RE: Memory Usage - HelpSvc

Hi Art,

Thanks for your update.

Since the server performance report records data in some time duration, I
suggest that you monitor your server for some time to see if the
helpsvc.exe process takes up high CPU memory persistently. And also please
let me know if the server is suffering any performance issue.

Additionally let us perform the following test to trouble shoot the issue:

Suggestion 1: Scan virus and Adware
------------------------------------
Please update your virus definition and scan for viruses. I suggest that
you use Ad-aware 6 and other spyware removal tools to scan and permanently
remove unwanted spyware. We can obtain it from the following links:

Adware
http://www.lavasoft.usa.com/software/adaware/
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/downloads/download.php/id/33

Suggestion 2: Test in Clean Boot environment
-----------------------------------
To isolate the influence of additional services and startup items, we can
boot the system into a Clean Boot environment to test if it is convenient
for you to restart the terminal server.

1. Click Start -> Run, type "msconfig" in the text box, and click OK.
2. In the Startup tab, click the "Disable All" button.
3. In the Services tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" checkbox,
and then click the "Disable All" button.
4. Click OK and restart your computer to test.

Q310560 How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/5/60.asp

Suggestion 3: Process Explorer
-----------------------------
Based on my experience, some additional applications or services may attach
to other process and cause problems. We can use "procexp.exe" to get the
processes information. If we find some third party suspicious processes, we
can kill the process and uninstall the corresponding application to test.
To use the "procexp.exe" tool, you can perform the following steps:

1. Download the Process Explorer tool from the following link:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

2. Double click the "procexp.exe" file to open it, and highlight the
process Helpsvc.exe at the process Window
3. Click the View Dlls icon on the toolbar. You also can press "Ctrl+D" to
switch to the DLL view. Please check whether there is any third party .dlls
attached to this process. If so, please kill the process or uninstall the
application to test.

If the issue persists, I suggest that you get a detailed view of the
CPU/memory usage by using perfmon to collect a period time (such as 1 day)
of the System performance log. By doing this, we can see the CPU/memory
usage trend in the given time.

The performance counter you will be interested in will be the following:

Process --> ' %Priviledged Time' with 'All instances'
Process --> ' %Processor Time' with 'All instances'
Process --> ' %User Time' with 'All instances'

and some optional counters:

Cache
Memory
Objects
Paging file
Process
Processor
System

To use Performance Monitor to capture the performance data:

1. Run 'Perfmon' to open the 'Performance' MMC console.
2. On the left panel, expand "Performance logs and alerts"
3. Right-Click "Counter Logs", choose "New Log Settings??"
4. Input the name of the Log. For example, we can type "ISA Performance"
5. Click "Add Counters", select the desired items in the Performance Object
drop-down list, (make sure you choose "All counters"/"All Instances" for
each item)
6. Change the "Interval" to 1 minute.
7. Let the logging run long enough for the performance issue to reproduce.
8. Stop the log.
9. Find the .blg file(default c:\perflogs), compress it with Winzip and
then send it to us including the date/time when the performance issue start.

I appreciate your time.

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Jenny Wu
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
======================================================
This newsgroup only focuses on SBS technical issues. If you have issues
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so, it will ensure your issues are resolved in a timely manner.

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft CSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Any input or comments in this thread are highly appreciated.
======================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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Subject: RE: Memory Usage - HelpSvc
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Hi Art,

Thanks for you update by mail.

I am sorry for the delayed response due to weekend. Please understand that
the newsgroups are staffed weekdays by Microsoft Support professionals to
answer your systems and applications questions. Your understanding is
greatly appreciated!

The Critical Alert does not mean that it is the MSDE that takes up too
high
memory. It indicates that the memory usage exceed the alert counter.

The alert counter that is being triggered in Health Monitor is for
Allocated Memory > 2,147,483,648 bytes; this number is static and is
configured similarly on all SBS 2003 server installations, this might mean
that that number may not be representing the true baseline for that
particular server installation.

In most cases, this is a normal behavior. Since SBS 2003 server is an
integrated product, some services such as Exchange Information store, ISA
web proxy service or SQL Server will normally use large memory.

If you can confirm that everything is working as expected, that there are
no problems/errors with the system, then you can actually check the
average
count and change it to match that system.

You can do it from the Monitoring and Reporting snap-in in Server
Management (under Change Alert Notifications, then select Performance
Counters, and then check the Counter Average for Allocated Memory. You can
then Edit that entry and replace the default threshold with the average
for
that system (plus some padding)).

In your scenario, if you ensure it is the process helpsvc takes up too big
memory, please follow my suggestions in my previous post to try to resolve
it and let me know the result.

What is more, I would like to give you more information to preventing SQL
server (WMSDE) from using more that the specified amount of memory (we can
also use min server memory to guarantee a minimum amount of memory to an
instance of SQL Server). To do so, open a command prompt and run the
following command:

osql -E -S sbsserver\<instance name>

You will enter the osql command prompt. Run the commends below (replace
<xxx> with the amount of memory):

1> EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
2> reconfigure
3> go

1> EXEC sp_configure 'min server memory', <xxx>
2> reconfigure
3> go

1> EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory', <xxx>
2> reconfigure
3> go

After doing the above steps, you may run the commands to check the
configured memory usage:

1> EXEC sp_configure
2> go

Hope above information helps!

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Jenny Wu
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
======================================================
This newsgroup only focuses on SBS technical issues. If you have issues
regarding other Microsoft products, you'd better post in the corresponding
newsgroups so that they can be resolved in an efficient and timely manner.
You can locate the newsgroup here:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx

When opening a new thread via the web interface, we recommend you check
the
"Notify me of replies" box to receive e-mail notifications when there are
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issue.

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provide other information for your reference, we recommend you post
different incidents in different threads to keep the thread clean. In
doing
so, it will ensure your issues are resolved in a timely manner.

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft CSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Any input or comments in this thread are highly appreciated.
======================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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Subject: RE: Memory Usage - HelpSvc
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Hi Art,

Thanks for using the SBS newsgroup.

From your description, I understand the issue to be: you received
critical
alert messages and found process helpsvc takes up too much memory. If I
am
off base, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Before we go further, please kindly help me collect some information to
isolate the issue:

1. How you know the alert shows that it is MSDE takes up high memory? Can
you save the alert message to a .msg format file and email to me for
analyze.
2. If you can sure that is the process helpsvc takes up to much memory,
you
can refer to the following steps to try to trouble shoot the issue:

According to my experience, this behavior can occur if one or more of the
PCHealth components in your computer are damaged or there is a malware on
this computer. Therefore, please make sure that the computer is virus
free
and then try the following steps after temporarily disabling your
anti-virus software:

1. It is important to note if you have recently made alterations to your
computer before this problem occurred, or if the Help and Support Center
ever worked correctly. If you have recently made alterations to your
computer before this problem occurred, try to undo the changes you made
or
uninstall the hardware or software that could have caused the issue.
After
you do so, test to determine if the issue is resolved, and if it is, skip
the remaining steps. If the issue is not resolved, continue to the next
step.

2. Remove the .cab files from the Packagestore folder, and then rebuild
the
original Help and Support Center:

a. Click Start, click Run, type "cmd" (without the quotation marks), and
then click OK to open a command prompt. Type "net stop helpsvc" (without
the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

b. Type "cd /d <windir>\pchealth\helpctr" (without the quotation
marks),
where <windir> is the Windows folder, and then press ENTER.

c. Type "rd packagestore /s /q" (without the quotation marks), and then
press ENTER.

d. Type "cd binaries" (without the quotation marks), and then press
ENTER.

e. Type "start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install"
(without
the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

f. If any of the following processes are running, stop them:


helpsvc.exe

helphost.exe

helpctr.exe

To stop a process, right-click the taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
Click the Processes tab, click the process you want to stop, and then
click
End Process.

g. At the command prompt, type "net start helpsvc" (without the
quotation
marks), and then press ENTER.

3. If the Help and Support Center has not been customized by an OEM, skip
to the next step. If the Help and Support Center has been customized by
an
OEM, completely refresh the Help and Support Center:

a. Click Start, click Run, type "cmd" (without the quotation marks), and
then click OK to open a command prompt. Type "net stop helpsvc" (without
the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

b. Type "cd /d <windir>\pchealth\helpctr" (without the quotation marks),
where <windir> is the Windows folder, and then press ENTER.

c. Type "rd packagestore /s /q" (without the quotation marks), and then
press ENTER.

d. Type "rd installedskus /s /q" (without the quotation marks), and then
press ENTER.

e. Type "cd binaries" (without the quotation marks), and then press
ENTER.

f. Type "start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install" (without
the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

g. Type "start /w helpsvc /register" (without the quotation marks), and
then press ENTER.

h. If any of the following processes are running, stop them:


helpsvc.exe

helphost.exe

helpctr.exe

To stop a process, right-click the taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
Click the Processes tab, click the process you want to stop, and then
click
End Process.

i. At the command prompt, type "net start helpsvc" (without the
quotation
marks), and then press ENTER.


Hope above information helps! I am happy to be assistance of you and look
forward to your reply!

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Jenny Wu
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
======================================================
This newsgroup only focuses on SBS technical issues. If you have issues
regarding other Microsoft products, you'd better post in the
corresponding
newsgroups so that they can be resolved in an efficient and timely
manner.
You can locate the newsgroup here:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx

When opening a new thread via the web interface, we recommend you check
the
"Notify me of replies" box to receive e-mail notifications when there are
any updates in your thread. When responding to posts via your newsreader,
please "Reply to Group" so that others may learn and benefit from your
issue.

Microsoft engineers can only focus on one issue per thread. Although we
provide other information for your reference, we recommend you post
different incidents in different threads to keep the thread clean. In
doing
so, it will ensure your issues are resolved in a timely manner.

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft CSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Any input or comments in this thread are highly appreciated.
======================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

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Recently getting critical alert messages about memory consumption.
Thought
it
was MSDE but using the pointer given here shows it is not. Helpsvc
shows
as
using high memory usage and CPU usage - daily report shows 99% in two
different process ID's yesterday.
Looked all over for this helpsvc issue - no luck.
Hopefully someone has observed this behavior - SBS 2003 patched up to
date
-
no SP1.

Thanks,
Art






.