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outlook 2007 pegging EIGHT cores on citrix servers, in the Citrix XenApp / Presentation Server forum on BrianMadden.com

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Wes Lazara posted on 08-04-2008 11:32 PM
Previously we had 6 dual-core terminal servers (citrix win2003) hosting roughly 25-30 users each. Outlook 2007 in online mode connecting to our exchange 2007 server through a netscreen firewall.

Since moving to four 8-core terminal servers (citrix win2003x64) we now see 100% cpu utilization much of the time with around 55 users. Four times the cores, not even twice the users.

I have moved the citrix servers into the same network as my exchange server to negate the netscreen's interference - no dice. I have removed the static port mappings on exchange and the GCs since they are no longer necessary without the firewall inbetween - no dice.

Any ideas? Could it be some interaction between outlook and x64 windows? Could it have been some outlook patch that is making it spin its wheels? It is taking users 20-25 seconds to open emails during these periods of spiking. External clients using rpc/http (in online mode) do not have this issue, and the Exchange server (also 8 core) isn't even breaking a sweat, so it seems to be something on the outlook side.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated, i'm losing a lot of sleep on this one!!

-Wes
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Mike Smith replied on 08-06-2008 8:32 AM


Hello Wes,

Get Process Explorer and look at the active thread for an Outlook instance that is pegging the cpu. Lets take a look at the stack and see what Outlook is doing. You might need to get a newer version of dbghelp.dll though, if so, get the Debugging Tools for Windows.

Could do the same with Process Monitor, might give you a better idea as to what is going on.

--Mike
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Mark Elliott replied on 08-06-2008 9:15 AM
Could this be it?
When you moved to the x64 environment, did you make other changes (eg install Office 2007 SP1)


******************************************************************************
SYMPTOMS
When you install 2007 Microsoft Office suites Service Pack 1 (SP1), you may not experience a performance improvement when you use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. You specifically experience this issue on Terminal Servers that are running many instances of Outlook 2007 at the same time.

Note Only some Outlook 2007 users are affected by this issue.
toptop
Back to the top

CAUSE
This issue occurs if an Instant Messaging (IM) client is not installed.

Note This is a known issue in 2007 Microsoft Office suites SP1.
toptop
Back to the top

WORKAROUND
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To work around this issue, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
4. In the New Key # 1 box, type PersonaMenu, and then press ENTER.
5. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
6. In the New Value # 1 box, type Enabled, and then press ENTER.
7. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
8. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
9. Exit Registry Editor.
Note This workaround disables presence settings in Outlook.
******************************************************************************
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Wes Lazara replied on 08-06-2008 10:48 AM
nope, we have never installed sp1 because of the performance issues when used in terminal services. i did however get a chance last night to rebuild one of my servers from scratch rataher than using my RIS template -- and i didn't install any office patches at all this time. i tested using my account via RDP before installing citrix and jumping around in outlook pushed the cpu to 5-7% - about half of what i was seeing before. installing citrix now and we'll see if anything changes...
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Wes Lazara replied on 08-06-2008 5:12 PM
users on the freshly rebuilt server (minus any office 2007 patches) are reporting speedy outlook performance today even under load... perhaps a somewhat recent office/outlook patch makes similar changes to office sp1?
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Wes Lazara replied on 09-11-2008 6:19 PM
Looks like it definitely was a patch, because the freshly rebuilt servers run great with 60-70 users, no sweat.

I also see that kb948950 is supposed to fix this performance issue, but I'm still a bit wary of trying out SP1 and/or more recent patches - but I don't want to stay unpatched for too long either!

Is anyone else running this config, and if so what combination of patches are you running?

thanks!
Wes
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Duke Walters replied on 09-11-2008 8:51 PM
We also had the same problem you just described here. Honestly, we didn't have the time to do the thorough evaluation and troubleshooting you did. We simply uninstalled SP1 and the problem was fixed.

Remember that it's always best practice to test all patches on a single production server (or servers dedicated to test patching) and see how it performs after the updates. Depending on the results, you can choose to do the rest of the servers or not.

Here's what we do

1. We install all planned patches in 3 production terminal servers that are heavily used.
2. If there are problems and we have to roll back, bringing down these servers won't hurt us.
3. If everything works fine after a full week, the general assumption is that there are no noticeable problems.
4. We roll out the patches to 30% of the servers.
5. Wait another week. If still no issues, roll out the remaining 70%.
6. If problems are found, roll back the 30%. 30% is a dent but not a huge deal and correctable within 2 hours.


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Shawn Bass replied on 09-11-2008 11:38 PM
Wes,

If you happen to track down which specific hotfix caused it, please post the info for others. I don't have anyone running Outlook 2007 at the moment, but that could change soon.

Thanks.

Shawn

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Neil Spellings replied on 09-12-2008 2:17 AM
You might want to check out this similar thread

Cheers


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EmilBeck replied on 09-12-2008 3:43 AM
N ormally I place GPOs on Outlook 2007 to control the following features which improves performance:

Disable Direct Booking
Do not Display Messenger status in the form field
Disable the Person Names Smart Tag

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Wes Lazara replied on 09-12-2008 10:51 AM
Hi Emil, thanks for the tips...

As for direct booking, wouldn't this prevent us from booking resources?

For the display messenger status, I see the option for enabling/disabling "online status" - i assume that's the option you're talking about? Do you choose "disable" or do you select "enable" and then select Never from the drop down menu?

thanks!
Wes
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