Citrix and Terminal Services

[ddmcp2000]

I have two 2K servers, one a DC, the other a Citrix box. About two weeks ago, I was accessing my DC from home, and I needed to access my (XP) desktop inside the work firewall. I decided to download the installer for the Microsoft remote access client, and install it on the server. I know now, this is a bad idea.

My server will no longer run executables (this includes my Veritas... bad news. No backups.) My server event log is full of issues pointing to perfdisk.dll, and I cannot open the uninstaller or installer program again. I have tried to uninstall the MSRAS AND the Citrix client, to no avail - it wont allow me to. Is there a way I could conceivably remove one or both of these applications manually, to maybe re-install the Citrix client by itself?

Am I even on the right track? Is something ELSE wrong in there? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[ascotta]

Forget the perfdisk.dll stuff, thats not the problem, kinda common, and I haven't found out what causes it yet.

So let me see if I have got this right. You can run nothing on your DC which is not citrix. Can your run stuff on the Citrix box. If this is the case then I would be tempted to post on the Win2K forum as well.

[blue] Oh you know, just doing what I do.[/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[ddmcp2000]

The perfdisk.dll errors *started* with this issue - DOZENS of them - and OVER AND OVER, not a couple or three, once or twice. They were never there before like that, I know, as I was saving all of my logs (which, BTW, I can do no longer, either) It, I know, is not THE issue, it's a symptom...

Most executables will not run on the DC, and many msc's won't run either. Correct. VERY simple exe's will run, like notepad, and most com's will run also. Dfrg.msc runs as well. (That's the only one I have tried that DOES work - I can't say ALL others don't work.) I can still reboot my network remotely, which I run from the command line. The DC will reboot fine, even remotely, but VERY SLOWLY - i.e. it takes about 15 minutes to be ready to start serving files. The server serves files just fine and just as fast as it ever did - my users do not even know there is anything wrong, thank the good Lord above. <grin>

The Citrix box works PERFECTLY. I just rebuilt (reinstalled) it recently, and it is working better than it ever did. The people that built the machine originally knew LESS about Citrix than I do, obviously, because it NEVER ran stable... I was forever chasing issues on the thinnet clients.

I posted here, because the DC *had* Citrix Neighborhood installed, and it was working just fine, and as near as I can figure, this issue all started when I installed the M$ RDP, downloaded from the M$ website. I did this because I needed access to my workstation (inside the network), from home and the original native RDP within 2K server was not completely compatible with the application I had to run on my desktop. After I rebooted the network that night is when I could see all of the issues started happening.

I would simply uninstall the M$ RDP client, but the Windows Installer no longer works. I can't get it to work, either from the Add/Remove Programs, or double-clicking the Installer Package (named msrdpcli.exe). I expect this is going to be a long, painful, MANUAL extraction. I was hoping to post on a day when somebody ELSE, who has already fixed this issue, happened to be reading...

The Citrix website is COMPLETLY useless, and because the package I downloaded fro M$ is a free one, they are going to earn their aptly nicknamed M$ - 99.00 per incident, I believe.

 

[ascotta]

It is extremely unlikely that the ICA client will be causing you problems. However, I noted you did the instaqll remotely. Best practice from my point of view is to do any installs on servers at the console. PITA I know but far safer. Citrix website will fix Citrix issues and seeing as your problem appears to be MS rather than Citrix then it is again unlikely you will find a solution there.

Having said that, what would I be doing to fix this. I would be setting as many services on my DC to manual and starting them manually to see if it was a service that was causing grief.

I might be trying to replace manually the Installer.

[blue] Oh you know, just doing what I do.[/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[patrickrouse]

If I were having this problem I would restore the system state of the on the DC (in Directory Services Restore Mode)and call it a day. 30 minutes and you're back-in-shape.

I know it's the way we're wired to want to know why something broke, but this should be determined on a test/lab server after you've fixed your problem in the most expedient manner (restore from backup).

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
Provision Networks VIP

http://www.workthin.com

 

[ddmcp2000]

Still with the same issues, but now I have more information. The installer service boots up disabled. If I log-in in safe mode, I can enable the installer service, but upon reboot, it disables itself.

All MS installer are now dead. DSRM does the same thing. I tried SFC, and it replaced SOME files, luckily it still boots. Faster now, and a few more apps work, but still LONG-WINDED in rebooting.

The "terminal services" and "terminal services licensing" services still run, but they will not refresh - at all. If I reboot in safe-mode, disable them, reboot normally, reboot in safe-mode, re-enable them, and then reboot, it appears as though the pool is deleted then re-created. I need to do this every weekend now, or my thin-nets cannot continue to get licenses.

I am beginning to think this server is a total loss, and I am thinking I should cut my losses, and rebuild it.

Before I do that, though, can ANYONE offer some potential insight into this issue?

Again, thanks!

 

[enigma99]

I've had this issue before.
The installer is corrupt and you are going to have to re-register it with the OS.

Here is the article:
Start your computer in Safe mode, and then register the Msiexec.exe file. To do this, follow these steps: a. Shut down your computer, and then restart your computer.
b. Restart your computer and press the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, press the F8 key when you see the Boot menu.
c. Use the ARROW keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
d. If the Boot menu appears again, and the words "Safe Mode" appear in blue at the bottom, select the installation that you want to start, and then press ENTER.
e. Log on to the computer.
f. Click Start, click Run, type msiexec /regserver in the Open box, and then click OK


Hope that helps.