Win2K Task Scheduler says running but it's not

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Frankenbach
  • Start date Start date
D

David Frankenbach

Ever since we applied the latest round of Windows Updates to a Win2K machine
the task scheduled on the box will fire off at the scheduled time and the
status displays as Running, but the program is in fact NOT running. The exe
had been running flawlessly once a week for the last 5 years. I know it's
not really running because the first thing it does is create a log file and
begins writing progress information into it. It shows up as a _process_ in
taskman, but not as an _application_.

If I double click the exe from windows explorer it runs fine.

We've been through a couple of reboots, stopping/restarting the scheduler,
deleting the task and setting it back up again, verified that the Run As
credentials are correct, nothing has worked. We've even tried setting up a
new task that just launches Notepad.exe or Calc.exe and they exhibit the
same behavior.

Is there a hotfix for the now quite broken scheduler? Some obtuse
configuration that needs to be changed? A registry hack?

df
 
Scheduled Tasks|Advanced|View Log may provide some details. If the job
connects to another machine you may need to add the user/ group 'logon as
batch job' rights (server side). Control Panel|Admin Tools|Local Security
Policy\Local Policies\User Rights Assignments
"Log on as a batch job"

Remember that if it involves network resources to make sure the user account
has permissions to the resources and also use UNC paths as mapped drives
won't exist when no one is logged on.

This article may help.

Result Codes in Scheduled Tasks Indicate an Error Occurred in the Task
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q267031

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Ever since we applied the latest round of Windows Updates to a Win2K
machine
| the task scheduled on the box will fire off at the scheduled time and the
| status displays as Running, but the program is in fact NOT running. The
exe
| had been running flawlessly once a week for the last 5 years. I know it's
| not really running because the first thing it does is create a log file
and
| begins writing progress information into it. It shows up as a _process_ in
| taskman, but not as an _application_.
|
| If I double click the exe from windows explorer it runs fine.
|
| We've been through a couple of reboots, stopping/restarting the scheduler,
| deleting the task and setting it back up again, verified that the Run As
| credentials are correct, nothing has worked. We've even tried setting up a
| new task that just launches Notepad.exe or Calc.exe and they exhibit the
| same behavior.
|
| Is there a hotfix for the now quite broken scheduler? Some obtuse
| configuration that needs to be changed? A registry hack?
|
| df
|
|
 
Dave,

The task log shows no errors on the job. All of the network resources are
available. Like I said the task starts, except it's now stating as a process
and not an application, and that appears to be what is preventing the exe
from actually working.

The Run As user is already set as Log on as batch job.

df
 
If the task has some gui that must interact with the desktop then it may not
be possible or at least the task would need to be scheduled with an account
that is going to logged on at the time of execution. It sounds like Task
Scheduler is successfully starting the process but the resources are not
available for the application to succeed.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| The task log shows no errors on the job. All of the network resources are
| available. Like I said the task starts, except it's now stating as a
process
| and not an application, and that appears to be what is preventing the exe
| from actually working.
|
| The Run As user is already set as Log on as batch job.
|
| df
 
Dave,

The Run As user is the currently logged in user of the machine. What changed
at the O/S level in in the patches that came out 3 weeks ago that has broken
this 5 year old process?

df
 
Not a clue really. All I can say is it appears that Task Scheduler is
successfully starting the process but the resources are not available for
the application to succeed. You might get in touch with the developer to see
if they support the application running in this manner.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| The Run As user is the currently logged in user of the machine. What
changed
| at the O/S level in in the patches that came out 3 weeks ago that has
broken
| this 5 year old process?
|
| df
 
Dave,

I am the developer of the exe... if it was a resources issue the exe would
not run correctly when double clicked from windows explorer.

I just want the freaking O/S and Task Scheduler to run it just like it had
for more than 1,500 times prior to the patches Microsoft sent out at the end
of August.

df
 
Seems you'll need to uninstall them till you figure out what is hanging up
your app. I don't think Task Scheduler is the problem here though.

You didn't mention the language or the details of your app but you might
have better luck asking in one of the development groups and or data access
groups if that's the process.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| I am the developer of the exe... if it was a resources issue the exe would
| not run correctly when double clicked from windows explorer.
|
| I just want the freaking O/S and Task Scheduler to run it just like it had
| for more than 1,500 times prior to the patches Microsoft sent out at the
end
| of August.
|
| df
 
Dave,

Sorry, but are you really even reading these messages? Currently the task
scheduler won't even correctly run a job that launches notepad.exe!

The details of the real job which was written in Visual FoxPro are pretty
irrelevant. If it was our 5 year old exe that was all of the sudden
misbehaving it wouldn't run from double clicking the exe in Windows
Explorer... which is exactly what I've had to do the last three Saturdays
because Microsoft has broken something in mstask.exe.

df
 
Dave,

Microsoft did not send out any patches at the end or August, nor any
three weeks ago. There were patches on the second Tuesday of Aug,
which was the 9th. If you patching schedule is a little lagging, then you
may have also installed the W2k post SP4 Update Rollup at that time
even though it was release mid-July.
That v1 release of the rollup did have some issues, but I do not recall
hearing of any issue similar to your description. A v2 release was made
this Tuesday.

On my W2k systems that are fully up-to-date patch-wise I am not
experiencing issues with scheduled tasks (other than the GUI reporting
of last result status still being blank, something that happened quite
some time ago).

Have you logged in with the account that is used for the scheduled task
and run the exe ? I know you said you can run it without issue but it
was not clear that was with the scheduled account.
 
OK you're right, I did miss that part about nothing running. What does Event
Viewer have to say about this?

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| Sorry, but are you really even reading these messages? Currently the task
| scheduler won't even correctly run a job that launches notepad.exe!
|
| The details of the real job which was written in Visual FoxPro are pretty
| irrelevant. If it was our 5 year old exe that was all of the sudden
| misbehaving it wouldn't run from double clicking the exe in Windows
| Explorer... which is exactly what I've had to do the last three Saturdays
| because Microsoft has broken something in mstask.exe.
|
| df
 
Roger,

Since this machine is a running process box as part of a much larger
network, no, we don't have automatic updates turned on. Machines go through
scheduled maintence cycles where updates are applied. I just checked the box
right now and there are no high priority updates to install. DirectX 9.0c
and Windows Media Player 9 are the only available updates to install and
they are not likely to ever be installed because this is a server not a
desktop machine. From the WindowsUpdate.log file the most recent updates it
went through updates were on 7/26, 8/17, 8/18, 8/29, 9/6, 9/13 and 9/16.
Everything since the 8/29 update have been our attempts to resolve this task
scheduler problem. Because the first failure to run that we had was the 9/3
run of the job.

How can I tell if the v2 rollup was applied?

The real task has a Run As user which is the same user that is always logged
into the machine.

When I run the exe from explorer it is running as the currently logged in
user.

Can you try setting up a brand new task to launch notepad, either schedule
it to run in a couple of minutes or right click and select run and see what
happens?

I'm not sitting at the machine itself it's in a server room in another
building, I connect to it via Remote Desktop from an XP Pro machine over our
network. I use the same user to connect to the machine I don't use my login.

I posted this same message in the universalthread.com before here and
another user in Australia has confirmed that since 8/29 his tasks are
failing in this same fashion.

df (MVP Visual FoxPro)
 
Dave,

No errors in either application, security or system log. We see a successful
login when any job is started and it goes to a running state and shows as a
"process" in taskman, we see a successful logout when right click the job
and choose end task from the scheduler.

The task scheduler log shows a successful launch and then the abnormal
termination when we forcefully end it. We can't end it normally because
there is no window to close.

df
 
I would certainly try this again when logged on locally at the console. When
you RDP in you're stealing the local session and strangeness with regards to
Task Scheduler and your app may result.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Roger,
|
| Since this machine is a running process box as part of a much larger
| network, no, we don't have automatic updates turned on. Machines go
through
| scheduled maintence cycles where updates are applied. I just checked the
box
| right now and there are no high priority updates to install. DirectX 9.0c
| and Windows Media Player 9 are the only available updates to install and
| they are not likely to ever be installed because this is a server not a
| desktop machine. From the WindowsUpdate.log file the most recent updates
it
| went through updates were on 7/26, 8/17, 8/18, 8/29, 9/6, 9/13 and 9/16.
| Everything since the 8/29 update have been our attempts to resolve this
task
| scheduler problem. Because the first failure to run that we had was the
9/3
| run of the job.
|
| How can I tell if the v2 rollup was applied?
|
| The real task has a Run As user which is the same user that is always
logged
| into the machine.
|
| When I run the exe from explorer it is running as the currently logged in
| user.
|
| Can you try setting up a brand new task to launch notepad, either schedule
| it to run in a couple of minutes or right click and select run and see
what
| happens?
|
| I'm not sitting at the machine itself it's in a server room in another
| building, I connect to it via Remote Desktop from an XP Pro machine over
our
| network. I use the same user to connect to the machine I don't use my
login.
|
| I posted this same message in the universalthread.com before here and
| another user in Australia has confirmed that since 8/29 his tasks are
| failing in this same fashion.
|
| df (MVP Visual FoxPro)
 
Dave,

If that were true how come the real job doesn't run on Saturday when no one
is RDP'd into it???

When this first happened I came in Monday morning and saw that according to
the scheduler it was still "running" from Saturday, when it in fact never
did really start.

I'll have one of the network guys that has access to the server room try
this locally but I don't have too much hope it'll work for them either.

df
 
I still don't know but I do know that you won't want to attempt trouble
shooting this issue through RDP.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| If that were true how come the real job doesn't run on Saturday when no
one
| is RDP'd into it???
|
| When this first happened I came in Monday morning and saw that according
to
| the scheduler it was still "running" from Saturday, when it in fact never
| did really start.
|
| I'll have one of the network guys that has access to the server room try
| this locally but I don't have too much hope it'll work for them either.
|
| df
 
David said:
Can you try setting up a brand new task to launch notepad,
either schedule it to run in a couple of minutes or right
click and select run and see what happens?
Click to expand...
I did that and it works, no problems.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
inlined . . .

David Frankenbach said:
Roger,

Since this machine is a running process box as part of a much larger
network, no, we don't have automatic updates turned on. Machines go
through scheduled maintence cycles where updates are applied. I just
checked the box right now and there are no high priority updates to
install. DirectX 9.0c and Windows Media Player 9 are the only available
updates to install and they are not likely to ever be installed because
this is a server not a desktop machine.
Click to expand...

That sounds much like my servers . . .
From the WindowsUpdate.log file the most recent updates it went through
updates were on 7/26, 8/17, 8/18, 8/29, 9/6, 9/13 and 9/16.
Click to expand...

Well, turns out 6/28 is when the Update Rollup released in v1 (not July as
I had said, which is actually when it got applied in our prod env) while
v2 came out this Tuesday (and would not install if v1 is there)
I have not yet chased into the new v2 release and ways to confirm
which one has installed, v1 or v2
Everything since the 8/29 update have been our attempts to resolve this
task scheduler problem. Because the first failure to run that we had was
the 9/3 run of the job.
Click to expand...
you started trying to resolve the problem before the first time you
discovered it ?? Anyway, it sounds like the update rollup may have
been on the system for some time before the issue was noticed (?) if
that is the July service. However, if you search for schedule and/or
task in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900345/ you will see that
there were certainly changes for task manager in the Update Rollup.
How can I tell if the v2 rollup was applied?
Click to expand...
The real task has a Run As user which is the same user that is always
logged into the machine.

When I run the exe from explorer it is running as the currently logged in
user.

Can you try setting up a brand new task to launch notepad, either schedule
it to run in a couple of minutes or right click and select run and see
what happens?
Click to expand...
I cannot do that conveniently on a production box right now, but on
a fully serviced W2k server at office I just TS'd, defined sch'd task of
notepad short delay using a non-adm user account for the task but
while logged in with different account. Task started, but notepad did
not show, and looking at taskmanager it showed the process was in
session with different SessionID than that of my then current TS session,
in fact it was in Session ID 0. So, I tried again, with the current login
account and saw the same result.

Now, for my scheduled tasks this is not an issue that they are in
a different session than the (possibly existing) then current login
session, as my tasks do not have a dependency on interactive
session, etc.. However, this is as far as I can recall definitely a
behavior change if it is not all simply due to testing this within
a TS session. I will not be up to office where I have a box with that
version until Monday to test with TS not in the loop.
I'm not sitting at the machine itself it's in a server room in another
building, I connect to it via Remote Desktop from an XP Pro machine over
our network. I use the same user to connect to the machine I don't use my
login.

I posted this same message in the universalthread.com before here and
another user in Australia has confirmed that since 8/29 his tasks are
failing in this same fashion.
Click to expand...

I do not recall anything coming down the pipe in the 8/29 timeframe or
near before, and earlier this week I did do a review of the SUS and WSUS
to see what all had happened between the Aug and Sept patch Tuesdays.
 
Roger said:
/snip)
Well, turns out 6/28 is when the Update Rollup released in v1 (not July as
I had said, which is actually when it got applied in our prod env) while
v2 came out this Tuesday (and would not install if v1 is there)
Click to expand...

I have no problem installing v2 on top of v1.

I have not yet chased into the new v2 release and ways to confirm
which one has installed, v1 or v2
Click to expand...

If %windir%\system32\drivers\mountmgr.sys have version number
5.0.2195.7063, v2 is installed.
 
Roger,
Well, turns out 6/28 is when the Update Rollup released in v1 (not July as
I had said, which is actually when it got applied in our prod env) while
v2 came out this Tuesday (and would not install if v1 is there)
I have not yet chased into the new v2 release and ways to confirm
which one has installed, v1 or v2

you started trying to resolve the problem before the first time you
discovered it ?? Anyway, it sounds like the update rollup may have
been on the system for some time before the issue was noticed (?) if
that is the July service. However, if you search for schedule and/or
task in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900345/ you will see that
there were certainly changes for task manager in the Update Rollup.
Click to expand...

No, the first failure of the job to run correctly was on 9/3. The 9/6
through 9/16 hits in the updatelog were us making sure the box was up to
date. I didn't go back further in time in the log to see what had happened
before 7/26. I can if you think it'd be relevant. But I believe we've
narrowed the problem do to what got pushed out between 8/18 and 8/29. The
job had successful runs on 8/20 and 8/27.

The guy in Australia's job ran every night and his first failure was on 8/29
I'm not sure if he was automatic update or not.

I had been through that KB article, but nothing I saw about scheduler seemed
relevant to this problem. Besides that it's rare for a Fixes KB article to
predict what it's about to break *bg*
I cannot do that conveniently on a production box right now, but on
a fully serviced W2k server at office I just TS'd, defined sch'd task of
notepad short delay using a non-adm user account for the task but
while logged in with different account. Task started, but notepad did
not show, and looking at taskmanager it showed the process was in
session with different SessionID than that of my then current TS session,
in fact it was in Session ID 0. So, I tried again, with the current login
account and saw the same result.

Now, for my scheduled tasks this is not an issue that they are in
a different session than the (possibly existing) then current login
session, as my tasks do not have a dependency on interactive
session, etc.. However, this is as far as I can recall definitely a
behavior change if it is not all simply due to testing this within
a TS session. I will not be up to office where I have a box with that
version until Monday to test with TS not in the loop.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you are able to replicate the problem it's always the first step in
figuring this kind of thing out.

When I get back to the office on Monday I may try moving Spy++ over to that
box and see if I can spelunk around and make sure that this now
non-application status the exe is taking on is causing it to throw an error
which has presented a dialog box to appear that we have no way of seeing.
I'll probably create another couple of quick exes that do one specific
detectable thing to a local file and and network file and connect to the
database server to see if a very simple task can execute and terminate
correctly.
I do not recall anything coming down the pipe in the 8/29 timeframe or
near before, and earlier this week I did do a review of the SUS and WSUS
to see what all had happened between the Aug and Sept patch Tuesdays.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your help!
 
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