Hello list,
I have searched everywhere else, tesed extensively and came to a point where I do not have a clue on what is happening.
I am using SystemTimer and Ruby/LDAP in my Rails application. Ruby/LDAP to authenticate against a LDAP server and SystemTimer in an effort to avoid potential long hangs.
Fact #1: SystemTimer works fine with the LDAP::Conn#bind method. It does cut at the right time if it fails. However, for some unknowing mystic reason, it just will not work with LDAP::Conn#search2.
The code I am using:
begin arr = SystemTimer.timeout_after(5.seconds) do connection.bind(self.bind_dn,self.password) connection.search2(self.base_dn,1,“(& (userPassword=#{password}) (mail=#{email}))”,nil,false,5,5000) end rescue Exception => e msg = ‘LDAP server error.’ logger.error(logger_msg_template.call(“#{msg} - Exception: #{e.message}”)) raise Timeout::Error.new(msg) end
So, if bind takes more than 5 seconds, timeout will throw the correctly after 5 seconds. Good. If bind works, we then proceed to the search2 call. Things get sensitive here. If for any reason the search2 delays too much, the process is bound to just hang and wait for it’s return. Often it happens because the query is wrong (an attribute doesn’t exist in the LDAP entry, which might happen given the context of this code).
SystemTimer does throw the Timeout::Error (“time’s up!”), but it just doesn’t kill the Thread after the seconds specfied in the timeout_after’s param. Check out this request that I just made:
ERROR: LDAP server error. - Exception: time’s up! - USER: marcelo@site.com, ACCOUNT: MyAccount, LDAP HOST: 89.150.80.164, PORT: 389. SQL (0.3ms) ROLLBACK Rendering template within layouts/application Rendering directory/index Completed in 34212ms (View: 19, DB: 7) | 200 OK [http://localhost/ldap]
Check the first line, it is from Rails’ logger. I also print the exception message, you can see that it was a “Time’s up!” (from SystemTimer), but look at how long it took: almost 35 seconds.
It is risky, since if many users are trying to setup a LDAP at the same time, our service could just hang completely.
I’m really lost and really need some enlightenment here, any suggestion appreciated!
Cheers,
Marcelo.
