Hang or crash of Microsoft Windows when running AFPA and when antivirus software is active
 Technote (troubleshooting)
 
Problem(Abstract)
You have enabled the AFPA directives in IBM® HTTP Server on the Microsoft® Windows® platform. With AFPA enabled and running, a hang or crash occurs when your antivirus software becomes active.
 
Resolving the problem
The IBM HTTP Server provides kernel caching of static files through the use of its AFPA directives:
  • AfpaEnable
  • AfpaCache on
  • AfpaLogFile "path/to/afpalog" V-ECLF

However, some limitations have been observed when running certain antivirus programs that can prevent AFPA from caching static pages. Also, enabling the AFPA directives when these antivirus programs are active can adversely affect the stability of the machine, resulting in an operating system hang or system crash.

Due to these limitations, either AFPA must be disabled, or the antivirus program must be disabled. Since these limitations also prevent AFPA from caching files, turning AFPA off will have little effect on existing performance.

To date, Norton AntiVirus has been found to interact with AFPA in this way.

IBM recommends running the IBM HTTP Server with AFPA disabled when Norton AntiVirus software is active.

IBM does offer an alternative caching solution to AFPA, which is available in the WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment distribution. Included in this distribution is the WebSphere Edge Server, which contains a caching proxy component. You can use the caching proxy component to cache static content from the IBM HTTP Server.

For more information, visit the WebSphere Application Server Support page.

Instructions for Disabling AFPA
See technote: Disabling AFPA (fast cache accelerator) in IBM HTTP Server
 
 
Cross Reference information
Segment Product Component Platform Version Edition
Application Servers WebSphere Application Server IBM HTTP Server Windows
 
 


Document Information


Product categories: Software > Application Servers > Distributed Application & Web Servers > IBM HTTP Server > Adaptive Fast Path Architecture (AFPA)
Operating system(s): Windows
Software version: 6.1
Software edition:
Reference #: 1174619
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: Mar 18, 2005