[THIN] KB: CTX101705 - Troubleshooting Slow Logons

  • From: "Jim Kenzig http://thin.net" <jimkenz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 10:06:53 -0400

CTX101705 - Troubleshooting Slow Logons

This document was published at:
http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?externalID=CTX101705


Document ID: CTX101705, Created on: Mar 27, 2003, Updated: Sep 9, 2004

Products: Citrix MetaFrame XP 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2000, Citrix
MetaFrame XP 1.0 for Microsoft NT 4.0 Server Terminal Server Edition, Citrix
MetaFrame 1.8 for Microsoft Windows 2000, Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 for Microsoft
NT 4.0 Server Terminal Server Edition, Citrix MetaFrame XP 1.0 for Microsoft
Windows 2003, Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 for Microsoft Windows
2000, Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 for Microsoft Windows 2003

This document provides some known issues and their workarounds.

Important: Microsoft Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 affects slow logons on
both the MetaFrame XP and MetaFrame 1.8 platforms. MetaFrame Service Pack
Levels do not affect the issue. The issue introduced by Microsoft Service
Pack 4 for Windows 2000 has been addressed with patch 824309.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824309

306850 - Programs Start Slowly or Slow Logon if the Network Connection to
Your Home Folder Is Slow
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=306850

Q264061 - Home Folder Is Searched First When You Try to Run a Program
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=264061

Troubleshooting Steps

Note: Perform Steps 1 through 3 with the same user account.

1. Log on from the Terminal Server console. In a load balanced environment,
it may be necessary to log on to multiple Terminal Servers.

2. From a workstation on the LAN, log on to the Terminal Server with an RDP
or ICA desktop session. Again, in a load balanced environment, it may be
necessary to log on to multiple Terminal Servers.

3. If applicable, from a workstation on the WAN, log on to the Terminal
Server with an RDP or ICA desktop session. Again, in a load balanced
environment, it may be necessary to log on to multiple Terminal Servers.

Important: Steps 1 through 3 will give you a good idea as to whether or not
the logon issue is strictly related to MetaFrame or is more likely a
profile, logon script, network, or other user environment issue.

4. For profile issues, remove any references to a profile path from the
Terminal Server and/or user profile path within User Manager for Domains,
Active Directory users and computers, or Computer Management. Alternatively,
create a local account directly on the Terminal Server to ensure the profile
is being loaded directly from the server. Retest the logon time.

Note: New user accounts, accounts without a local profile, and anonymous
accounts need to generate a local profile upon logon. The creation of the
original profile may take time. It may be necessary to log on a second time
when troubleshooting a profile issue. See Microsoft Web site to further
troubleshoot profile issues.

5. For logon script issues, remove any references to a logon script within
User Manager for Domains, Active Directory users and computers, Computer
Management, or any sort of computer or group policy. Creating a local
account directly on the Terminal Server and testing may be worth the time.
If the Novell Client is installed on the Terminal Server, attempt to do a
?Workstation Only? logon. Retest the logon time. If a logon script is the
issue, it may be necessary to REM (comment out) or input pause statements
throughout each section of the logon script. This will help troubleshoot
what resource(s) in the logon script are slowing down the logon process.

6. Network issues, such as Font Searching May Cause Slow Logins on Terminal
Server are often difficult to troubleshoot and find. Network
monitors/sniffers and other third party utilities such as regmon and filemon
from www.sysinternals.com can be used for these issues. The issue described
was resolved by the following:

In some cases, the logon process on a Terminal Server may be very slow due
to an application searching for fonts. Applications that may cause this
problem include NWScript.exe and Lotus CC:Mail.

During the logon process, users can encounter a black screen for one to 20
minutes before the logon finally completes. The effect is magnified as the
bandwidth is reduced; dial-in users experience the problem much more
severely than LAN users.

Network traces on such systems revealed that a process running on the
Terminal Server is searching for fonts by name during the logon process and
not finding them. Performing the following steps may succeed as a solution:

A. In the system Control Panel, click the Environment tab.

B. In the system variables section, click the variable Path.

C. Add the following to the end of the string in the Value field at the
bottom of the panel:

;%SystemRoot%\Fonts

D. Click Set. Your changes take effect immediately.

7. The ICA Clients Bitmap Cache directory has an excessive amount of files
stored in it.

Delete the files in the Bitmap Cache directory for the ICA Client that you
are using. For details about how to perform this function, see the following
sections in the respective ICA Client Administrator?s Guides:

ICA Client Administrator?s Guide
 Section Title

Win32
 Configuring Bitmap Caching

Win16, DOS, Macintosh
 Configuring Disk Caching

OS/2
 Persistent Cache Settings

Java, UNIX
 Disk Cache



The ICA Client Administrator?s Guides are in Document ID [Document Not
Found].

8. Printer autocreation of Novell print queues affects logon time.

User workstations, FAT clients, defined with Novell print queues may
experience a logon delay from three to six minutes when autocreating
printers. The issue is more prevalent over slower links, such as a RAS
dial-up.

This delay could be a result of having multiple redirectors installed. See
Microsoft TechNet article Q171386 and Novell Client 4.83 Support Pack 1 TID
10062237 for more details.
http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/10062237.htm

9. Slow logon encountered when using the ICA Win32 Client on a Windows 2000
Server.

Prior to ICA Client build 6.00.963, logons attempted to write to a licensing
key on the client device. This caused a delay while the time-out occurred.
However, that issue is resolved with the newest client, 6.00.963. Verify
that you are running this version or greater.

Users may experience slow logons from Windows 2000 Professional workstations
when using the ICA Win32 Web Client Version 6.20.985. The issue may be
related to the permissions on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft
\MSLicensing registry key. For the ICA Win32 Client to function properly,
the user requires Full permission on this registry key.

Some other symptoms that are indicative of this issue are as follows:

? Logons using the full ICA Win32 Program Neighborhood Client are not
affected

? Logons using the ICA Win32 Web Client on other workstation platforms
(Windows 95, Windows 98, and so on) are not affected

? Local workstation administrator and power users are not affected

10. If drive A is being queried, try disabling client drive mapping. If
logon performance improves as a result of client drives not mapping during
logon, see Troubleshooting Various Client Drive Mapping Issues.
http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?entryID=2069

Note: This issue appears only with Windows 2000 clients.

11. McAfee Virus Scan has been found to cause the Windows 2000 client to
perform very poorly. Other manufacturers? antivirus products could cause
similar problems. If an antivirus product is running on the client device,
disable it and retest the connection to the MetaFrame server.

12. If an older client version is faster than a newer version, it may be
related to a new or altered client feature. It may be necessary to disable
and then re-enable the new features to troubleshoot the issue.

13. Check the session for a possible hung process. Check with the vendor of
the process to further troubleshoot the issue.

14. Check the server for a hung process or processes utilizing high CPU
during the logon attempt. Again, check with the vendor of the process to
further troubleshoot the issue. Example: TID 10072604
http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/10072604.htm

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