SecureCRT 6.2 Beta 3 - Key Manager Performance Regression?

[Killing]

Since upgrading from 6.0 to 6.2 Beta 3 I've been seeing issue here with some of our rollout scripts.

These scripts use extensive use of ssh agent forwarding in a parallel manor so can be request 20+ key request per second.

The problem exhibits its self by instead of authenticating the onward connection like it should our scripts are prompting to passwords, as though the agent request failed when it shouldn't. Repeating the request to just that machine in a none parallel manor always succeeds so its not a problem with the keys itself.

The SecureCRT upgrade is the only change in the environment I wondering if the key manager has been changed in anyway which could be causing the issues we are seeing.

P.S. Loving the memory footprint improvements in 6.2 80Mb vs 800Mb makes a world of difference

[bgagnon]

Hello Killing,

Could you please explain further what you mean by "ssh agent forwarding in a parallel manner"?

How are you launching the initial connection?

How are you adding keys to the agent?

SecureCRT 6.2 includes better agent support in the Activator. You can access this feature by right-clicking on the SecureCRT icon when minimized to the Activator. There is a "manage Agent Keys..." option available.

Could pre-loading the keys in this manner solve the issue you are experiencing?

[Killing]

To answer your questions:-

Keys are added by the initial connection to the server which is a straight securecrt window.

Only one key is in use which is already preloaded.

The parallel comes in as the script on the server when run forks 10 sub processes which then each use ssh to execute processes on remote machines. This obviously requires the securecrt key manager to respond to each request.

Its this process that seems to have regressed. Either securecrt is no longer answering quick enough or is not answering at all causing some of the sessions to fall back to interactive authentication and prompt for a password.

[bgagnon]

Hi Killing,

I am going to submit this information to the development team for investigation.

They are better equipped to know if the improvements that were made to agent handling in SecureCRT 6.2 could be the cause of the regression you are reporting.

Please bear with me, I will post here when I have further information.

[Killing]

Thanks Brenda if you need any more information or help testing just give me a shout as this would be a show stopper here and I really want the memory improvements in 6.2

[bgagnon]

Hi Killing,

Could you please provide Trace Options output?

To enable trace options output:

1. First, open SecureCRT's main "File" pull-down menu and select "Trace Options". If you open the "File" pull down menu again you should see a checkmark next to "Trace Options", indicating that troubleshooting output is now enabled.
   
2. Next, connect to the remote machine. With trace options enabled, you will notice debugging information displayed in the terminal window that isn't normally there by default when SecureCRT is attempting to establish a connection, and at certain times throughout the lifetime of the connection.
   
3. Once the problem occurs, please right-click inside the terminal window and choose "Select All", then right-click again and choose "Copy" to transfer the information to the Windows clipboard.
   
4. Finally, open a text editor like 'Notepad', paste the information from the Windows clipboard into the editor program, and save it as a text file. Then send it to me as an e-mail attachment.

Also can you provide the script (or scripts) you're using to make these connections (or a specific example of what the scripts do)?

Due to the sensitive nature of these items, please send via e-mail to support@vandyke.com with "Attn Brenda - forum thread 3507" in the subject line.

Thanks,