Endpoint Protection

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  • 1.  SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Jan 14, 2008 09:52 AM
    SAV 10.1.5.5000 on Win XP SP2 & WS 2003 R2 SP2 clients, WS2003 R2 SP2 servers.
     
    When I browse folders of DFS shares, after navigating through 8 or 10 folders, Explorer starts to slow down enumerating folder contents. If I continue, it hangs after a few more folders.
     
    Simultaneously, when Explorer is in this state, when I type a command line in Start/Run or the Address Bar of an Explorer window, there is a pause of a second or two between each character being displayed.
     
    Terminating and re-launching Explorer from Task Manager returns performance to normal...until next time. 100% reproducible.
     
    "Trust files on remote computers running Auto-Protect" is turned on. But the problem persists with "Network Scanning" turned off, and even with "Enable Auto-Protect" turned off.
     
    If I stop the Symantec Antivirus service, I can browse DFS folders indefinitely without the Explorer slowdown or hang, so it's definitely something happening with SAV.
     
    SAV KB 2007092810113448 says to apply MSKB 906866 hotfix. Per MSKB 906866, hotfix is only relevant if you have more than 3 file-system protection products running. We have only SAV. Regardless, the HF is included in WS2003 SP2, so I added the registry entry and rebooted. No change.


    Message Edited by Jeff Vandervoort on 01-14-2008 09:11 AM


  • 2.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 07, 2008 11:16 AM
    We are seeing the exact same problem - we had been blaming dfs for years - congratulations on finding the true culprit.  Interestingly we find that if we restart the symantec services (all of them) the problem goes away and stays fixed for a while.  I dont know what triggers the problem in the first place.


  • 3.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 07, 2008 11:34 AM
    Haven't tried restarting all SAV services, just "Symantec Antivirus" service.
     
    Sure would be nice to hear from a Symantec tech on this. Wonder if Symantec Endpoint Security 11 will be any better? My client has just purchased the upgrade so I guess I'll know soon.


  • 4.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 07, 2008 03:38 PM
    I am logging an official support call now that we have a definite clue as to cause. I will see what they have to say.


  • 5.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 07, 2008 03:52 PM
    One other observation FWIW: If you watch explorer.exe's memory usage in Taskman while browsing, the slowdown happens noticeably around 20MB, and the hang around 23MB. I don't know if that's what's tripping up SAV, but it's pretty consistent.
     
    With Symantec Antivirus service disabled, explorer.exe takes more and more RAM as you browse (and sometimes gives some back) but it can grow to whatever size it needs to without any problems.
     
    If you get anything interesting from support, please post back. Likewise I'll update this thread when we update to ES11 (not sure of the scheduling on that).


  • 6.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 08, 2008 07:11 PM
    Did you try turning OFF the network scaning that is done everytime you highlite a file in Explorer?
     
    Open SAV, select Configure, File System Auto-Protect.
     
    Make sure "enable scanning" is unchecked.


  • 7.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Feb 08, 2008 07:47 PM
    That was what I was referring to when I said I disabled Network Scanning in my original post. And as I also said, I went further and turned off Auto-Protect entirely, both without any effect on the problem. Stopping the Symantec Antivirus service is the only thing I've found that helps.


  • 8.  RE: SAV CE hangs Explorer browsing DFS shares

    Posted Jun 04, 2008 06:29 PM
    I said I'd report back after we upgraded to SEP 11. I now have 1 managed SEP Win XP SP3 x86 computer on SEP11, and 1 managed SEP WS2008 x64 server. I browsed the DFS share back and forth for several minutes on both, focusing mostly on the XP client since that's our "pain point".
     
    Explorer memory usage at that point was over 45MB on XP--far larger than I could get with SAV. There was no Explorer slowdown, and Start/Run was responsive.
     
    Too little experience at this point to pronounce it cured, but my preliminary conclusion is that the DFS bug has been fixed in SEP 11.
     
    I'll try to remember to post back after users have been hammering on it for a while.