Microsoft KB Archive/260366

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SMS: SMS Executive Service Can Hang When Started by Site Backup Service

Article ID: 260366

Article Last Modified on 10/27/2006



APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 2



This article was previously published under Q260366

SYMPTOMS

After you perform a site backup, the Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) SMS_EXECUTIVE service threads may stop processing, and file backlogs may occur in SMS site server inboxes (such as Sms\Inboxes\Despoolr.box\Receive).

When this occurs, the following error message is listed in the Despool.log file:

Waiting for an available despooling thread

Note that this problem can occur even if the SMS Site Backup service is not used.

CAUSE

When you run the SMS Backup task, the SMS services are stopped and then restarted after the backup is completed. The timing with which the services restart may cause the SMS_EXECUTIVE service to stop responding (hang).

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Systems Management Server version 2.0. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

288239 SMS: How to Obtain the Latest Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack




WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

  1. Stop the SMS_Executive service and then restart it. Note that the SMS_Executive service may be hung and you may not be able to stop it by using the typical methods. You may have to use another method such as the Kill.exe tool from the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit.
  2. Modifying the Sms\Inboxes\Smsbkup.box\Smsmbkup.ctl file may help to work around this issue. This modification places pauses between the starting of the SMS services and may avoid the conflict when the services start. Note that modifying this file may adversely affect your SMS backup procedure; make this change only after you create a backup copy of the original file. The Sleep tool is available in the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit; place it in a folder that is contained in the PATH statement. You can modify the Smsmbkup.ctl file as follows:

    sleep 60
    service \\%SITE_SERVER%\SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER
    sleep 60
    service \\%SITE_SERVER%\SMS_LICENSE_SERVER
    sleep 60


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 3.


Additional query words: prodsms

Keywords: kbqfe kbhotfixserver kbbug kbfix kbserver kbsms200presp3fix KB260366