if
any relation could be made. No succes, the error still happens.

-Next item that I did check is the Application Pool security. On
development servers, the IIS Application Pool identity is always set to
the default Network Service and I can not replicate the error on them.
On the production server though, we set up the Application Pool to run
with a NT Domain service account and the application works just fine.
We do that so our application data layer can communicate with the
database through a trusted SQL connexion (thus avoiding the dilema of
having a userid and password in clear text somewhere in the web.config
file - like we do in development environment). So what I did this
morning is to set back (on the production environment in the lab) the
identity of Application Pool of our application to Network Service: the
problem is gone and I can not replicate it.

So what I can conclude right now is that there is some problem in the
way the security context of an Application Pool is applied to the
validation of an ASP.NET Viewstate when the worker process of the pool
shuts down for being idle.

As a work around I did last week is to 'uncheck' the 'Idle timeout'
from the Application Pool so people here won't experiment the error.
And I also set the application to recycle each night when no one is
using it.

I hope that this can help someone in some ways, and also help gurus
pinpointing the problem and fix it.

Our setup is:
Windows Server 2003 Standard
.Net Framework 1.1 + SP1 + SP1 Update
Application is developed in C# and we are using some of MS Application
Blocks (Data Access, Exception, etc)

Workstation are XP and 2000 and are using IE6 with the latest patches.