Why does my Sharepoint IRM module fail to re-initialze intermittently?

Question

I have a Sharepoint IRM module that works most of the time. However, most mornings when I come in and try to exercise it it fails to work. An IISReset will generally get it going again.

The Windows event log shows the following error most mornings at around 01:45 (GUID blanked for this post).

Information Rights Management (IRM): Protector {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} experienced a problem while being initialized.
Protector: {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}

Additional Data
Error value: 80070005

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

This error occurs along with three other events for three other IRM modules successfully re-initializing (I believe these are built-in ones).

The Sharepoint log contains something very similar:

09/22/2010 01:45:20.39  w3wp.exe (0x11EC)                           0x1338  Windows SharePoint Services     IRM                             95lu    Information Information Rights Management (IRM): The initialization of protector {4F9976DD-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970} was completed. Protector: {4F9976DD-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970}     
09/22/2010 01:45:20.56  w3wp.exe (0x11EC)                           0x1338  Windows SharePoint Services     IRM                             95lu    Information Information Rights Management (IRM): The initialization of protector {4F9976DC-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970} was completed. Protector: {4F9976DC-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970}     
09/22/2010 01:45:20.58  w3wp.exe (0x11EC)                           0x1338  Windows SharePoint Services     IRM                             95lu    Information Information Rights Management (IRM): The initialization of protector {4F9976DE-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970} was completed. Protector: {4F9976DE-47C3-4518-B2A2-A258B379F970}     
09/22/2010 01:45:20.61  w3wp.exe (0x11EC)                           0x1338  Windows SharePoint Services     IRM                             95lt    Critical    Information Rights Management (IRM): Protector {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} experienced a problem while being initialized. Protector: {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}  Additional Data Error value: 80070005

The IRM module also has its own logging in HrSetLangId and HrInit. In this failure case nothing was logged by the module.

Microsoft's suggestions to deal with this error code mainly revolve around checking that Sharepoint can talk to an RMS server. In the case of our IRM module we actually don't need an RMS server and so have not set one up. As the problem is intermittent this doesn't seem likely to be the cause.

After an IISReset the module appeared to initialize correctly (in all 3 logs) and started working again.

FWIW the module is written in C#.

Any suggestions on how to cure this problem would be gratefully received.

Answer 1

I'm still not sure exactly what the problem was after but removing the logging in HrSetLangId and HrInit the error went away. So something about the way the module is re-initialised is different from the first initialisation in such a way that the logging fails in the former case but not the latter.