Unable to Shut Down the W3SVC Service Properly

ID: Q252408

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you try to stop the W3SVC service, the following error message occurs:

The World Wide Web Publishing Service service could not be stopped

In the task list, you can see that the Inetinfo.exe process still exists. You cannot restart W3SVC without stopping the InetInfo.exe process first.

CAUSE

When shutting down, the W3SVC service first tries to close all existing TCP/IP client sessions. For each pending connection, the W3SVC shutdown code waits until the "active" user requests is finished. When all TCP/IP sessions have been closed, W3SVC can then shut down all running ISAPI applications.

If a Web client has a file download in progress and does not read the entire server response, then the TCP connection cannot be closed quickly and the W3SVC cannot shut down in the timeframe registered with the Windows NT Service Control Manager (SCM). This time is 120 seconds by default. The Windows NT SCM then displays the error message.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Windows NT service pack that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:


   Date      Time    Version       Size    File name     Platform
   -------------------------------------------------------------
   01/21/00  22:20   4.2.0738      185,760 Infocomm.dll  x86
   01/21/00  22:19   4.2.0738       47,936 Isatq.dll     x86
   01/21/00  22:21   4.2.0738       38,256 Ssinc.dll     x86
   01/21/00  22:21   4.2.0738       25,360 Sspifilt.dll  x86
   01/21/00  22:20   4.2.0738      228,480 W3svc.dll     x86
   01/21/00  22:20   4.2.0738       87,520 Wam.dll       x86
   01/21/00  22:20   4.2.0738      304,400 Infocomm.dll  alpha
   01/21/00  22:19   4.2.0738       82,704 Isatq.dll     alpha
   01/21/00  22:21   4.2.0738       60,176 Ssinc.dll     alpha
   01/21/00  22:21   4.2.0738       39,696 Sspifilt.dll  alpha
   01/21/00  22:21   4.2.0738      383,760 W3svc.dll     alpha
   01/21/00  22:20   4.2.0738      150,288 Wam.dll       alpha

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Internet Information Server 4.0.

MORE INFORMATION

The fix forces the closure of the TCP/IP sockets when the W3SVC service is ending. However, because IIS 4.0 allows an ISAPI application to process a request on an arbitrary thread, there is no way to notify these threads to shut down. The following new new registry parameter "mSecWAMTimeoutLoop" has been added to allow these threads to finish their work properly:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3svc\Parameters
Value name    : mSecWAMTimeoutLoop (ms)
Value type    : REG_DWORD
Default value : 200 ms

If some ISAPI requests are still executing, WAM shutdown will wait a maximum of 10*mSecWAMTimeoutLoop milliseconds before shutting down.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : winnt:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug