% Registry Quota In Use Performance Monitor counter = 100% - server 2003 SP2 Enterprise 32 bit

We're having a problem with some of our Citrix/Terminal Servers (Windows
Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 32 bit) that we'd appreciate any help that you
folks may be able to provide.

Users get a message at logon that their roaming profile can not be loaded.

We see Application Event Log entries from Userenv with ID 1505 (see below)
and other event log entries (e.g. ESENT 488 - see below) that all say
something like "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the
requested service.".

This is a set of 20 identical (cloned from the same image) servers that have
32 GB RAM and 2 quad core processors. No applications are added or modified
after the image is put on the physical server (there are no Virtual Machines
involved in this situation). These servers are running Citrix Presentation
Server 4.5 and are all publishing the same "desktop" - there are no
"published applications".

This problem seems to happen only on a few of the servers for no apparent
reason. Once the symptom starts to happen on a particular server, it
continues to happen at least until most users have logged off. Users that
are already logged on experience no symptoms - they can continue to work
normally. But new users that get assigned to the problematic server by the
Citrix load balancing algorithm get the message that their profile can not
be loaded.

When this problem happens, we see that the Performance Counter:
System
% Registry Quota In Use

is > 99% and sometimes 100%.

The other counters that we usually monitor show no abnormal values (%
Processor Time, Avg. Disk Queue Length, Committed Bytes, Total Sessions),
either on the servers with the problem or those without it. In fact, they
show that these servers are being used, but are not "heavily loaded" - e.g.
% Processor Time is generally below 30%, Committed Bytes is 20-25 GB (out of
32 GB RAM) and 22-27 user sessions.

Now, KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292726 says " there are no
longer any limits on the total amount of space that may be consumed by
registry data (hives) in paged pool memory, and in disk space."

So, what is this "Registry Quota" that the counter "% Registry Quota In Use"
is referring to? We can not find any explanation, beyond what is in the
"Description" of this counter in Performance Monitor. There are many pages
on the web that quote this description, but none that we've been able to
find that explain what "Registry Quota" is being measured against, how to
change the maximum value of this (if it is possible) or to find out why this
counter might go from it's "normal" value of < 25% to 100% (or near) and
stay there.

Although the references we have been able to find about this counter
indicate that it doesn't "have meaning" in Server 2003, we've observed a
very high - essentially one to one - relationship between a very high value
(> 99%) for this counter with occurrences of the symptom.

-------------------------------------


Sample Application event log entries:


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1505
Date: 13-May-09
Time: 12:06:15 PM
User: BCAB102\Administrator
Computer: BCAB102
Description:
Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the
default profile for the system.

DETAIL - Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested
service.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: ESENT
Event Category: General
Event ID: 488
Date: 13-May-09
Time: 12:30:47 PM
User: N/A
Computer: BCAB102
Description:
wuaueng.dll (992) SUS20ClientDataStore: An attempt to create the file
"C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\tmp.edb" failed with system
error 1450 (0x000005aa): "Insufficient system resources exist to complete
the requested service. ". The create file operation will fail with
error -1011 (0xfffffc0d).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

---------------------------------------------------

Sample System Event log entries.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 13/May/2009
Time: 8:06:49 AM
User: N/A
Computer: BCAB115
Description:
Application popup: Windows - Low On Registry Space : The system has reached
the maximum size allowed for the system part of the registry. Additional
storage requests will be ignored.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 333
Date: 13/May/2009
Time: 8:29:38 AM
User: N/A
Computer: BCAB115
Description:
An I/O operation initiated by the Registry failed unrecoverably. The
Registry could not read in, or write out, or flush, one of the files that
contain the system's image of the Registry.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 01 00 6c 00 ......l.
0008: 00 00 00 00 4d 01 00 c0 ....M..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 4d 01 00 c0 ....M..À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........


--
Bruce Sanderson (bsanders)
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
bsanders@shaw.ca

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.