Inetinfo.exe running at 100% of CPU capacity
In the last few days our Exchange 2003 server (SP2), running on Windows Server 2003 SP2, has been running very slowly. We've noticed that a process called inetinfo.exe is constantly using 100% or just slightly less than 100% of the CPU's capacity, as well as 500,000k of memory. The process store.exe is similarly running at about 600,000k of memory.
Searching the Internet has turned up lots of suggested causes of this but none seem to apply to us. I've tried disabling our anti-spam software (Sophos PureMessage), our spam filtering software (SurfControl) and a 3rd party application we use called Exclaimer to no avail. We have no backlog of messages in our Exchange queues which would suggest a reverse-NDR attack, and realying is tied down to just four IPs within our network which are rightly permitted to do so. I've also checked that the inetinfo.exe is what it purports to be - it's in C:\Windows\System32\Inetsr
Can anybody suggest anything else to check? I'm out of ideas!
Searching the Internet has turned up lots of suggested causes of this but none seem to apply to us. I've tried disabling our anti-spam software (Sophos PureMessage), our spam filtering software (SurfControl) and a 3rd party application we use called Exclaimer to no avail. We have no backlog of messages in our Exchange queues which would suggest a reverse-NDR attack, and realying is tied down to just four IPs within our network which are rightly permitted to do so. I've also checked that the inetinfo.exe is what it purports to be - it's in C:\Windows\System32\Inetsr
Can anybody suggest anything else to check? I'm out of ideas!
LeeDerbyshire
Inetinfo.exe is the WWW Service, try stopping it in Services, and see if it calms down a bit.
I think someone else may already have answered this
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22144809/inetinfo-exe-aT-100-CPU-Stopping-SMTP.html?anchorAnswerId=18442988#a18442988
Hope that helps.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22144809/inetinfo-exe-aT-100-CPU-Stopping-SMTP.html?anchorAnswerId=18442988#a18442988
Hope that helps.
ASKER
LeeDerbyshire: Stopping the WWW service doesn't seem to make any difference, and in any case we need that service to be running for OWA!
cedarghost: I read that post before posting this question. The Expert's response is based on the fact that the poster was running Exchange 2003 on Windows 2000 and therefore needed to download a 3rd party tool. He/she specifically states that there are things which can be done if Exchange is running on Windows 2003, which ours is, but obviously doesn't state what these are.
cedarghost: I read that post before posting this question. The Expert's response is based on the fact that the poster was running Exchange 2003 on Windows 2000 and therefore needed to download a 3rd party tool. He/she specifically states that there are things which can be done if Exchange is running on Windows 2003, which ours is, but obviously doesn't state what these are.
Yes, it was only suggested as a temporary test, to see if it made any difference. Since it didn't, I would also suggest stopping the SMTP service for a short while at some convenient time, since I think that on an Exchange server, the inetinfo process also hosts SMTP.
ASKER
I'll try stopping the SMTP service after-hours and post whether this makes any difference.
There's a bit more about inetinfo.exe here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/0737de10-72d8-422c-95c7-25901bf700a5.mspx?mfr=true
I'm surprised to see that it doesn't actually host the WWW Service at all.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/0737de10-72d8-422c-95c7-25901bf700a5.mspx?mfr=true
I'm surprised to see that it doesn't actually host the WWW Service at all.
ASKER
Thanks for the additional info. On the basis of that I stopped SMTP, which didn't make any difference. I restarted it, then stopped the IIS Admin service. This stopped all of the dependent services (SMTP, WWW, POP3, HTTL SSL, Routing Engine et al) and the CPU usuage dropped right down to around 0. After restarting the IIS service the CPU starte right back up again so I stopped each of the dependent services one at a time, but the CPU usage never dipped. Looks like the problem is directly related to the IIS Admin service, but I'm still no nearer to knowing how to fix it!
How about if you stop the IIS Admin Service (thus stopping everything else), but then start everything else except IIS Admin? Or is that what you did? I'm not 100% sure from your description. Actually, starting one of the other services may bring IIS Admin up automatically.
ASKER
I actually did the opposite of that - I stopped everything except IIS Admin and the CPU was still getting hammered. Unfortunately I can't try doing the reverse - starting everything except IIS Admin - until 17:00 as this will likely stop email working properly again. However, I suspect you're right that starting all of these dependent services will just start the IIS service, or at the very least I'll be prompted to start it, since they can't run without it.
Well, I think we've established that IIS Admin is unhappy about something. The doc that I linked to in an earlier reply states that the IIS Admin service is responsible for updating the IIS Metabase, which in Server 2003 lives in a file named Metabase.xml in C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsr
ASKER
Nice suggestion but sadly our permissions on that file are exactly the same as yours. We've tried all sorts today, running virus scans on the server and the mail store but nothing has turned up.
Is the file excluded from any on-access virus scanner on the server? There may be a contention issue.
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I'd heard about the Exclaimer memory leaks, but not the CPU problem.
Closed, 500 points refunded.
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