Offline Files service consuming CPU

[GOD]

I'm running Windows Vista Business 32 bit, 2 GB RAM, connected to a
SBS 2003 R2 domain.

I am having a problem where the Offline Files service consumes 100%
CPU on a regular schedule - say every 2 minutes for about 2 minutes.

I am constantly connected (desktop PC) to a SBS Server 2003 R2, with
folder redirection configured on the My Documents folder. My
Documents contains about 40GB of files.

I have configured Offline Files as Windows Search was not indexing the
My Documents folder when it was simply redirected.

Question is:
Why does the Offline Files service repeatedly consume my CPU resources?

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Since you are GOD, why don't you just fix it?

 

[Doris Day - MFB]

Since you are GOD, why don't you just fix it?

Even GOD feels that if He's paid for this p.o.s., the manufacturer should
help him fix it. But, I guess, as with all things Fista, it is the
end-users fault/responsibility.

Love and Kisses,
Doris

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

I talked to one of our Offline Files developers about this and here are his
suggestions:


Could be one of a couple of things:

1. Could be the Offline Files service filling in sparsely-cached files or
looking for sparsely-cached files that need to be filled. Although, that
runs every 5 minutes, not every 2 minutes.

2. Every 2 minutes we do try to transition any offline scopes to online and,
when reconnected, we perform a sync of the reconnected scope. If the
customer has an environment with an unreliable network, it's possible that
scopes are transitioning offline/online frequently and suffering the cost of
the subsequent sync operation ever 2 minutes.

Is the concern that the CPU is being used at all or that the processing is
preventing other necessary processing from happening?

Look in the Offline Files "Operational" event log and see if frequent
PathDisconnected and PathReconnected events are appearing. (Note that the
"Operational" event channel may need to be enabled. Just right-click on the
word "Operational" in the tree view and click "Enable log". )


Event Viewer
Applications and Service Logs
Microsoft
Windows
OfflineFiles

Look for these two events:

PathDisconnected
Value: 9
Text: Path disconnected \n<UNC path>
This event is generated when the CSC driver notifies the CSC service that a
particular online scope has transitioned to "offline".
PathReconnected
Value: 10
Text: Path reconnected \n<UNC path>
This event is generated when the CSC driver notifies the CSC service that a
particular offline scope has transitioned to "online".
If we see lots of these in the event log, it supports theory #2 above.

 

[Seth Bell]

Hi Jill,

Thanks for your response.

I was mistaken (it was an estimate) with the period of the symptom.
As you suggested, it occurs every 5 mins. So we can assume its the
Offline Files service filling in sparsely-cached files or looking for
sparsely-cached files that need to be filled. Sorry about the
confusion.

It is not causing major problems, just performance suffers for about a
minute each 5 mins. I find that annoying. Being a perfectionist I
guess. Still, would like a solution if there is one! Let me know
your thoughts.

Regards,

Seth.

PS: the God thing was a legacy from previous group membership. Gone
now.