From: Armando Ricalde <doc@(email surpressed)> Subject: Host problem with rushtop Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:35:54 -0500 |
Msg# 1696 View Complete Thread (3 articles) | All Threads Last Next |
Hi. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the OS. With one host (WinXP64) rushtop can't show data, it says: PdhMakeCounterPath('\(0/(NULL))\'):A required argument is missing or incorrect any suggestion? -- ===================================================================== Armando Ricalde | VFX Supervisor | Cluster Studio | +52 55 3004 3622 ===================================================================== www.clusterstudio.com |
From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)> Subject: Re: Host problem with rushtop Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:04:18 -0500 |
Msg# 1698 View Complete Thread (3 articles) | All Threads Last Next |
Armando Ricalde wrote: > I'm pretty sure this has to do with the OS. > With one host (WinXP64) rushtop can't show data, it says: > > PdhMakeCounterPath('\(0/(NULL))\'): A required argument is missing or incorrect > > any suggestion? Hmm, that's an odd one. I imagine you can run jobs normally on the box, and that this error is *only* affecting rushtop's display of cpu info. The Microsoft DLL that handles the "Pdh" calls that Rush uses is Pdh.dll usually found in c:\windows\system32. If there's problems with this file, it can create such errors in Rush. If you have some similar WINXP64 configured machines, check the size of this file to see if it's different from the others. It might be, due to a missing MS OS update or corruption. Is there anything unusual about this machine compared to the other winxp64 machines on your network? ie. an odd hardware configuration for cpus (hyperthreading, or an unusual multiprocessor configuration). I'm guessing you probably have similar WinXP64 boxes that don't have this problem. Microsoft's PDH library can be a pain; about once a year someone comes up with a box that shows similar PDH errors. Usually an update of the Pdh.DLL or an OS reinstall fixes it. But once in a while it's a bug in the Rush code's handling of PDH's errors, so I'd like to work offline with you or your admin to run some test programs on this box to determine if that's the case. I'll contact you off list on this, and follow up here with results. -- Greg Ercolano, erco@(email surpressed) Seriss Corporation Rush Render Queue, http://seriss.com/rush/ Tel: (Tel# suppressed) Fax: (Tel# suppressed) Cel: (Tel# suppressed) |
From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)> Subject: Re: Host problem with rushtop Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2015 14:48:40 -0400 |
Msg# 2398 View Complete Thread (3 articles) | All Threads Last Next |
On 03/04/08 14:04, Greg Ercolano wrote: > Armando Ricalde wrote: >> With one host (WinXP64) rushtop can't show data, it says: >> PdhMakeCounterPath('\(0/(NULL))\'): A required argument is missing or incorrect >> any suggestion? > > Hmm, that's an odd one. > I imagine you can run jobs normally on the box, and that > this error is *only* affecting rushtop's display of cpu info. > > The Microsoft DLL that handles the "Pdh" calls that Rush uses > is Pdh.dll usually found in c:\windows\system32. If there's > problems with this file, it can create such errors in Rush. In addition to the above regarding the PDH library .dll becoming corrupt (due to e.g. a hard reboot), apparently something else that can happen is the registry entries for the PDH library can become corrupted. I didn't know the PDH library uses special registry entries (why?!) to access cpu/ram/etc info, but apparently they can get corrupted by a hard reboot. Stan of Artifex studios recently wrote the following describing the steps he used to fix this issue on one of his machines: """ I just ran into an issue with one of our workstations not reporting stats through Rushtop. I looked on forums and found the thread (This thread -erco) relating to the same problem: http://seriss.com/cgi-bin/rush/newsgroup-threaded.cgi?-viewthread+1696+1698 I was able to find a solution and wanted to share it with you, in case anyone else runs into trouble. The cause of the problem in our case was a forced restart of the machine that caused corruption in Windows Performance Data Helper. The solution was to use a similar healthy workstation on the farm as a registry donor. The recovery file is generated on the healthy machine by going into Windows command line and running "LODCTR /S:filename" where filename is the name and location of the output. Example: "LODCTR /S:c:\pdhbackup.txt" Then the file is transferred to the damaged machine, where restoration is performed with a "LODCTR /R:filename" command. Example: "LODCTR /R:c:\pdhbackup.txt" """ Thanks to Stan for this info; I posted this on his behalf with his permission -- sounds promising. Microsoft has documentation on this repair technique: just google for "lodctr", which comes up with these useful links, among others: How to manually rebuild Performance Counter Library values ========================================================== https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/300956 How to rebuild performance counters on Windows Vista/Server2008/7/Server2008R2 ============================================================================== http://blogs.technet.com/b/yongrhee/archive/2009/10/06/how-to-rebuild-performance-counters-on-windows-vista-server2008-7-server2008r2.aspx The Lodctr command ================== https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490926.aspx https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh875560.aspx I'm including a reduction of the above Lodctr docs (in case the link goes stale): """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" USAGE lodctr <filename> [/s:<filename>] [/r:<filename>] [/t:<servicename>] PARAMETERS <filename> - Registers the Performance counter name settings and Explain text provided in initialization file FileName. /s:<filename> - Saves Performance counter registry settings and Explain text to file <filename>. /r - Restores counter registry settings and Explain text from current registry settings and cached performance files related to the registry. This option is available only in the Windows Server 2003 operating system. /r:<filename> - Restores Performance counter registry settings and Explain text from file <filename>. Warning: If you use the lodctr /r command, you will overwrite all Performance counter registry settings and Explain text, replacing them with the configuration defined in the file specified. /t:<servicename> - Indicates that service <servicename> is trusted. /? - Help """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Apparently there's newer versions of this command that support other arguments such as /E, /D, /Q and /M, e.g. LODCTR /E:<Service-Name> enable the performance counter service. LODCTR /D:<Service-Name> disable the performance counter service. LODCTR /Q LODCTR /Q:<Service-Name> query the performance counter service information, either query all or specified one. LODCTR /M:<Counter-Manifest> install Windows Vista performance counter provider definition XML file to system repository. I haven't tried the lodctr command myself, but then I haven't encountered this type of corruption before. But if you encounter this problem and want to fix it without reinstalling the OS, it's surely worth a shot..! |