network outage lasting a few seconds
Hello,
I am helping a network Administrator with his job. On friday we experienced a network outage on 5 computers. These 5 computers are connected to 2 separate switches. These 5 users called us immediately to complain. No one else complained. There are 150 Computers on the network.
This outage lasted a couple of seconds and these are fairly impt computers. Their task is to run a job and once the job finished the computers send the data over the network to a server. If connectivity is lost for a millisecond then the job stops and has to be resatrted from the beginning.
Shipping experienced the same problem in that their rf scanner stopped responding for a few seconds. So all of the lift operators were not able to scan for product barcode thus halting productivity.
We again experienced an outage on Monday and today.
Please help,
Tacobell2000
I am helping a network Administrator with his job. On friday we experienced a network outage on 5 computers. These 5 computers are connected to 2 separate switches. These 5 users called us immediately to complain. No one else complained. There are 150 Computers on the network.
This outage lasted a couple of seconds and these are fairly impt computers. Their task is to run a job and once the job finished the computers send the data over the network to a server. If connectivity is lost for a millisecond then the job stops and has to be resatrted from the beginning.
Shipping experienced the same problem in that their rf scanner stopped responding for a few seconds. So all of the lift operators were not able to scan for product barcode thus halting productivity.
We again experienced an outage on Monday and today.
Please help,
Tacobell2000
mikebernhardt
Are the 5 users the only ones on the 2 switches? Are they on the same VLAN as everyone else, or all on their own?
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You probably need to better segregate internal production from the internet browsers. Ensure proxy usage and DMZ set well.
Try reviewing all event logs for clues, identified answers. Run a network monitor to review whether one or more users is tying up system. No email hogs, liveaudio, live video, no backups run during the day, etc.
Normal users might not complain about losing a second or two once a day, it has to be more frequent than that, or more lengthy, so try to not assume much about them not sharing similar delays.
MS NT family as a network monitor. Get it running and see more about usage. I'm assuming high traffic. It could be bad traffic, such as a NIC or port starting to go bad (HW).
Go back and review the event logs
> If connectivity is lost for a millisecond
?
Too short, try lookoing up all power-save functions. maybe a minor detection of voltage drop, somehow caused a disk drive to temporarliy spin down, just long enough to inhibit a program. Set all power-save options to "never". (do not check or act, leave it that if power is dropping, you do not even try to save any work)
Try reviewing all event logs for clues, identified answers. Run a network monitor to review whether one or more users is tying up system. No email hogs, liveaudio, live video, no backups run during the day, etc.
Normal users might not complain about losing a second or two once a day, it has to be more frequent than that, or more lengthy, so try to not assume much about them not sharing similar delays.
MS NT family as a network monitor. Get it running and see more about usage. I'm assuming high traffic. It could be bad traffic, such as a NIC or port starting to go bad (HW).
Go back and review the event logs
> If connectivity is lost for a millisecond
?
Too short, try lookoing up all power-save functions. maybe a minor detection of voltage drop, somehow caused a disk drive to temporarliy spin down, just long enough to inhibit a program. Set all power-save options to "never". (do not check or act, leave it that if power is dropping, you do not even try to save any work)
Danny_Larouche > Some switch was conneted on a UPS with faulty battery
good one. Listen for a little <beep> ;)
My home system did that, I thought it was HD, and the system actually would go down ever three days or so. It finally never came up, and I found I'd plugged the monitor into the UPS as well. It was unplanned, probably just a quick adjustment to handle some local power outage and ahve something to do (compute) until is came back up. I think the <beep> indicator began slow like this, until it became near daily. So... try to assure that the UPS does not have that much plugged into it. During downtime, swap it with a new one.
good one. Listen for a little <beep> ;)
My home system did that, I thought it was HD, and the system actually would go down ever three days or so. It finally never came up, and I found I'd plugged the monitor into the UPS as well. It was unplanned, probably just a quick adjustment to handle some local power outage and ahve something to do (compute) until is came back up. I think the <beep> indicator began slow like this, until it became near daily. So... try to assure that the UPS does not have that much plugged into it. During downtime, swap it with a new one.
ASKER
OK. Never thought of that. Just mentioned this to the network admin and he is calling the ups person who will perform all tests on the ups' tomorrow morning. Will let you know of the outcome.
Thank you,
Tacobell2000
Thank you,
Tacobell2000
What kind of network gear are you using? What make and model switches?
ASKER
All Cisco and Nortel. Cisco 2950 switched with a 2600 Router.
Any chance of any spanning tree issues?