PVS Gold image Admin shares fix

I was recently working on some PVS image issues where the Admin shares stopped working.  If that does not ring a bell, you access them like \\hostname\c$.

This was crucial for us for several reasons including utilizing AV scans as well as monitoring solutions such as ControlUP which is a great utility for monitoring your XenApp infrastructure.  You can read more about it by following this link.

Environment:

• Windows 2008 R2/Windows 2003 SP3
• Citrix XenApp 6.5/5.0 & Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
• Windows 2003/2008/Win 7

Issue:

Windows Admin shares will stop working when the image was set to read only mode.

Fix:

• Open the registry editor on the machine you cannot connect to by clicking on Start, Run
• Type REGEDIT and press Enter, then go to the key below

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanserver\Parameters

• In the right-hand portion of the Registry Editor look for a key called IRPStackSize
• If the key exists, double-click on it and increase the decimal value to 15 and click OK.
• Close the Registry Editor, reboot the computer and try to connect to the network share. If you are still unable to connect follow the above steps again and increase the decimal number for IRPStackSize by 5 and try again.

Continue to do this until the stack size is large enough to permit access. Personally, I had to increase the number to 25 before I could connect. The decimal range for the parameter is between 11 and 50.

• If the IRPStackSize key DOES NOT exist in the right-hand column of the registry editor, then click on right-click in the blank area in the right-hand column and choose New
• Then Click on D-Word under the Key column
• In the Name of the new key, type the name IRPStackSize and press Enter. Type the name with the correct capitalization as shown above.
• Now double-click on the IRPStackSize key and type 15 in the value data box and place a dot next to Decimal then click Ok.
• Close the registry editor and reboot the computer. Try to access the network share again. If the same error appears follow the steps above to increase the value and reboot again. Continue this procedure until the problem is resolved. The decimal range for the parameter is between 11 and 50.