Some of the most difficult issues we face here on the Performance Team are WMI related issues. WMI is very pervasive, and when it breaks, you can experience a myriad of symptoms that are often very difficult to troubleshoot and fix. Here are a few examples of the symptoms that can occur, and that are addressed by the hotfixes listed at the bottom of this post:

• Loss of functionality with enterprise management/monitoring software for various machines. Software examples: Microsoft SCOM/SMS,  IBM Tivoli, LANDesk Management, HP OpenView, BMC Patrol, etc.
• Loss of functionality related to Citrix terminal services load-balancing
• Loss of functionality for WMI-based scripts
• Slow user logon times on Citrix terminal servers
• Slow user logon times on Windows clients where WMI-based group policy filters are in-place
• Starting the computer may be slow (3-4 minutes to start)
• Logging onto Windows may be slow

More granular symptoms:

• Unable to connect to root\default, root\cimv2 and/or root\citrix namespaces via WBEMTEST
• Repository growing large related to OBJECTS.DATA file
• Note repeating-nested CITRIX namespace entries in WMIMGMT.MSC. WMI CONTROL > PROPERTIES > SECURITY > expand ROOT structure to note missing/repeating namespaces

And here are the hotfixes that we recommend if you are experiencing WMI problems in Windows:

Hotfix list for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

2639845      The memory usage of an application or a service keeps increasing when it loads and unloads the Netshell.dll module frequently in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2639845

2464876      The WMI repository is corrupted on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2464876
 
973243        The default gateway is missing on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista after the computer restarts if the default gateway is set by using the Netsh command
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973243

Hotfix list for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

2617858      Unexpectedly slow startup or logon process in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2617858

2465990      "0x80041002 (WBEM_E_NOT_FOUND)" error occurs when you try to open a WMI namespace on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2465990

2492536      Msinfo32.exe takes a long time to display or export system information on a computer that has many MSI-X-supported devices and that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492536

982293        The Svchost.exe process that has the WMI service crashes in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982293

974930        An application or service that queries information about a failover cluster by using the WMI provider may experience low performance or a time-out exception
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974930

Hotfix list for Windows Server 2003 SP2

2257980 "0x80041002 (WBEM_E_NOT_FOUND)" error code occurs when you try to open a WMI namespace on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2257980 For all supported x86-based versions of Windows Server 2003

Hotfix list for Windows XP

933062        A hotfix is available that improves the stability of the Windows Management Instrumentation repository in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933062

Til next time,

Blake Morrison