Windows Server 2016 users profiles issues

Nico N 26 Reputation points
2021-06-02T16:12:01.29+00:00

Hello,

I have an issue with WIndows Server 2016. When I attempt to connect to it, I am not able to login with any user. I have the following error "The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in. User Profile cannot be loaded". I have tried running sfc /scannow or the DISM command but not luck. If I do sfc /scannow it will show Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation. If I attempt to do DISM command it starts and then stops saying there is insufficient resources. I tried to use both commands on safe mode but no luck. Sometimes I can RDP but the profile as a temporary.

The Windows server machine is a VM on Azure. If someone has some ideas what can I do.

I have already changed the registry. I have created the PoolUsageMaximum DWORD with 60 value as a decimal and PoolSize as a ffffffff but nothing happens.

I also have trusted installer as a manual and started it and no luck.

Thank you,

Nico

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  1. Olga Os - MSFT 5,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2021-06-02T19:46:20.91+00:00

    Hey @Nico N ,

    I am sorry to hear you have the connectivity issue when you attempt to RDP to the VM.

    Kindly review information what I was able to find to help you troubleshoot the issue.

    You are getting the following error:

    101806-image.png

    Root Cause:

    The default profile has some issue and the OS is unable to create a new local profile for that session. This could happened if the default profile is either:

    • corrupted
    • has the wrong set of ACLs
    • has any installer that was left over while the image was created

    Note:

    • If this is happening only with a single user, then the corrupted profile is from that user. You could still logging with any other account and troubleshoot.
    • If the VM was built from Dynamics NAV 2016 marketplace image, this issue with the default profile was already identified and I'll share troubleshooting steps below.

    First, you want to review the guest os logs to find the associated failed RDP attempts. Search for events 1511, 1500, 9009. Most likely you will find these events with the description similar to: "Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off."

    Second, backup os disk before doing any troubleshooting.

    Third, if this is the ARM VM, follow up below steps to troubleshoot the issue via the Serial Console.

    1) Open a CMD instance and query the list of the user profile reference on the registry and take notes of the branches that ends up with the appendix .BAK

    reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList" /s | more  
    

    2) Before doing any change, do a backup of the registry key, then proceed to delete the branches with the .BAK suffix

    reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<GUID>.BAK"  
    

    3) Retry and if you still have issues or if the OS is creating a Temporal profile, then go ahead and perform a deeper cleanup by manually deleting the branches without the appendix .BAK however 'do not remove the builtin accounts profiles with the GUIDs S-1-5-18, S-1-5-19 and S-1-5-20

    reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<GUID>"  
    

    4) You don't need to restart the VM, retry again.

    If this VM was built from the Dynamics NAV 2016 marketplace image then remove the folder C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer

    1) Open a CMD instance and delete the Web Platform Installer folder on the default profile:

    del "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer" /s /f  
    

    2) For any other case, you could try copying the Default profile from a healthy VM
    2.1) Rename the Default profile folder for backup purposes

    cp c:\users\default c:\users\default.OLD  
    

    2.2) Get another machine with the same OS and roles/workload

    • For an IIS server, this will be another IIS server from the same IIS farm
    • For a Remote Desktop Session Host server, this will be another server from the same RDS farm, etc

    2.3) Copy the Default profile folder and mark it as hidden

    2.4) Retry the access

    Reference:
    Windows Troubleshooting: How to Remove a Corrupted User Profile from the Registry


    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Sincerely,
    Olga O

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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4 additional answers

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  1. Nico N 26 Reputation points
    2021-06-03T22:53:15.96+00:00

    Thank you for the answer @olgaoos. I will follow your steps and I will let you know if I had some luck.


  2. Nico N 26 Reputation points
    2021-06-14T14:41:14.083+00:00

    Hello @olgaoos!

    I am doing good, thanks for asking.

    I was able to resolve the problem using the step 1,2,3. I only did the registry part. However, now I have another issue.

    If I login to the machine via RDP, after I click sign out if I attempt to log again I have this error. 105420-error-rdp.png

    But I have no more errors on the event viewer. If I restart the machine I am able to get on. I guess is a problem with the RDP service now.


  3. Nico N 26 Reputation points
    2021-06-14T20:04:17.863+00:00

    Hello @ssinsk ,

    This problem happens very often, because if I disconnect I cannot reconnect. I have tried to connect with different users and I have same error or black screen. At this moment the RDP client attempts to connect but does not do anything. I will have to restart the server after hours to connect again.

    Thank you,
    Nico


  4. Nico N 26 Reputation points
    2021-06-16T15:01:47.587+00:00

    Hello @ssinsk

    I am not having any heavy CPU and memory usage. At this point I think I will build a new machine because it has been a while with these issues.

    Sincerely,

    Nicolas

    Note: You can close this topic because I do not think we cannot do anything else.


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