Application pools

Users are protected from each other using application pools

ASP scripts are executed by the Microsoft IIS web server within the context of a process called an "application pool". Every user on the server has its own application pool, running in its own separate memory space. This ensures that each user is protected from potential problems in other users' ASP applications.

Each application pool maintains a variety of persistent data in memory, such as application and session variables, database connections, instances of COM objects, and other resources created or used by the ASP scripts within that application pool.

Good ASP applications release their resources

Every ASP application needs to carefully manage the resources it uses, and release them after use, to ensure that it does not cause memory to become trapped. Trapped memory is a condition known as a "memory leak". It occurs when, for example, the application doesn't destroy the objects it creates, or close the database connections it opens. If this happens often enough, the application pool will run out of resources, and it will either begin to fail with various errors, or it will run very slowly.

Steps to recycle the ASP application pool of a user

This task allows you to gracefully restart the ASP application pool for a user name, releasing the trapped memory and resources back to the system.

1. Log in to AMS Control Panel as owner, or as a user with a website hosted on Windows Server.
2. Click the "Features" category tab, then click the "Recycle application pool" link at left.
3. Select the user name whose application pool you wish to restart, and click "Recycle".
4. Examine your ASP code to find the source of the problem.