Scalability Limit Due to Synchronization Contention on Large Print Servers (258305)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition 4.0
This article was previously published under Q258305

SYMPTOMS

When you have a print server with many clients, print jobs, and installed printers, clients may begin receiving "RPC server too busy" or "RPC server unavailable" error messages as the load on the print server increases. When this occurs, the server's network throughput drops and the number of threads in the Spoolss process increases to well over 200.

When the server is in this state, restarting the Spooler service may help. If it does not help, you need to reboot the server.

After you reboot the server, the problem may reoccur within hours. There is no evident memory leak or bottleneck in performance data.

CAUSE

The Spooler service may be running into a contention or a deadlock caused by the high load.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/7/2001
Keywords:kbbug kbenv kbprint KB258305
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.