HackerSafe generating anonymous user

rciesiolka · Post by **rciesiolka** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:27 pm

We are having a problem with HackerSafe generating anonymous users every 2 second. This is done during their testing of the site. Currently we have over 100,000 additional users created
and possibly additional records and files. This is having an effect on available disk space.
(1) What is best practice for working with HackerSafe?

(2) What is the best way to clean up the anonymous user records?

(3) What tables and logs should I be looking at to clean out the garbage data created by HackerSafe?

Thanks in advance for a speedy reply

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:10 pm

Can you check your Anonymous User Lifespan setting? From the merchant menu go to Configure-> Store. It is in the left column, second section.

rciesiolka · Post by **rciesiolka** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:58 am

Thanks, I did not have any value in the Lifespan setting. I wonder when that piece runs. It is a daily value so maybe it will not have an effect until the day after it is reset.

My Admin says HackerSafe runs every two hours, It is possible that there are days that HackerSafe does additional checking or retesting and I was seeing those intense times. I found some other days where there were not as many anonymous users generated. I am counting on the Lifespan setting to help

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:05 am

The user maintenance routines will run frequently, perhaps every hour or so. It's not an exact science because it is partially based on user activity and application lifecycle on your web server. The maintenance code runs on a separate non ASP.NET thread to minimize impact on site browsing.

Once they kick in, you should notice a decrease in anonymous user counts. This will also clear out other associated data like baskets.

We did make some enhancements between AC55 and AC70 to reduce anonymous user records for search engine spidering (e.g. Google). Based on what HackerSafe is trying to prove, I am not sure we can stop them from creating records. So please report back on whether the lifespan values help resolve your situation.

rciesiolka · Post by **rciesiolka** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:09 am

I set the LifeSpan setting to 1 day and it appears that the maintenance routines have cleared out a majority of the anonymous users after only an hour, we went from 130,000 to 7,000 anonymous users. The LifeSpan setting does appear to help and I will continue to monitor it. Thanks for the tip.