Event ID 20 — Channel Initialization

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

Event logs are normally initialized when the Event Log service starts. This initialization can also happen during installation of a component that creates a new log. When the initialization fails, the log is not available to receive events and the diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities of administrators, support personnel, developers, and automated utilities can be compromised.

The application-defined logs are specific to the event provider that created them and will only affect events published by that provider. The operations that remain for the Event Log service and all other event providers are not affected when there is a problem with one of the event logs being initialized.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 20
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Eventlog
Version: 6.1
Symbolic Name: INIT_CHANNEL
Message: The service encountered an error %1 while obtaining or processing configuration for channel %2

Resolve

Install an event publisher

Events 20 is published when a publisher references a channel that has not been created. This can occur when the publisher is targeting a log created by a publisher that has not been installed. The name of the channel should be helpful in determining which publisher should create the channel. This does not normally indicate an issue, but simply that when an optional publisher is installed, the channel it creates will be used. This event can indicate a missing dependent component, in which case you will need to install the dependent component that contains the event publisher that creates the missing log.

Verify

Use the Event Viewer to read the affected log on the local computer after the computer has been restarted, and verify that events 20, 23, 25, 26, or 40 did not appear in the event log after the system was restarted.

Channel Initialization

Management Infrastructure