Account Unknown - ?

[BradleyD]

[System properties - User profiles] There is a long list of Account Unknown,
can these just be deleted and not cause any harm. The size of the profiles
vary but the list is longer than the named profiles. Thanks for the assist.

Brad

 

[sen_ismail@web.de]

Re: Account Unknown - ?

Hi,

you should insert more details > if you want some suggestion.

cheers,
Ismail

 

[BradleyD]

Re: Account Unknown - ?



"sen_ismail@web.de" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> you should insert more details > if you want some suggestion.
>
> cheers,
> Ismail
>
>
Not sure what you are suggesting but I will start from the start. There
appears to be a long list of "Account Unknown" under the path - My Computer -
properties - advanced - user profiles - settings. The local profiles are also
listed but there are many of the "account Unknown" profiles listed. Can I
delete these "Account Unknown" profiles? Are they using up resources? What
exactly are they and how can I prevent their creation if they are not
beneficial.

I have 79 of these "Account Unknown" accounts and 100 named user accounts,
all local.

Not sure what additional details you may be looking for, perhaps you could
put your request in the form of a questions. Thanks for any assistance and
knowledge.

Brad

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Re: Account Unknown - ?

=?Utf-8?B?QnJhZGxleUQ=?= <BradleyD@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote on 21 okt 2007 in
microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:

> "sen_ismail@web.de" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> you should insert more details > if you want some suggestion.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Ismail
>>
>>
> Not sure what you are suggesting but I will start from the
> start. There appears to be a long list of "Account Unknown"
> under the path - My Computer - properties - advanced - user
> profiles - settings. The local profiles are also listed but
> there are many of the "account Unknown" profiles listed. Can I
> delete these "Account Unknown" profiles? Are they using up
> resources? What exactly are they and how can I prevent their
> creation if they are not beneficial.
>
> I have 79 of these "Account Unknown" accounts and 100 named user
> accounts, all local.
>
> Not sure what additional details you may be looking for, perhaps
> you could put your request in the form of a questions. Thanks
> for any assistance and knowledge.
>
> Brad

The profile owners are listed as "Account unknown" when the server
isn't able to translate the SID to a friendly username.
Common reasons are:
* account has been deleted, but profile hasn't
* account is not a local account, but a domain account
and there are probably many more.

Unused profiles are not loaded by the system, so they shouldn't
harm.

You can delete them, if you are sure that they don't belong to
domain accounts who might need them later on. Depends on how
important user settings are in your environment.
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[BradleyD]

Re: Account Unknown - ?



"Vera Noest [MVP]" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?QnJhZGxleUQ=?= <BradleyD@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote on 21 okt 2007 in
> microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:
>
> > "sen_ismail@web.de" wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> you should insert more details > if you want some suggestion.
> >>
> >> cheers,
> >> Ismail
> >>
> >>
> > Not sure what you are suggesting but I will start from the
> > start. There appears to be a long list of "Account Unknown"
> > under the path - My Computer - properties - advanced - user
> > profiles - settings. The local profiles are also listed but
> > there are many of the "account Unknown" profiles listed. Can I
> > delete these "Account Unknown" profiles? Are they using up
> > resources? What exactly are they and how can I prevent their
> > creation if they are not beneficial.
> >
> > I have 79 of these "Account Unknown" accounts and 100 named user
> > accounts, all local.
> >
> > Not sure what additional details you may be looking for, perhaps
> > you could put your request in the form of a questions. Thanks
> > for any assistance and knowledge.
> >
> > Brad
>
> The profile owners are listed as "Account unknown" when the server
> isn't able to translate the SID to a friendly username.
> Common reasons are:
> * account has been deleted, but profile hasn't
> * account is not a local account, but a domain account
> and there are probably many more.
>
> Unused profiles are not loaded by the system, so they shouldn't
> harm.
>
> You can delete them, if you are sure that they don't belong to
> domain accounts who might need them later on. Depends on how
> important user settings are in your environment.
> _________________________________________________________
> Vera Noest
> MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
> TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
> ___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___
>
Interesting. Thank you for the insight. I know I have profiles and user
accounts that are not in sync. When a user is deleted the profile does not
appear to be deleted automatically, this would make sense since the TS is a
member server and not an AD server. Putting balance between the user accounts
and the AD accounts should reduce the number of these "Account Unknown"
instances. I will get the cleanup process underway. Do these "Account
Unknown" consume TS resources, other than the disk space they consume?

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Re: Account Unknown - ?

=?Utf-8?B?QnJhZGxleUQ=?= <BradleyD@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote on 22 okt 2007 in
microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:

>
>
> "Vera Noest [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> =?Utf-8?B?QnJhZGxleUQ=?= <BradleyD@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> wrote on 21 okt 2007 in
>> microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:
>>
>> > "sen_ismail@web.de" wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> you should insert more details > if you want some
>> >> suggestion.
>> >>
>> >> cheers,
>> >> Ismail
>> >>
>> >>
>> > Not sure what you are suggesting but I will start from the
>> > start. There appears to be a long list of "Account Unknown"
>> > under the path - My Computer - properties - advanced - user
>> > profiles - settings. The local profiles are also listed but
>> > there are many of the "account Unknown" profiles listed. Can
>> > I delete these "Account Unknown" profiles? Are they using up
>> > resources? What exactly are they and how can I prevent their
>> > creation if they are not beneficial.
>> >
>> > I have 79 of these "Account Unknown" accounts and 100 named
>> > user accounts, all local.
>> >
>> > Not sure what additional details you may be looking for,
>> > perhaps you could put your request in the form of a
>> > questions. Thanks for any assistance and knowledge.
>> >
>> > Brad
>>
>> The profile owners are listed as "Account unknown" when the
>> server isn't able to translate the SID to a friendly username.
>> Common reasons are:
>> * account has been deleted, but profile hasn't
>> * account is not a local account, but a domain account
>> and there are probably many more.
>>
>> Unused profiles are not loaded by the system, so they shouldn't
>> harm.
>>
>> You can delete them, if you are sure that they don't belong to
>> domain accounts who might need them later on. Depends on how
>> important user settings are in your environment.
>> _________________________________________________________
>> Vera Noest
>> MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
>> TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
>> ___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___
>>
> Interesting. Thank you for the insight. I know I have profiles
> and user accounts that are not in sync. When a user is deleted
> the profile does not appear to be deleted automatically, this
> would make sense since the TS is a member server and not an AD
> server. Putting balance between the user accounts and the AD
> accounts should reduce the number of these "Account Unknown"
> instances. I will get the cleanup process underway. Do these
> "Account Unknown" consume TS resources, other than the disk
> space they consume?

No, they won't use any other resource.
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

Re: Account Unknown - ?

BradleyD wrote:
> [System properties - User profiles] There is a long list of Account Unknown,
> can these just be deleted and not cause any harm. The size of the profiles
> vary but the list is longer than the named profiles. Thanks for the assist.
>
> Brad
I used to get them when I would delete the local profile without
deleting the account. You can also get them if, when you delete the
account, the profile is not successfully deleted. Also, I suspect that
corrupted profiles will cause this, also.

I delete them routinely when I see them.

As a suggestion, I would schedule a regular backup of the System State
for that server as well as the DCs. This way, you have some options if,
for example, deleting the profile somehow messes things up.... I have a
scheduled job on each of my DCs as well as my Citrix/TS servers that
backs up the System State to another server with a tape backup.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services