Citrix ICA Service service crashes on XenDesktop 5.6 VDA (Virtual Desktop Agent) virtual desktop

Problem

You’ve recently installed an application that uses .NET Framework such as the IBM System i Access for Windows:

… and you notice that after the install, the Citrix ICA Service on the virtual desktop no longer starts:

Windows could not start the Citrix ICA Service service on Local Computer.

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

DistributedCOM errors are found in the System event logs:

Event ID: 10010

The server {EFFFADEC-69AE-4CDB-86AF-4FA2B53C5CA5} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

Event ID: 10005

DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service PorticaService with arguments "" in order to run the server:

{EFFFADEC-69AE-4CDB-86AF-4FA2B53C5CA5}

Event ID: 7009

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Citrix ICA Service service to connect.

Event ID: 7000

The Citrix ICA Service service failed to start due to the following error:

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Event ID: 7036

The Citrix Audio Redirection Service service entered the running state.

Solution

The last few times I ran into errors as DCOM errors like these, it was caused by DCOM object permissions that could be fixed via the Computer Services administrative tools:

After searching for the unique IDs referenced in the event logs:

{efffadec-69ae-4cdb-86af-4fa2b53c5ca5}

{f719ecbb-1fb8-4dde-aafa-848f9e1479d4}

… I finally end up finding the Citrix PortICA COM Server DCOM object and noticed that when I switched the Log on as: setting from This account: Local Service to Local System account, the service would start:

While this fixed the issue, it wasn’t really an acceptable resolution due to security reasons and as soon as I switched the setting back to Local Service, the Citrix ICA Service would no longer start:

I proceeded to check the Report.wer logs:

Version=1

EventType=CLR20r3

EventTime=129785356418648736

ReportType=2

Consent=1

ReportIdentifier=500b65f6-830b-11e1-b990-005056816a51

WOW64=1

Response.type=4

Sig[0].Name=Problem Signature 01

Sig[0].Value=picasvc.exe

Sig[1].Name=Problem Signature 02

Sig[1].Value=6.2.100.77

Sig[2].Name=Problem Signature 03

Sig[2].Value=4f43b63c

Sig[3].Name=Problem Signature 04

Sig[3].Value=System.Configuration

Sig[4].Name=Problem Signature 05

Sig[4].Value=2.0.0.0

Sig[5].Name=Problem Signature 06

Sig[5].Value=4ca2ba8c

Sig[6].Name=Problem Signature 07

Sig[6].Value=1a6

Sig[7].Name=Problem Signature 08

Sig[7].Value=136

Sig[8].Name=Problem Signature 09

Sig[8].Value=IOIBMURHYNRXKW0ZXKYRVFN0BOYYUFOW

DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version

DynamicSig[1].Value=6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID

DynamicSig[2].Value=1033

UI[2]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\picaSvc.exe

LoadedModule[0]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\picaSvc.exe

LoadedModule[1]=C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll

LoadedModule[2]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSCOREE.DLL

LoadedModule[3]=C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNEL32.dll

LoadedModule[4]=C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll

LoadedModule[5]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Offline Plugin\system32\radeaphook.dll

LoadedModule[6]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Offline Plugin\system32\CtxSbxHook.DLL

LoadedModule[7]=C:\Windows\syswow64\USER32.dll

LoadedModule[8]=C:\Windows\syswow64\GDI32.dll

LoadedModule[9]=C:\Windows\syswow64\LPK.dll

LoadedModule[10]=C:\Windows\syswow64\USP10.dll

LoadedModule[11]=C:\Windows\syswow64\msvcrt.dll

LoadedModule[12]=C:\Windows\syswow64\ADVAPI32.dll

LoadedModule[13]=C:\Windows\SysWOW64\sechost.dll

LoadedModule[14]=C:\Windows\syswow64\RPCRT4.dll

LoadedModule[15]=C:\Windows\syswow64\SspiCli.dll

LoadedModule[16]=C:\Windows\syswow64\CRYPTBASE.dll

LoadedModule[17]=C:\Windows\syswow64\SHELL32.dll

LoadedModule[18]=C:\Windows\syswow64\SHLWAPI.dll

LoadedModule[19]=C:\Windows\system32\msi.dll

LoadedModule[20]=C:\Windows\syswow64\ole32.dll

LoadedModule[21]=C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL

LoadedModule[22]=C:\Windows\syswow64\MSCTF.dll

LoadedModule[23]=C:\PROGRA~1\Citrix\System32\MFAPHOOK.DLL

LoadedModule[24]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\SCardHook.dll

LoadedModule[25]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\twnhook.dll

LoadedModule[26]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\cxinjime.dll

LoadedModule[27]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorwks.dll

LoadedModule[28]=C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_d09154e044272b9a\MSVCR80.dll

LoadedModule[29]=C:\Windows\system32\profapi.dll

LoadedModule[30]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\mscorlib\a1a82db68b3badc7c27ea1f6579d22c5\mscorlib.ni.dll

LoadedModule[31]=C:\Windows\system32\CRYPTSP.dll

LoadedModule[32]=C:\Windows\system32\rsaenh.dll

LoadedModule[33]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorjit.dll

LoadedModule[34]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\Citrix.Utils.Diagnostics.dll

LoadedModule[35]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\System\abab08afa60a6f06bdde0fcc9649c379\System.ni.dll

LoadedModule[36]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\System.ServiceProce#\6f2de1cb69aef1946760a70f355a3075\System.ServiceProcess.ni.dll

LoadedModule[37]=C:\Windows\assembly\GAC\Citrix.Diagnostics\1.0.21.0__7110990e26881462\Citrix.Diagnostics.dll

LoadedModule[38]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\System.Configuratio#\66a5094e521e34aecd51e4bae30ac266\System.Configuration.Install.ni.dll

LoadedModule[39]=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\Citrix.Utils.COMServer.dll

LoadedModule[40]=C:\Windows\assembly\GAC\Citrix.Diagnostics.Recorder.Cdf\1.0.21.0__7110990e26881462\Citrix.Diagnostics.Recorder.Cdf.dll

LoadedModule[41]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\System.Configuration\2d5bcbeb9475ef62189f605bcca1cec6\System.Configuration.ni.dll

LoadedModule[42]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_32\System.Xml\130ad4d9719e566ca933ac7158a04203\System.Xml.ni.dll

LoadedModule[43]=C:\Windows\system32\VERSION.dll

LoadedModule[44]=C:\Windows\system32\apphelp.dll

FriendlyEventName=Stopped working

ConsentKey=CLR20r3

AppName=Citrix PortICA Controller

AppPath=C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICAService\picaSvc.exe

ReportDescription=Stopped working

Then the other logs found in the directory C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue:

… yet still wasn’t able to figure out where the problem was.

After running out of ideas, I suddenly had the thought that perhaps I should check the Microsoft.NET Framework folders to see if anything was out of the ordinary:

Probably due to pure luck, I decided to start resetting the permissions on each folder while trying to restart the Citrix ICA Service service and noticed that as soon as I reset the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 folder, the service would begin to start:

I’m not exactly sure why taking ownership and then propagating the security settings from the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 folder fixed the issue but my guess is that the IBM application somehow modified the original folder permissions that the Citrix VDA relied on the folder thus preventing it from being able to properly access the files it needed.