Slow logons at ‘applying registry policy’ stage on a Windows 2003 Citrix Server
Posted on September 24th, 2008
Problem
When a user logs onto a Citrix server, it can take up to 10 minutes at ‘applying registry policy’ during the logon process.
Background
The server specification was as follows:
- Windows 2003 R2 x64 Standard Edition
- Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 HFRP02.
The server was member of an Windows 2003 Active Directory domain with many DC’s spread amongst different sites. It was in an Active Directory ‘sites and services’ site group along with many other Citrix servers and configured for 3 DC’s split over 2 physical locations.
Tags: AD Site, apply group policy, applying group policy, applying registry policy, dfs, group policy, OpLocksDisabled, opportunistic locking, registry.pol, SetRegistryValue, slow, slow login, slow logon, sysvol, UserEnvDebugLevel
Filed under Windows 2003 | 3 Comments »
Troubleshooting the Windows logon process
Posted on August 19th, 2008
To troubleshoot the logon process, debug logging can be enabled. This is useful in a Citrix environment as the logon could be slow and the debug log file will show where the pauses occur during the logon.
Microsoft Technet article can be found here: Q221833
Use Registry Editor to add or to modify the following registry entry:
Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Entry: UserEnvDebugLevel
Type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 10002 (Hexadecimal)UserEnvDebugLevel can have the following values:
NONE 0×00000000
NORMAL 0×00000001
VERBOSE 0×00000002
LOGFILE 0×00010000
DEBUGGER 0×00020000The default value is NORMAL|LOGFILE (0×00010001).
Note To disable logging, select NONE (0×00000000).
You can combine these values. For example, you can combine VERBOSE 0×00000002 and LOGFILE 0×00010000 to get 0×00010002. Therefore, if UserEnvDebugLevel is given a value of 0×00010002, LOGFILE and VERBOSE are both turned on. Combining these values is the same as using an OR statement.
0×00010000 OR 0×00000002 = 0×00010002Note If you set UserEnvDebugLevel to 0×00030002, the most verbose details are logged in the Userenv.log file.
The log file is written to the %Systemroot%\Debug\UserMode\Userenv.log file. If the Userenv.log file is larger than 300 KB, the file is renamed Userenv.bak, and a new Userenv.log file is created. This action occurs when a user logs on locally or by using Terminal Services, and the Winlogon process starts. However, because the size check only occurs when a user logs on, the Userenv.log file may grow beyond the 300 KB limit.
The 300 KB limit cannot be modified.
Summary
RegKey: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserEnvDebugLevel
For full debug logging set to: 30002
Log file: c:\windows\debug\UserMode\userenv.log
Tags: debug, environment, logon, user, UserEnvDebugLevel, Windows 2003
Filed under Windows 2003 | 2 Comments »