Tito_Mahawk
asked on
hdd sudenly becomes very busy
Hi there,
Big one for you guys. I'M having a big problem here with our server (windows server 2000). It began a month ago but it was less frequent than now. People began to complain of how slow were the access to the server. WHen this occurs, i noticed that theres seems to be a lot of activity on hdd (3 hdd on raid 5). When i restart that server, its ok...for a while. Then it comes back. I learn that i don't necessarely have to restart it. Sometimes it comes back to normal without me doing nothing. I'm trying to find what is using the hdd at that specific moment!!«PLease help!
Big one for you guys. I'M having a big problem here with our server (windows server 2000). It began a month ago but it was less frequent than now. People began to complain of how slow were the access to the server. WHen this occurs, i noticed that theres seems to be a lot of activity on hdd (3 hdd on raid 5). When i restart that server, its ok...for a while. Then it comes back. I learn that i don't necessarely have to restart it. Sometimes it comes back to normal without me doing nothing. I'm trying to find what is using the hdd at that specific moment!!«PLease help!
ASKER
25% free space. I defragged past weekend. Can i use chkdsk on a RAiD system? Your link seems to be broken
broken? I was able to click on it, just google for "Filemon" you can run chkdsk on a raid system, although there are varying opinions about that.
ASKER
OK chkdsk found some errors and fixed them (at least it's what it said...). I already have Process Monitor (wich replace filemon) but there is a billion things to check in there...I don't know how or what...
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Then next time it does that, open up disk managment and take a peek..
ASKER
Joeteck: What should i see in disk management?? ANd...I did'nt built this system and am pretty new to raid...How can i know if the OS is RAIDED? There is no raid software i'm sure.
ASKER
ANd if a disk is starting to fail, how can i know wich one it is?
The OS is doing the RAID.
Right click My Computer > Manage
Under Storage, high light Disk management.
If you see Light blue, thats Raid 5, if you see dark red, thats RAID 1.
Under the size of the disk will show you the status of the array. Should say" healthy"
During disk activity, (assuming this is the problem), you will see "resyncing" and a percentage done.
Right click My Computer > Manage
Under Storage, high light Disk management.
If you see Light blue, thats Raid 5, if you see dark red, thats RAID 1.
Under the size of the disk will show you the status of the array. Should say" healthy"
During disk activity, (assuming this is the problem), you will see "resyncing" and a percentage done.
Oh, I should ask, because some system builders have done this... (bad practice)
If the server is older, using IDE drives instead of SATA, I've seen RAID systems using master and slave on the same IDE channel. as this will work, the OS will have trouble writing to both disks at the same time causing some really strange results. Having master & slave drives, only one drive can be written too at a time...so there would be alot of disk activity, especially if this server is written to all day long.
Just throwing that out there.
If the server is older, using IDE drives instead of SATA, I've seen RAID systems using master and slave on the same IDE channel. as this will work, the OS will have trouble writing to both disks at the same time causing some really strange results. Having master & slave drives, only one drive can be written too at a time...so there would be alot of disk activity, especially if this server is written to all day long.
Just throwing that out there.
ASKER
I see. But i have hardware RAID so are you sure Disk management can be of any help? It shows 2 partitions on 1 disk. One is dark blue (primary) the other is light blue (logical) wich is what you'll see on any non-RAID system too. I'll have a look next it happens.
ASKER
Any other idea guys?
What does this server do?
Hmmmm... You know what? I would install a software firewall, and see what traffic is going in and out of it.
ASKER
It happenned again this morning....had to reboot...No. Reboot did'nt work. Had to shutdown, and then restart. I looked a lot at process monitor and have'nt been able to identify something specific. I dont know what to do guys...I'm leaning toward a disk that is starting to fail but how can i be sure??? WIndows 2000 server. SP4 . 3 hdd of 18go (in Raid 5). only 392 ram but it always worked fine. IBM eSeries x220.
ASKER
The fact that a simple reboot wont work, that i have to shutdown and then restart for the server to come back to a normal state. Does it tells something to you guys? PLease Help!
Have you ran Filemon.exe yet? Maybe you can pin point what its reading...
Do you have Virus software on it? It may be doing a full scan in the back round every 12 to 24 hours...
I'm not sure if you want to, but I zipped up the program for you.
Its located here.
http://www.craftyphotos.com/software/Filemon.zip
Cut and paste
Unzip, and run filemon, and see what its reading and writing... all sorts of stuff is found with this program..
Its located here.
http://www.craftyphotos.com/software/Filemon.zip
Cut and paste
Unzip, and run filemon, and see what its reading and writing... all sorts of stuff is found with this program..
ASKER
Thanks Joeteck...but if you read my previous comment you will see that i already have Process Monitor wich has replaced and that i haven't been able to locate something in particular.
Try this program and see if it does anything more... Does not hurt to try. ;)
ASKER
Ok Joeteck, i'll tell you again. I already have "Process Monitor" wich is an upgrade of Filemon. It does the same and more. Now, as i told you...I see nothing unusual. But thanks again
You're Welcome...
Here is my last try....Turn off automatic updates.
If that does not work, good luck.
I'm out of ideas.
Here is my last try....Turn off automatic updates.
If that does not work, good luck.
I'm out of ideas.
ASKER
That was a hard disk about to fail.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/filemon.mspx
How much free space is on the drive? Have you run chkdsk or defragged it in a while?