RMA: 301 - Error: Unable to lock a region of a file

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:47 am

We are receiving this error from various remote servers running Windows 2000 SP4. We are using RMA version 3.14 on the remote servers.

On the HM server we are running Windows 2000 SBS with HM 5.38.

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:27 pm

What test method displays this error? I assume Performance Counter? Its some bug in pdh.dll...
What mode do you use for this test method?

Quote from the manual:

...that's why in HostMonitor we have implemented several different methods to work with pdh.dll:

MultiThread - allows to start several tests in separate threads (fastest method)
OneByOne - HostMonitor starts Performance Counter tests one by one
Smart - multithreading model, HostMonitor tries to reload pdh.dll when error occurs
External - HostMonitor uses external (perfobj.exe) utility to perform the tests. This is fast and most reliable method.
You can specify which test mode will be used on Miscellaneous page in the Options dialog.

I would recommend to try External mode.

Remote Monitoring Agent (RMA) can use perfobj.exe utility as well (utility should be located in the same directory where RMA is installed).
If you want to change test method used by the agent, add line "PerfWorkMode=N" into [Misc] section of the rma.ini file and restart agent. N is a code of the mode:
0 - MultiThread mode;
1 - OneByOne mode;
2 - Smart mode;
3 - External mode

Regards
Alex

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:37 am

Dear Alex,

Cheers, I'm using external now. The errors are gone. And yes, I forgot to mention but I was using a memory perf counter.

Regards,

Arend

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:12 am

Alex,

The error is back on one of the servers. Is it possible that this error occurs whenever the amount of memory in use exceeds the amount of memory physicly installed. E.g. we have 768MB installed. The ammount of memory in use is 980MB. Thus the server is using 980MB - 768MB = 212MB of his swapfile.

Regards,

Arend

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:14 am

The error is back on one of the servers. Is it possible that this error occurs whenever the amount of memory in use exceeds the amount of memory physicly installed.

We don't know

PDH.DLL is part of Windows, only Microsoft knows exactly how it works...
This error appears all the time (after 1st occurence)? Or sometimes test returns valid result?

Regards
Alex

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:38 pm

It happens all the time but NOT after the first occurence. It runs fine for a while and suddenly it give returns the error. After that, I haven't seen a valid result. I will let it run for a few days and wait if the error disappears from time to time.

Regards,

Arend

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 4:52 am

Alex,

Ok, I've monitored the monitoring

for several days now. And frankly, I'm in a loss here...

So the situation is now as follows:
We are using RMA on server A. The agent monitors server B on the same network.

On both servers we run a performance counter test:
\\servername\\Memory\Available MBytes

When the RMA is started the tests seems to run fine for a while. After a certain period of time the error message reappears.

What makes it even more odd is that when the RMA is started on server A the test "Performance counter \\servername\\Memory\Available MBytes" on server B responds OK with 11MB average free memory. But actually when you physicly look on server B the total physical memory is fully used as well as 30% of the 1536MB swapfile.

So my quesions are:
1. How is it possible the performance counter returns such a result when in fact the result either should be "0MB" with an BAD result, or 70% of 1536MB is free with a GOOD result.
2. What test could we run to receive a reliable performance counter?

Regards,

Arend

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:07 am

2. What test could we run to receive a reliable performance counter?

Are you sure you have changed work mode to "External" for this agent? May be you have changed option for HostMonitor only? Have you restarted agent after ini file modification?

When error occurs, could you try to check different counter, e.g. \\servername\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Avg. Disk Bytes/Read
If memory test fails but disk test returns result, more likely problem is not in pdh.dll but in perfos.dll

RMA is started on server A the test on server B responds OK with 11MB average free memory. But actually when you physicly look on server B the total physical memory is fully used

This is steady result? I mean there are always difference it result? Or it happens sometime? Probably some application strongly uses memory, it allocates and next second releases some memory...

Regards
Alex

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:30 am

KS-Soft wrote: Are you sure you have changed work mode to "External" for this agent? May be you have changed option for HostMonitor only? Have you restarted agent after ini file modification?

I did stop and start the agent but ok, I've restarted the agent again and uptill now the results are good.

KS-Soft wrote:This is steady result? I mean there are always difference it result? Or it happens sometime? Probably some application strongly uses memory, it allocates and next second releases some memory...

The result is steady. The counter does not return the correct amount of free memory. However, this only applies to the server B (the server which the RMA isn't installed on).

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:21 pm

I've restarted the agent again and uptill now the results are good.

If error occurs again, could you try to setup monitor to request that disk counter (see my previous post)?
If memory test fails but disk test returns result, more likely problem is not in pdh.dll but in perfos.dll
We will not be able to fix problem anyway, but we will know what to search on microsoft.com. May be Microsoft has patch for this DLL...

The result is steady. The counter does not return the correct amount of free memory. However, this only applies to the server B (the server which the RMA isn't installed on).

H'm.. I checked source code - RMA does not modify counter value in any way. It simply request Windows and returns result to HostMonitor.

Regards
Alex

Arilexed · Post by **Arilexed** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:56 pm

KS-Soft wrote: If error occurs again, could you try to setup monitor to request that disk counter (see my previous post)?
If memory test fails but disk test returns result, more likely problem is not in pdh.dll but in perfos.dll
We will not be able to fix problem anyway, but we will know what to search on microsoft.com. May be Microsoft has patch for this DLL...

Np, we'll do.

H'm.. I checked source code - RMA does not modify counter value in any way. It simply request Windows and returns result to HostMonitor.

Ok, well frankly, you could tell me anything and I'd believe it

I'm not to great with Windows perf counters.