Console Logon Issues with WSS 2003 R2

[Brian Spolarich]

I have an HP Ai0600 server (ML370 really) running WSS 2003 R2, up to
date. I've had a problem since I got this box that occurs somewhat
randomly that HP hasn't been able to fix.

I manage the box remotely via RDP console session (as I do for all of
my sessions). After a while I will be unable to logon remotely -- the
RDP client connects and drops. Sometimes I'm able to fix this by
logging on at the physical console and logging off the session there.
Sometimes I can connect via VNC as well to do this. Sometimes however
(like today) when I attempt to logon at the physical console I see
this error:

Logon Connect Failed - "Error connecting to existing session for user
Administrator (ID 0). The operation completed successfully".

I try resetting the console session via Terminal Services Manager on
another server, so there are no user sessions, but nothing works.
Restarting WinVNC gives me a grey desktop screen but no WinLogon
prompt.

Last night I saw this:

EVENT # 32404513
EVENT LOG System
EVENT TYPE Error
SOURCE VolSnap
EVENT ID 39
COMPUTERNAME FOOBAR
TIME 7/18/2007 12:57:28 AM
MESSAGE When preparing a new volume shadow copy for volume C:, the
shadow copy storage on volume E: could not be located in non-critical
space. Consider using a shadow copy storage volume that does not have
any shadow copies.

Rebooting the server fixes the problem of course. Sometimes it fixes
itself after a day or so.

Yesterday I made a change to backups to include Shadow Copy Components
in BackupExec, and I was going to logon today to move the shadow copy
storage for C: to F:, but I can't since I can't logon at all.

I've seen some posts suggesting a relationship between VSS and console
logon issues, but no real answers. HP made some noises about Symantec
Antivirus client being a potential culprit.

What's going on here and how can I fix this?

 

[Jabez Gan [MVP]]

Hey Brian,

On the server that I managed, I'm also having the same issue when I log on
to the console. I might not be able to offer you a solution, but you should
be able to log on non-console and reset your console session using Terminal
Services Manager.

So far I havent found a solution too...

--
Jabez Gan [MVP]
Microsoft MVP: Windows Server
http://www.blizhosting.com
MSBLOG: http://www.msblog.org

"Brian Spolarich" <briansp@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1184785498.023894.265070@o11g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
>I have an HP Ai0600 server (ML370 really) running WSS 2003 R2, up to
> date. I've had a problem since I got this box that occurs somewhat
> randomly that HP hasn't been able to fix.
>
> I manage the box remotely via RDP console session (as I do for all of
> my sessions). After a while I will be unable to logon remotely -- the
> RDP client connects and drops. Sometimes I'm able to fix this by
> logging on at the physical console and logging off the session there.
> Sometimes I can connect via VNC as well to do this. Sometimes however
> (like today) when I attempt to logon at the physical console I see
> this error:
>
> Logon Connect Failed - "Error connecting to existing session for user
> Administrator (ID 0). The operation completed successfully".
>
> I try resetting the console session via Terminal Services Manager on
> another server, so there are no user sessions, but nothing works.
> Restarting WinVNC gives me a grey desktop screen but no WinLogon
> prompt.
>
> Last night I saw this:
>
> EVENT # 32404513
> EVENT LOG System
> EVENT TYPE Error
> SOURCE VolSnap
> EVENT ID 39
> COMPUTERNAME FOOBAR
> TIME 7/18/2007 12:57:28 AM
> MESSAGE When preparing a new volume shadow copy for volume C:, the
> shadow copy storage on volume E: could not be located in non-critical
> space. Consider using a shadow copy storage volume that does not have
> any shadow copies.
>
> Rebooting the server fixes the problem of course. Sometimes it fixes
> itself after a day or so.
>
> Yesterday I made a change to backups to include Shadow Copy Components
> in BackupExec, and I was going to logon today to move the shadow copy
> storage for C: to F:, but I can't since I can't logon at all.
>
> I've seen some posts suggesting a relationship between VSS and console
> logon issues, but no real answers. HP made some noises about Symantec
> Antivirus client being a potential culprit.
>
> What's going on here and how can I fix this?
>

 

[Brian Spolarich]

"Jabez Gan [MVP]" <mingteikg@blizNOSPAMhosting.com> wrote in message
news:A124DEDC-33AD-4CB0-A690-664F6B1BC933@microsoft.com...
> Hey Brian,
>
> On the server that I managed, I'm also having the same issue when I log on
> to the console. I might not be able to offer you a solution, but you
> should be able to log on non-console and reset your console session using
> Terminal Services Manager.
>
> So far I havent found a solution too...

I've actually had a number of issues with my WSS 2003 R2 box that may be
related.

- RDP remote access stop working.
- Console logon stops working (Logon Connect Failed).
- Console logon works, but insists that Windows needs activation, which
fails.
- Console logon complains of "insufficent system resources" to load the
profile when logging on.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272568
- Event 2020 is logged from source Srv in the logs after a while.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362

Working with HP yesterday we identified that the root cause to all of this
may be memory pool allocation problems, which are causing instability. My
first strategy was to set PoolUsageMaximum and PagedPoolSize to the values
suggested by KB312362, which I did last night after a therapeutic reboot.

I'm also running Symantec Antivirus client 10.5 on this system, and we're
wondering if a memory leak in SAV might be the root cause (memory leak
exacerbates the page pool memory problem, which in turn causes other things
to become unstable). Symantec suggests capturing some counters:

http://entsupport.symantec.com/docs/n2002042212061648

I'm capturing these, plus page pool paged and nonpaged bytes to see what
that tells us.

-bws