SMS: Remote Control Agent Stops Responding on Startup and Shutdown

ID: Q173594

The information in this article applies to:
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

After starting the Systems Management Server Remote Control Agent service (Wuser32.exe) on a computer running Windows NT, other applications may not launch as expected. It may take several minutes for an application to be presented on the desktop. Eventually the client application will launch and the system will respond normally.

When shutting down the system or stopping the service, the Remote Control Agent fails to stop correctly. The following error can occur:

Service Control Manager: "Could not stop the SMS Remote Control Agent service. Error 2186: The service is not responding to the control function."


CAUSE

When the Remote Control Agent (Wuser32.exe) starts, it attempts to get the security identifiers (SIDs) of all the Windows NT groups or accounts specified in the PermittedViewers registry value. For those groups that are not defined in the domain, the Remote Control Agent can take a long time to determine that these groups do not exist.


WORKAROUND

To correct the problem, configure the Systems Management Server site settings so that only valid Administrators groups are defined. To do this, perform the steps below corresponding to the version of Systems Management Server that you are using.

Systems Management Server 2.0

  1. In the Systems Management Server Administrator console, navigate to Client Agents, under Site Settings.


  2. Double-click the Remote Tools Client Agent to open its properties.


  3. Click the Security tab.


  4. Edit the permitted viewers list of user groups and remove any that are not valid for the existing domain environment for this site.


These settings will automatically propagate to Systems Management Server 2.0 clients within the client configuration cycle (23 hours).

Systems Management Server 1.2

  1. From the Site Properties window, click the Clients button.


  2. Choose the Proposed Properties.


  3. Click the Options button next to Remote Troubleshooting.


  4. From the Remote Troubleshooting Options window, locate the list of user groups permitted to view Windows NT clients, and remove any that are not valid for the existing domain environment for this site.


The changes will not be propagated automatically to Systems Management Server 1.2 clients. For the existing clients to be updated, each client must execute Upgrade.bat from the SMS_SHR share of a Systems Management Server logon server. Alternatively, you can use the steps in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base to force a site wide client update:
Q166771 SMS: How to Force Site-Wide Client Updates


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server version 1.2 and 2.0.


MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

For testing purposes, it may be necessary to immediately affect the changes on a client. To accomplish this, modify the PermittedViewers registry value to contain only the word "Administrators" in English or in your local language. By default, this registry REG_MULTI_SZ value contains the "Administrators" user group in several languages.

For Systems Management Server 2.0, the PermittedViewers value is located in the following registry location: 


   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Local Machine\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\SMS\Client\Client Components\Remote Control
For Systems Management Server 1.2, the PermittedViewers value is located in the following registry location: 

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Local Machine\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\SMS\Client Services\Remote Control\Parameters
After making this modification to the registry, restart the Remote Control Agent service. It should not slow down the system. All other applications starting after the Remote Control Agent service should start up as normal.

To make this registry change on all clients at once, you must use the Systems Management Server Administrator program to make a change to the site properties. You can do this by clicking the Options button (located in the Clients window in the Site Properties). From the Remote Troubleshooting Options window, remove and unneeded user groups from the list shown.

For additional information about updating the PermittedViewers registry key on existing Systems Management Server clients, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q155680 SMS: Windows NT Remote Control Registry Parameters Not Updated

Additional query words: prodsms sid permitted viewers hang hangs hung 


Keywords          : kbenv kbRemote kbSMS200 kbSMS200bug kbSMS120 kbSMS120bug smsremtshoot 
Version           : winnt:1.2,2.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: June 24, 1999