Starting WSL causes "Service host: network store interface service" to have high CPU usage

[lancechant]

Windows Version

Windows version: 10.0.22631.4037

WSL Version

2.2.4.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.153.1-2

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Start WSL which takes a while to start up, but that's because the service spins up and causes high CPU usage to take place

Expected Behavior

WSL to start up without causing high CPU usage with other services

Actual Behavior

Service host: network store interface service starts up and takes up a huge chunk of CPU usage, and that causes the computer to slow down drastically, until I force stop the service.

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2024-08-22_08-38-13.zip

[github-actions]

View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• WSL stops responding and vmmem spikes CPU to 100% (#9592), similarity score: 0.74
• WSL Becomes Non Responsive, Uses High Amounts Of CPU & Memory (#9429), similarity score: 0.74

Closed similar issues:

• It takes too long to start WSL (#10891), similarity score: 0.75
• Vmmemwsl - High CPU Usage (#9081), similarity score: 0.74
• WSL 2 hangs on startup (#10296), similarity score: 0.74

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Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.2.4.0

[vandreytrindade]

My WSL2 has the same problem. It took a long time to start and then that service consumed 100% CPU. It was really difficult to even reboot the PC.

[wotzapp]

Same issue here in my company (among developers using WSL2 on Windows 11) - since we made the 2 cumulative Updates KB5042099 and KB5041585.

[butabi]

I’m encountering this exact issue on WSL 2 with Windows 11 after recent updates. The service "Network Store Interface Service" is causing high CPU usage as soon as I start wsl, and unfortunately, the service can't be stopped - only a full reboot temporarily resolves the problem. This is making the system almost unusable.

[rijulg]

Same issue on WSL2 version 22H2 (22621.4037). In my case I narrowed it down to a Citrix gateway installation (Citrix Secure Access 23.5.1.3) clashing with WSL networking setting. I found two ways of making my computer not reach 100% utilization:

1. Change networking mode to mirrored (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking#mirrored-mode-networking).
2. Uninstall Citrix completely and reboot computer.

While both of these resolve the CPU utilization problem completely, unfortunately neither of these then allow me to use the VPN inside WSL that I need for work so neither of these solutions work for me.

For a temporary fix I am able to kill the service from Processes under Task Manager. This only lasts until the service restarts, which can be any amount of time, I have observed the range to be from seconds to days.

[vandreytrindade]

Same issue on WSL2 version 22H2 (22621.4037). In my case I narrowed it down to a Citrix gateway installation (Citrix Secure Access 23.5.1.3) clashing with WSL networking setting. I found two ways of making my computer not reach 100% utilization:

1. Change networking mode to mirrored (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking#mirrored-mode-networking).
2. Uninstall Citrix completely and reboot computer.

While both of these resolve the CPU utilization problem completely, unfortunately neither of these then allow me to use the VPN inside WSL that I need for work so neither of these solutions work for me.

For a temporary fix I am able to kill the service from Processes under Task Manager. This only lasts until the service restarts, which can be any amount of time, I have observed the range to be from seconds to days.

I have Citrix Secure Access 22.2.1.103. And I can't uninstall it either.

[lancechant]

Hey @rijulg how'd you narrow it down to Citrix out of curiosity? as there are some people on my team that use it, but it can not be running and still have that service start and cause issues. Interested in your findings as would make sense if it is the cause.

Yeah killing that service seems to be the best fix now, even though it warns of causing the PC to shutdown (It doesn't) I normally don't have it starting up that often again, maybe twice more during the work day

[rijulg]

Hey @rijulg how'd you narrow it down to Citrix out of curiosity? as there are some people on my team that use it, but it can not be running and still have that service start and cause issues. Interested in your findings as would make sense if it is the cause.

It was a bit of a ride, but I originally just noticed the networking services spike when I started WSL. Proceeded with changing WSL to mirrored mode and spikes stopped. But since now citrix stopped working reverted to NAT mode. Knowing that networking was an issue I just had a hunch that it was one of the networking devices/drivers. Since I didn't find any updates for any of my networking devices, I just started deleting networking devices one at a time and did full system reboot and check. That final step revealed Citrix as the culprit.

As of today just ending task on the networking service is working fine for me, it is annoying when it restarts and spikes but it does not really happen frequently so after I have started everything I just end task on the networking service which is spiking. I suspect the impact of this will be that change in networking adapters won't be propagated but I don't need that to happen anyway as I am not hotswapping networking stuff.

[lancechant]

I see interesting, sounds like quite a journey, I want to use mirrored mode as well, but since there is an issue with docker in that mode we have to use NAT. Thanks for the investigations, but I do hope there is something in WSL/windows that can be fixed, or if it is Citrix that a patch comes out soon, as it doesn't affect windows 10 at all.

Yeah that's the main thing it's annoying and basically kills the PC till the service stops

[rmeshksar]

I had the same issue that happened after August 13th, KB5041585 update.

Something that worked for me was running this command in admin mode:

netsh int ip set global taskoffload=disabled

Credit to:
#5068 (comment)

[wotzapp]

Same issue on WSL2 version 22H2 (22621.4037). In my case I narrowed it down to a Citrix gateway installation (Citrix Secure Access 23.5.1.3) clashing with WSL networking setting. I found two ways of making my computer not reach 100% utilization:

1. Change networking mode to mirrored (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking#mirrored-mode-networking).
2. Uninstall Citrix completely and reboot computer.

In our case, uninstalling “Citrix Secure Access” did the trick. Many thanks for the tip!

[Usayd]

Damn, I was scratching my head for the past few weeks.. but finally found the solution for why NSI Service was seething.
We don't have WSL installed in our Standard IT environment but after KB5041585, staff who had Citrix Secure Access installed were affected with high CPU usage from Network Store Interface Service literally making their computers unusable as everything would hang.
Couldn't uninstall it via Settings but used the cleanup utility at https://citrix.sharefile.com/share/view/s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332/fo666226-b081-4373-a4bf-6a6f12bbbb92 (found in https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-gateway/current-release/vpn-user-config/select-gateway-plugin-for-users.html) to uninstall which solved our issues :)

[stalk3rr]

Damn, I was scratching my head for the past few weeks.. but finally found the solution for why NSI Service was seething. We don't have WSL installed in our Standard IT environment but after KB5041585, staff who had Citrix Secure Access installed were affected with high CPU usage from Network Store Interface Service literally making their computers unusable as everything would hang. Couldn't uninstall it via Settings but used the cleanup utility at https://citrix.sharefile.com/d-s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332to (found in https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-gateway/current-release/vpn-user-config/select-gateway-plugin-for-users.html) to uninstall which solved our issues :)

Works for me, thank you @Usayd for sharing!
I have used WSL, Citrix Secure Access for years. KB5041585 have been installed on Aug 16, 2024:

Everything worked like a charm before the last system restart. On boot I got 100% CPU. Tried to install latest updates. Didn't helped. And I can't remove KB5041585, it's not listed in "Uninstall updates" menu. Only CSA uninstall helped.

@Usayd can you check the url to fileshare? Wasn't able to access, only from source url in docs.netscaler.com and searched for "clean" :)
Citrix file share with cleanup tool that I've been redirected to:
https://citrix.sharefile.com/share/view/s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332/fo666226-b081-4373-a4bf-6a6f12bbbb92

[Usayd]

Damn, I was scratching my head for the past few weeks.. but finally found the solution for why NSI Service was seething. We don't have WSL installed in our Standard IT environment but after KB5041585, staff who had Citrix Secure Access installed were affected with high CPU usage from Network Store Interface Service literally making their computers unusable as everything would hang. Couldn't uninstall it via Settings but used the cleanup utility at https://citrix.sharefile.com/d-s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332to (found in https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-gateway/current-release/vpn-user-config/select-gateway-plugin-for-users.html) to uninstall which solved our issues :)

Works for me, thank you @Usayd for sharing! I have used WSL, Citrix Secure Access for years. KB5041585 have been installed on Aug 16, 2024: Everything worked like a charm before the last system restart. On boot I got 100% CPU. Tried to install latest updates. Didn't helped. And I can't remove KB5041585, it's not listed in "Uninstall updates" menu. Only CSA uninstall helped.

@Usayd can you check the url to fileshare? Wasn't able to access, only from source url in docs.netscaler.com and searched for "clean" :) Citrix file share with cleanup tool that I've been redirected to: https://citrix.sharefile.com/share/view/s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332/fo666226-b081-4373-a4bf-6a6f12bbbb92

@stalk3rr Yup that's the correct link for the Citrix Secure Access clean up tool :) - I've updated the URL on my original reply.
It gives a unique link once you click on the main one, I must have pasted that one from my browser oops 😅

[benfrussell]

Had the same issue and it was resolved by uninstalling Citrix Secure Access via Settings. Did not require the additional clean-up tool.

Windows Version: 10.0.22631.4037
WSL Version: 2.2.4.0
Kernel Version: 5.15.153.1-2
Distro Version: Debian 2

[momenbasel]

had the same issue and can confirm it resolved by uninstalling Citrix Secure Access or by ending process task that contain "network".

[happyswiss]

I need Citrix Secure Access for my work, so I can't just uninstall it. Is there another solution/fix?

[lancechant]

@happyswiss same for me, the current workaround for it to work with WSL is to put it in mirrored networking mode, but that only will work for win 11. That stops the service from using a lot of CPU. I hope that helps

[happyswiss]

we are also observing the same issue with Network Storage Interface Service on clients without Citrix Secure Access Client.

[stalk3rr]

Damn, I was scratching my head for the past few weeks.. but finally found the solution for why NSI Service was seething. We don't have WSL installed in our Standard IT environment but after KB5041585, staff who had Citrix Secure Access installed were affected with high CPU usage from Network Store Interface Service literally making their computers unusable as everything would hang. Couldn't uninstall it via Settings but used the cleanup utility at https://citrix.sharefile.com/d-s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332to (found in https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-gateway/current-release/vpn-user-config/select-gateway-plugin-for-users.html) to uninstall which solved our issues :)

Works for me, thank you @Usayd for sharing! I have used WSL, Citrix Secure Access for years. KB5041585 have been installed on Aug 16, 2024: Everything worked like a charm before the last system restart. On boot I got 100% CPU. Tried to install latest updates. Didn't helped. And I can't remove KB5041585, it's not listed in "Uninstall updates" menu. Only CSA uninstall helped.

@Usayd can you check the url to fileshare? Wasn't able to access, only from source url in docs.netscaler.com and searched for "clean" :) Citrix file share with cleanup tool that I've been redirected to: https://citrix.sharefile.com/share/view/s829800c3821a4a8f869ad324de6f0332/fo666226-b081-4373-a4bf-6a6f12bbbb92

UPD 23.09.2024:
Latest updates for WIn 11 did not helped.
For my specific case I've defined the set of tools\services that caused issue.
I've used Goodbye DPI as a service, in parallel with WSL2 and Citrix Secure Access, as result it caused some kind of networking fluctuation, I suppose. Haven't dig a lot, just removed GDPI service and installed Citrix secure access. Today is a week since I did that, works fine, no CPU overload. Did the experiment with running gdpi in foreground, almost instantly got 100% CPU.
The main point: check is there are some additional networking services\tools that installed in parallel with WSL2 and CSA.

[nashein]

I had the similiar issue on Windows 11 and Hyper-V Services enabled combined with Citrix Secure Access installed.
For a workaround I've completely disabled IPv6 with command: Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters -Name “DisabledComponents” -Value 0xFF -Type DWord , made a restart and now its working fine,