Exchange 2003 "local delivery queue and OWA slow performance

also try updating the network card drivers, that helped me in one instance. other than that -> check system resources to see if anything is hogging disk i/os etc.

Hmm TCP Offloading used to cause major headaches, I almost forgot. I think this was resolved in later hotfixes but if TCPchinmey is enabled, I would disable it.

At the command prompt, type:

Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED

This disables TCP Offloading.

Thanks for the tips guys.

I've done some of this and will monitor for a few more hours as this is a kind of an intermittent problem.

Appreciate the heads up.

I had to take the weekend to conduct some tests on the server b/c of usage and we've sussed the origin of the problem.

We run a backup assist app on the server, and it seems the problem occurs just as this is aboutt to start.

Whether it is the software doing this or the HDD reacting to the i/o activity from the software remains to be seen, but my money is on the HDD.

I will monitor for one more day (as the users will be back to their heavy use today) and then close ticket.

As a resolution,  will have to replace HDD at an opportuned time.

Sorry,
I had to find a permanent solution to this while managin the problem at the same time so "time" got the better of me.
We have now migrated to a new server and released "said" server fro other non-critical use.

Like I said earlier, when we stopped the Backup software, the server remained stable till we were done with, so whether HDD or software I'm not sure but its somewhere in between - as the perfmon showed high disk activity durin the backups.

Anyway, as we don't have the personnel to continue to research what happened, I will close this and accept your suggestions as they helped in identifying potential problem areas.

Thanks for your help on this.

Appreciate it.

while the issue did not have a permanent solution, the suggestions helped in narrowing down potential problem areas which helped in decision making.