PBS: Phone Book Server Performance Counters Missing (183176)

CAUSE

This problem has to do with the fact that PBS is a dynamic service. PBS is a dynamic service in that Pbserver.dll loads when the first client requests a list of phone numbers for its region. For this problem to occur, at least one instance of perfmon must be running against the server before PBS loads. If Pbserver.dll is not loaded, then the PBS counters will be missing; this is expected.

The following list contains the events that cause the PBS counters to be missing:

• Performance monitor is run remotely against a server where PBS is installed, but not yet running. In other words, Pbserver.dll has not been loaded.
• The first remote instance of perfmon is not shutdown.
• PBS is subsequently started when a client requests a list of regional phone numbers.
• Another remote instance of perfmon is run against the server.
• The perfmon counters are missing from the new instance of perfmon, even though Pbserver.dll is now loaded.

When perfmon is run remotely against a server, Winlogon on the server only loads one instance of the performance counter DLL for that remote instance of perfmon and all subsequent remote instances of perfmon. This means that the open function is only called once when the initial remote instance of perfmon connects. For the open function to be called again requires the close function to be called. The close function is only called when all remote instances of perfmon are closed.

Running perfmon locally against a server is very different from running it remotely on the server. Each instance of perfmon that is run locally loads its own instance of each performance counter DLL. This means the open function for each DLL is called for each instance of perfmon. The open function sets up what is needed to collect the perfmon counter data.