In this case it effectively will. Another side effect of this issue is that it starts taking *forever* to install software. My first Citrix server install of Office 2010 took 48 hours to complete. That's what lead me to this issue to begin with. If you reduce msiexec's resources, you'll get to the point that patches will never install.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James Rankin Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 10:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS Limiting the resources doesn't tend to stop msiexec from working, but I agree that the root cause should be fixed, as I said. This would merely be a stopgap to reduce the issue while the investigation is done. On 21 August 2013 15:38, Ken Cornetet <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Don't start jacking with msiexec.exe. If you do, you'll not be able to install new software, or worse, patches. You need to find and fix the root problem. Msiexec.exe spiking the CPU due to the HKU\ .DEFAULT\Software\Hewlett-Packard key only happens when there are *thousands* of subkeys. If you are still seeing msiexec.exe spiking the CPU with only a few subkeys, then something else is wrong. This is tedious, but grab a copy of procmon from Microsoft's sysinternals site and use it to take a look at what msiexec is doing while it is spiking. Procmon generates a TON of data, but with a little patience you can use its filtering features to hone in on exactly what msiexec is doing during the spikes. I'm going to guess that you'll find some other registry key with zillions of subkeys that are traversed over and over. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Ken Cornetet Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 10:25 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS The problem only gets noticeable when there are thousands of those keys. By deleting that key every 90 minutes or so, you keep the number of maximum number of keys down to, say, hundreds. This doesn't create a problem - at least in my environment. If you want them deleted more often, create a batch file with something like this: Reg.exe delete HKU\ .DEFAULT\Software\Hewlett-Packard /va /f I've not tested that - you will want to test and modify accordingly. Set that up to run every 10 minutes or so in task scheduler. Re-reading the thread, it appears that you have problems even when you have only a few keys under HKU\ .DEFAULT\Software\Hewlett-Packard. I think you may have other problems besides this. My Citrix servers don't seem to develop a noticeable problem until there are thousands of keys under that key. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J- P Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 5:13 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS I get that, the issue is that when a user logs into TS, the minute they try to print or print preview their first job (its a report from Access ) - MSIExec hits 100% till the keys get enumerated, during that time ,everyone on TS feels it and you know how it is to just watch the hour glass 3-4 minutes seems like an eternity to the user waiting for it. Can I just disable the server from even attempting to enumerate, the option of upgrading to a new OS is not really viable at the moment. Jean-Paul Natola ________________________________ From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:00:15 -0400 Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS Just put the GP in place and relax. You can't manually get rid of them - they just keep coming back. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J- P Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 4:56 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS I did a manual delete of the hP key, and sure enough after logging into to the TS when I went to do a "pdf preview" it hung for about 4 minutes- and then about 11 new keys showed up I'm open to options , users dont actually need to print over TS, but they do require print preview for the PDF's they email- ROCK> me < HARD PLACE open to all suggestions thanks ________________________________ From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:54:06 -0400 Yes they are in HP gazillion Can you share your policy, did it delete before or after user logon/off And more importantly did it prevent MSIEXEC from shooting to 100 during a new logon? THANKS SO MUCH Jean-Paul Natola ________________________________ From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:49:47 -0400 Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS IIRC, my problem is HP printers and they create gazillions of keys under HKU\.Default\Software\HewlettPackard. I simply created a group policy object that deletes the whole HKU\.Default\Software\HewlettPackard key. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of J- P Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 4:21 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [NTSysADM] MSIEXEC CPU on TS I realize this is has been around for a while, but it seems that there still has not been an actual fix for this, so i am asking if anyone has had any successful work-arounds, besides upgrading the server http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/c16e01d6-4b64-4dad-ba8f-479c9fea85c0/high-cpu-usage-in-msiexec-due-to-enumeration-of-print-guids-in-hkudefaultsoftware I literally have thousands of these guids on the TS Environment, 2008 32 bit TS with Citrix fundamentals Any thoughts are appreciated -- James Rankin Technical Consultant (ACA, CCA, MCTS) http://appsensebigot.blogspot.co.uk
