The WMI Event Queue Can Overflow When You Fire Many Management Events Continuously (329283)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0
  • Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation
This article was previously published under Q329283

SYMPTOMS

When you fire management events by using the System.Management.Instrumentation namespace over time, event consumers receive the following error message:

Error Number: 0x80041061
Description: Event queue overflowed

Additionally, the following error message may appear in the wbemess.log:

The limit of 2000000 was exceeded for events held for consumers. The system is under extreme stress and out-of-memory conditions can ensue.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Core service when you fire event objects than contain two or more non-fixed length properties, including array of primitive types, embedded objects, strings, and references. If the WMI event provider that provides these event objects reuses the IWbemClassObject object for each new event, the event object size grows over time, and eventually causes the WMI event queue to overflow. The event provider that is implemented in the System.Management.Instrumentation namespace in the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 reuses the IWbemClassObject. Therefore, the .NET Framework is affected by this issue.

RESOLUTION

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question. The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. 
   Date        Time  Version       Size     File name
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   9-Oct-2002  4:01  1.0.3705.367  352,256  System.Management.dll

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

After the hotfix is applied, users must recompile their instrumented assemblies, and then register the assemblies with installutil.exe.

Note This hotfix requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 2.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:4/7/2006
Keywords:kbQFE KBHotfixServer kbbug kbfix KB329283 kbAudDeveloper
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