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Question
Friday, September 10, 2010 8:41 PM
We run a single Windows a 64-bit 2008 Server Standard Edition SP 1 print server. This server hosts approximately 400 print queues from a variety of vendors. To share these printers we use roughly 75 different drivers which allows both 32 and 64 bit versions of XP, Vista and Windows 7 clients to print through the server.
We have begun noticing an issue with 0KB .SHD and .SPL files in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS folder which are causing excessive CPU utilization. We have been manually removing this file, which restores the CPU utilization to normal, but the files quickly return. Our understanding is that these files are either remints of completed jobs that were not properly deleted or files from malformed print jobs (due to corrupt print jobs). Many times we can open these files in a text editor and see details about the job, such as the user and destination print queue, other times file in unreadable. When the file is unreadable it appears that it may still print properly, e.g. just because we are unable to read the file does not mean it is a corrupt print job.
Based on research we have found several scripted solutions that will periodically remove 0KB filed from the spooler. However, this requires stopping and re-starting print services on the server. We are seeing 0KB files appear in increments of as little to 5 to 10 minutes. We do not want to stop the server that often. We are looking for a method to determine the origin of these files, and potentially what is causing their failure. Ideally, we would like to do this from the files themselves, but are willing to do this through supplemental logging on the printers. E.G. Track the time stamp on the file back to print jobs in the Windows Event log.
Any information, suggestions, or recommendation on parsing or preventing these files would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
All replies (4)
Friday, September 10, 2010 10:55 PM ✅Answered
The filenames begining with F are reused by the spooler for new print jobs rather than creating a new file. This is the file pool feature implemented in Server 2003. The shd file contains scheduling and user data, the spl file is the actual spooled print job. The spooler will hang onto these for 15 minutes before deleting them. Yes I have seen these hang out longer, normally due to an outstanding handle reference to the file. You can disable file pooling and see if this sheads additional light on the issue.
Add a DWORD to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print with the name DisableServerFilePooling. Set this to 1 and restart the spooler. You will see the name difference. I'm hoping this tracks back to a specific printer or vendor. The file will not be deleted until all outstanding handle references are zero.
File pool can be disabled on a per printer basis as well but it means setting a key on each printer.
current directory from a server that processes about 35000 jobs each day.
09/10/2010 03:03 PM <DIR> .
09/10/2010 03:03 PM <DIR> ..
09/07/2010 12:28 PM 0 FP03827.SHD
09/07/2010 03:11 PM 12,060,574 FP03827.SPL
09/07/2010 03:20 PM 0 FP03992.SHD
09/07/2010 04:53 PM 262,144 FP03992.SPL
09/07/2010 03:28 PM 0 FP04055.SHD
09/07/2010 04:53 PM 5,377,445 FP04055.SPL
09/07/2010 04:35 PM 0 FP04142.SHD
09/07/2010 04:53 PM 524,288 FP04142.SPL
09/07/2010 06:26 PM 0 FP04222.SHD
09/07/2010 07:03 PM 888,832 FP04222.SPL
09/08/2010 12:32 PM 0 FP04549.SHD
09/08/2010 01:08 PM 7,892,281 FP04549.SPL
09/08/2010 02:28 PM 0 FP04809.SHD
09/08/2010 03:25 PM 986,979 FP04809.SPL
09/08/2010 03:35 PM 0 FP04882.SHD
09/08/2010 04:03 PM 1,310,720 FP04882.SPL
09/09/2010 08:52 AM 0 FP05109.SHD
09/09/2010 09:07 AM 2,428,928 FP05109.SPL
09/09/2010 11:39 AM 0 FP05303.SHD
09/09/2010 12:29 PM 5,504,904 FP05303.SPL
09/09/2010 11:36 AM 0 FP05310.SHD
09/09/2010 02:23 PM 7,851,641 FP05310.SPL
09/09/2010 12:26 PM 0 FP05371.SHD
09/09/2010 12:26 PM 741,671 FP05371.SPL
09/10/2010 07:02 AM 0 FP05839.SHD
09/10/2010 07:02 AM 0 FP05839.SPL
09/10/2010 07:01 AM 0 FP05854.SHD
09/10/2010 07:01 AM 0 FP05854.SPL
09/10/2010 11:04 AM 0 FP06014.SHD
09/10/2010 11:04 AM 304,701 FP06014.SPL
09/10/2010 10:22 AM 0 FP06030.SHD
09/10/2010 10:45 AM 5,948,621 FP06030.SPL
09/10/2010 10:28 AM 0 FP06060.SHD
09/10/2010 10:52 AM 10,747,904 FP06060.SPL
09/10/2010 10:51 AM 0 FP06117.SHD
09/10/2010 10:51 AM 223,233 FP06117.SPL
09/10/2010 10:54 AM 0 FP06125.SHD
09/10/2010 10:54 AM 223,233 FP06125.SPL
09/10/2010 11:50 AM 0 FP06143.SHD
09/10/2010 12:02 PM 1,572,864 FP06143.SPL
09/10/2010 11:58 AM 0 FP06174.SHD
09/10/2010 12:07 PM 262,144 FP06174.SPL
09/10/2010 12:53 PM 0 FP06197.SHD
09/10/2010 12:55 PM 35,217,180 FP06197.SPL
09/10/2010 12:31 PM 0 FP06203.SHD
09/10/2010 12:31 PM 76,560,400 FP06203.SPL
09/10/2010 12:37 PM 0 FP06207.SHD
09/10/2010 12:37 PM 0 FP06207.SPL
09/10/2010 12:44 PM 0 FP06218.SHD
09/10/2010 12:44 PM 327,118 FP06218.SPL
09/10/2010 12:50 PM 0 FP06220.SHD
09/10/2010 12:50 PM 327,119 FP06220.SPL
09/10/2010 12:55 PM 0 FP06226.SHD
09/10/2010 12:56 PM 9,440,995 FP06226.SPL
09/10/2010 12:55 PM 0 FP06231.SHD
09/10/2010 12:55 PM 0 FP06231.SPL
09/10/2010 01:16 PM 0 FP06248.SHD
09/10/2010 01:16 PM 0 FP06248.SPL
09/10/2010 01:20 PM 0 FP06249.SHD
09/10/2010 01:20 PM 0 FP06249.SPL
09/10/2010 01:29 PM 0 FP06251.SHD
09/10/2010 01:29 PM 676,388 FP06251.SPL
09/10/2010 01:24 PM 0 FP06252.SHD
09/10/2010 01:24 PM 485,568 FP06252.SPL
09/10/2010 01:27 PM 0 FP06257.SHD
09/10/2010 01:27 PM 575,315 FP06257.SPL
09/10/2010 01:56 PM 0 FP06268.SHD
09/10/2010 01:56 PM 0 FP06268.SPL
09/10/2010 01:44 PM 0 FP06272.SHD
09/10/2010 01:44 PM 0 FP06272.SPL
09/10/2010 02:08 PM 0 FP06275.SHD
09/10/2010 02:08 PM 568,050 FP06275.SPL
09/10/2010 02:01 PM 0 FP06280.SHD
09/10/2010 02:01 PM 665,688 FP06280.SPL
09/10/2010 02:04 PM 0 FP06292.SHD
09/10/2010 02:04 PM 12,060,384 FP06292.SPL
09/10/2010 02:07 PM 0 FP06297.SHD
09/10/2010 02:07 PM 697,481 FP06297.SPL
09/10/2010 02:17 PM 0 FP06303.SHD
09/10/2010 02:17 PM 4,266,285 FP06303.SPL
09/10/2010 02:36 PM 0 FP06314.SHD
09/10/2010 02:36 PM 12,049,046 FP06314.SPL
09/10/2010 02:34 PM 0 FP06320.SHD
09/10/2010 02:34 PM 568,052 FP06320.SPL
09/10/2010 02:39 PM 0 FP06325.SHD
09/10/2010 02:39 PM 0 FP06325.SPL
09/10/2010 02:40 PM 0 FP06326.SHD
09/10/2010 02:45 PM 3,545,319 FP06326.SPL
09/10/2010 02:41 PM 0 FP06331.SHD
09/10/2010 02:41 PM 12,049,046 FP06331.SPL
09/10/2010 02:41 PM 0 FP06333.SHD
09/10/2010 02:41 PM 568,052 FP06333.SPL
09/10/2010 02:43 PM 0 FP06335.SHD
09/10/2010 02:43 PM 0 FP06335.SPL
09/10/2010 02:45 PM 0 FP06342.SHD
09/10/2010 02:45 PM 1,654,453 FP06342.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06344.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06344.SPL
09/10/2010 02:51 PM 0 FP06347.SHD
09/10/2010 02:51 PM 2,929,325 FP06347.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06351.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06351.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06353.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06353.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06355.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06355.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06356.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06356.SPL
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06358.SHD
09/10/2010 03:04 PM 0 FP06358.SPL
09/10/2010 03:03 PM 0 FP06359.SHD
09/10/2010 03:03 PM 0 FP06359.SPL
03/04/2010 01:13 PM 23,855,104 Tcp2995.tmp
02/25/2010 03:58 PM 0 Tcp442E.tmp
03/04/2010 01:11 PM 70,808,047 TcpD0F6.tmp
121 File(s) 335,007,522 bytes
Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1
Friday, September 10, 2010 10:56 PM
I also suggest placing the spool directory into a disk other than the system disk. Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1
Thursday, September 30, 2010 1:19 PM
Hi Alan,
Thank you for the additional information. Sorry for the delay in updating this inquiry, I have been out of the office.
We have made the recommended changes and are now seeing two different naming conventions of the files in the spooler: Fxxxxxx.SHD\SPL and 000XX.SHD\SPL
We are now receiving 0KB files under both naming conventions. We are able to view some of these files from with-in the spool folder using notepad, however for others we receive the following error: **The process cannot access the file because it is being use by another process. ** Even if we copy these files to another location we are unable to view their contents as they are 0KB files and appear to contain no data. Even after the registry change these 0KB files remain for up to 24 hours.
I was hoping that you could clarify a few things:
1. Could you elaborate on how we are supposed to track these 0KB files back to their respective origin or determine the outstanding handle reference?
2. Could you clarify by what you mean by moving the spooler to a separate disk? Our server has three physical disks in a RAID 5 configuration with two volumes System (C:) and Data (D:). For performance do you mean that the spooler should be on its’ own physical disk or do you mean it we should just relocate the spooler to its own volume (D:) off the system volume (C:)
3. We are having other unusual issues on this particular print server as well. We are unable to print to CNAME as documented in the following forum discussion: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/98608736-9553-4802-8a39-d4952d2228d8
Do you feel that unusual behavior exhibited on by this server could in anyway be related?
Any information you can provide would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Dennis
Friday, September 28, 2018 10:33 AM
Hi Dennis,
Do you have any updates on this issue.
Even I am facing similiar 0KB files issue in Print Queue.