w3wp.exe has 100% load when publishing with FrontPage

We have one server, where every publish using FrontPage results in a 100%
load of the w3wp.exe process. We need to kill the process.

If we publish once using an Administration account, than everything works
fine, even another user can publish. The next day, w3wp.exe hangs again when
publishing.

The server is a clean install of Windows Server 2003, so we did not migrate
from FP 2000.

We urgently need some help, any suggestions are welcome.

Pieter

v-wzhang
Wed Jun 16 21:47:58 CDT 2004

Hi Pieter,

This is most likely a permission issue about FrontPage Server
extension.
Please check:
1. if the problem users have Author permission on the web:
1). Logon as Administrator to start FrontPage and then open the web.
2). On the Tools menu, point to Server, and then click Permissions.
3). Under Users and Roles, click Manage users.
4). Under User Role, make sure the problem users has at least Author
permission

2. If the user accounts have proper Read/Write NTFS permission on the
site's physical directory.

3. Make sure WebDAV has been enabled in IIS.
In IIS6 mmc, click Web Service Extension folder and make sure WebDAV
extension is allowed.

Furthermore, I think you can create a new site with the above setting
to test the publishing. If the high CPU symptom doesn't occur on this
new site, this can help us narrow down that the problem must be
caused by some messed permission setting on the old site.

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

vankampenp
Thu Jun 17 05:17:01 CDT 2004

WenJun,
thank you for your answer. We host multiple web sites on this server, and the problem happens with all users/all sites.
The user rights are checked and ok. We have WebDav installed and permitted. Creating a new site does not help, the problem is on all sites.

What can we do next?

Regards

Pieter

vankampenp
Thu Jun 17 05:18:01 CDT 2004

WenJun,
thank you for your answer. We host multiple web sites on this server, and the problem happens with all users/all sites.
The user rights are checked and ok. We have WebDav installed and permitted. Creating a new site does not help, the problem is on all sites.

What can we do next?

Regards

Pieter

vankampenp
Thu Jun 17 05:18:01 CDT 2004

WenJun,
thank you for your answer. We host multiple web sites on this server, and the problem happens with all users/all sites.
The user rights are checked and ok. We have WebDav installed and permitted. Creating a new site does not help, the problem is on all sites.

What can we do next?

Regards

Pieter

v-wzhang
Fri Jun 18 00:00:27 CDT 2004

Pieter,

You can launch iisstate tool to capture several call stack logs:
http://www.iisfaq.com/default.aspx?View=P197&P=145

When you use FrontPage to publish and the w3wp.exe high CPU symptom
is reproduced, open task manager to check this w3wp.exe's PID and
run: iisstate -p <w3wp PID> to capture the log.

Also, launch filemon to track down the high CPU w3wp's I/O may be
helpful as well - include w3wp.exe as the filter in filemon's toolbar.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

You can attach the logs in your thread and I'll assist you on
reviewing them.
Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

v-wzhang
Sun Jun 20 20:59:50 CDT 2004

Pieter,

Have you run iisstate to capture the log? Or did you get any other
progress?

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

vankampenp
Mon Jun 21 05:32:01 CDT 2004

We need to install the debugger on the production server, and want to test this on another server befor doing so. We are working on it, thanks.

v-wzhang
Mon Jun 21 21:14:16 CDT 2004

That's fine. I'm looking forward to your update.

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

v-wzhang
Tue Jun 22 20:36:42 CDT 2004

Hello Pieter,

Have you got the log yet? Please feel free to let me know if there is
any problem.

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

v-wzhang
Thu Jun 24 02:24:50 CDT 2004

Pieter,

Here is the problem FP publishing thread. Unfortunately looks like
iisstate met problem when capturing its call stack and we cannot get
valuable information from it.

Thread ID: 15
System Thread ID: 1680
Kernel Time: 0:1:0.140
User Time: 0:0:9.937
Thread Type: Front Page Authoring.
# ChildEBP RetAddr
00 0193ec10 00000000 SharedUserData!SystemCallStub+0x4
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F

We cannot analyze memory dump file in the newsgroup. The last effort
we can try is still filemon. You just need to capture a quick trace
of w3wp.exe. The steps:

1) Launch filemon,stop capture and click filter on its toolbar.
Remove * and type w3wp.exe as the included string.

2) Change font if necessary(need restart filemon).

3) Use FrontPage to publish.

4) When the w3wp.exe 100% CPU reproduces, start filemon capture and
then stop it after 2 or 3 seconds.

5) Save as the log.

You can attach the log into your thread and I'll review it for you.

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

vankampenp
Thu Jun 24 03:42:01 CDT 2004

When the CPU get's to 100%, this is the only thing that we see in the filemon program is this:

157261 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157262 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157263 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157264 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157265 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157266 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157267 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A
157268 10:03:53 w3wp.exe:4512 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\c_936.nls SUCCESS Attributes: A

After 5 sec, the logfile has a filesize of 1.7 MB, so its a nice loop ;)

I checked the permissions of this file (there are allot of this sort of c_...nls files):

Administrator: Full
Local Cervice: Read & Execute
Network: Read & Execute
Network Servicev: Read & Execute
Powerusers: Modify, Read & Execute, Write
System: Full

Hopefully this will help.

Pieter

v-wzhang
Thu Jun 24 23:35:29 CDT 2004

Pieter,

The loop is expected but we haven't found where is the denied
permission causing this loop. Please do:
1) Try to grant Users or Everyone group with Read & Execute
permissions on \system32 and all its sub directories to test if this
helps.

2) Please further launch regmon to check if there is denied key
access in registry.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

v-wzhang
Mon Jun 28 07:18:04 CDT 2004

Pieter,

It's fantastic news that the tough issue has been resolved. :)
I believe the Authenticated Users group solution is ok. For a clear
installed IIS with FPSE, the INTERACTIVE,NETWORK and local Users
groups should have Read and Read/Execute permissions on those FPSE
dlls in \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\50\bin.

INTERACTIVE and NETWORK contain all the user accounts which have
INTERACTIVE or NETWORK logged on to the server.

Special identities
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/data
center/proddocs/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windows
serv/2003/datacenter/proddocs/en-us/sag_ADgroupsAdditionalIDs.asp

Best regards,

WenJun Zhang
Microsoft Online Support
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security