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W2K services failing to restart

I have a W2k Server (HP/Compaq Proliant) with SP4 applied. This is acting as a DC it's own domain. There are no trusts between this domain and any other. What's happening is after a short time is if IIS, or almost any other windows service, is stopped (or if you attempt to stop) then this service fails and you are unable to start it again unless you reboot the machine. For example IIS is restarted on a nightly basis as part of the maintenance tasks run by our application. Once this service is stopped (checking the status using IISreset /Status) you can see all the dependencies are stopped but the service will not come back up stating the IIS Admin Service is disabled, which it clearly isn't. After scouring the web I have tried a few suggestions including disabling the AV, increasing the system pages and re-applying SP4.

The thing that is worth noting is that the server runs fine allowing you to stop and start services such as IIS for at least 1-2 hours

Here are just a few of the messages received once the problem kicks in

Event Type:      Information
Event Source:      Application Popup
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      26
Date:            28/09/2007
Time:            03:00:10
User:            N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
Application popup: inetinfo.exe - Application Error : The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142). Click on OK to terminate the application.

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Service Control Manager
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      7009
Date:            28/09/2007
Time:            03:00:10
User:            N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the IIS Admin Service service to connect.

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Service Control Manager
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      7000
Date:            28/09/2007
Time:            03:00:10
User:            N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
The IIS Admin Service service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Event Type:      Information
Event Source:      IISCTLS
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      1
Date:            28/09/2007
Time:            03:00:10
User:            N/A
Computer:      SERVER
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( IISCTLS ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: DOMAIN\Administrator.
Data:
0000: 26 04 07 80 &..€

65td

Review the IIS log and permissions for the IIS service and Admin service.

verint_user

ASKER

Thanks, I checked these first. There is nothing other than a few URLscan rejections from the workstations. The fact that the services start ok when it starts and restart ok for some time to me suggests this isn't a security issue. Also, this isn't only IIS, its many other windows services.. its similar to the APC powerchute issues I've seen going around before (I don't have this installed) I think the fact that the majority of the events are down to web based applications is irrelevent... (this is hosting the webpages for the application being used by all the users)

Here is one line from the application logs but I think this is only happening because I attemted to restart IIS and it hasn't come back up

variables from the web service 2nd time, URL = http://localhost/application/webservices/systemmonitorwebservice.asmx
Exception: WebException
Message: The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server.
Stack Trace:
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.CheckFinalStatus()

lnkevin

Your problem could be insuficient memory. Has the number of user increased on this server? Check your task manager and let us know your memory status and percentage usage. Also, tell us the size of your memory and pagefile.

K

verint_user

ASKER

The server has 2gb of RAM, initially there was a 1024mb pagefile on C: and a 1024mb on D:. This morning I added a 3gb pagefile on the E: (in addition to the others)

I have monitored performance and it doesn't seem high however I haven't yet monitored at the point things fall over. I will try and catch the issue later today.

lnkevin

Typically, the size of pagefile is equivalent to 1.5 size of physical memory. Your case, 3GB is good enough for your system. I suggest you to remove the pagefile on C:, and unless you want to keep it, you can also remove pagefile on d:

K

lnkevin

To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable or delete the paging file.

K

65td

Dosen't MS want to keep a minimum of 2 mb of pagefile on C?

verint_user

ASKER

I thought this was required for crash dumps etc. I'm leaving the 1024mb on there for now unless anyone strongly recommends I remove it but I am not sure it will be an issue. The system doesn't seem to struggle with performance, one minute its working fine then the next, if you restart a service (in this case IIS as it is as part of a maintenance task overnight) it won't fire back up. If I stay on the server stopping and starting IIS or tomcat (as this doesnt affect the users) at some point i can replicate the issue and tomcat won't start back up.. then if I try an IISreset that fails too stating that the service is disabled.. even tough it obviously isnt.

Thanks!!

Russ

lnkevin

OK, are you running both IIS and Apache at the same time?
Although Apache TomCat is running on windows but you don't want to mix running it with IIS.

K

verint_user

ASKER

this is a proven environment in well over 1000 customer sites.. It's been fully tested and the hardware its running on is 'supposed to be' built and spec'd accordingly. I know that the tomcat side of things doesn't demand much resource.. its a process that runs on the platform server to import data from one place to another..(not being a developer I don't know the exact mechanism) However I can be sure that the mixture of these apps on the server shouldn't be causing the issue as it hasn't on any of our other servers out there..

Thanks for your help

verint_user

ASKER

OK, it's now errored.. IISreset came back with Attempting to start... Restart failed IIS Admin Service is disabled. IISreset /status says W3svc/SMTP and MSFTPSVC are all stopped. CPU is at 5% and there is 1gb of RAM in use... server isn't doing much. I did several checks leading up to this and didn't see much fluctuation in these figures..

verint_user

ASKER

Also, please bear in mind that if I had not done this manual IISreset it would have happened at 3am, the tomcat service would have gone down first as that has an overnight reset time of 1am. The server/application would have run fine up until that point.

Russ

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verint_user

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