yet_another_jash
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Windows 2003 SBS network periodically hangs
I have a Windows 2003 SBS with 10 client machines (all XP). From time to time the entire network appears to hang, users cannot open or save files, they cannot browse the server drives and most users just see an egg-timer for anything up to 2 minutes - perhaps longer.
If i am connected to the server via remote desktop I also experience lack of responsiveness.
Examination of all event queues reveals nothing - i would have hoped to see some entries occuring at around the time of the apparent hang but there is nothing.
RAID monitoring tools report all volumes optimal, there is plenty of disk space and task manager shows litt or no cpu/disk loading.
At the point of hanging I do notice that network utilisation rises to a massive 15% from its usual 0.1% though I am unsure as to whether this is the result of the problem or the cause of it.
All client machines are running XP Pro.
The NIC was replaced some months ago because of failure of the onboard NIC and it has been fine for some time.
More recently we had some hard drive failures - all failed drives have been replaced and RAID shows all volumes optimal.
I wonder if this might actually be related to other networking hardware such as a failing switch.
I am not sure where to look next.
Is it fair to rule out the server as there are no recorded events or errors?
If i am connected to the server via remote desktop I also experience lack of responsiveness.
Examination of all event queues reveals nothing - i would have hoped to see some entries occuring at around the time of the apparent hang but there is nothing.
RAID monitoring tools report all volumes optimal, there is plenty of disk space and task manager shows litt or no cpu/disk loading.
At the point of hanging I do notice that network utilisation rises to a massive 15% from its usual 0.1% though I am unsure as to whether this is the result of the problem or the cause of it.
All client machines are running XP Pro.
The NIC was replaced some months ago because of failure of the onboard NIC and it has been fine for some time.
More recently we had some hard drive failures - all failed drives have been replaced and RAID shows all volumes optimal.
I wonder if this might actually be related to other networking hardware such as a failing switch.
I am not sure where to look next.
Is it fair to rule out the server as there are no recorded events or errors?
You can't rule out the server just yet.
I would carry out the tests suggested by netecgc, this may give you some idea on what/where the failure may be. The only addition to the tests that I would make would be to ping a website as well (to see if DNS lookups fail). Ping www.google.com
Its probably worth restarting the switches if you haven't done it in a while. Change the network cable connecting the server as well - Just for the sake of doing so.
Also, check to see if there is any pattern to the problem. Is it when a particular PC is turned on etc.
I would carry out the tests suggested by netecgc, this may give you some idea on what/where the failure may be. The only addition to the tests that I would make would be to ping a website as well (to see if DNS lookups fail). Ping www.google.com
Its probably worth restarting the switches if you haven't done it in a while. Change the network cable connecting the server as well - Just for the sake of doing so.
Also, check to see if there is any pattern to the problem. Is it when a particular PC is turned on etc.
ASKER
I changed the switches over - no difference. I moved onto the server console (rather than going via RDP) and found that the server console itself would hang/freeze and the unfreeze quite often.
No clues in the event logs - in fact no errors at all - just periodic freezing.
Other suggestions have included the indexing service though that made no difference after disabling that. Another suggestion was to look in Windows\Temp to see if some rogue app had depositied 1000's of tmp files - causing the indexing to be sluggish - no such files there.
So it seems that I am now limiting the 'problem' to being local to the server.
I will need to do much more isolation of various components including putting the server into total isolation to see if the freezing still occurs.
No clues in the event logs - in fact no errors at all - just periodic freezing.
Other suggestions have included the indexing service though that made no difference after disabling that. Another suggestion was to look in Windows\Temp to see if some rogue app had depositied 1000's of tmp files - causing the indexing to be sluggish - no such files there.
So it seems that I am now limiting the 'problem' to being local to the server.
I will need to do much more isolation of various components including putting the server into total isolation to see if the freezing still occurs.
Do you have any anti-virus software on the server?
If so, it maybe worth temp disabling the real time protection to see if it makes any difference.
Its sounding like a possible disk issue. What RAID do you have configured?
Can you give us hardware details of the server? Make/Model - RAM size etc.
Anything been installed recently?
If so, it maybe worth temp disabling the real time protection to see if it makes any difference.
Its sounding like a possible disk issue. What RAID do you have configured?
Can you give us hardware details of the server? Make/Model - RAM size etc.
Anything been installed recently?
ASKER
Server is an HP ML310 with 2 x RAID mirrors (OS and Data).
A/V is Kaspersky Business Space Security which has recently been upgraded from V6xxx to V8xxx.
I am aware of another situation where Kaspersky A/V was installed on a network and caused similar 'freezes' and I know that it was resolved but I cannot find any info on this.
All raid monitoring shows status as Optimal (though we have had drive failures in the past).
I am liking the idea of Kaspersky as the symptoms are a very close match but have no idea where to start there.
A/V is Kaspersky Business Space Security which has recently been upgraded from V6xxx to V8xxx.
I am aware of another situation where Kaspersky A/V was installed on a network and caused similar 'freezes' and I know that it was resolved but I cannot find any info on this.
All raid monitoring shows status as Optimal (though we have had drive failures in the past).
I am liking the idea of Kaspersky as the symptoms are a very close match but have no idea where to start there.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Any update on this one? I will stop monitoring in 1 day.
Did you ever solve this issue. My first guess would be DNS
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ping serveripaddress
ping another client PC by ip address
ping an internet IP (eg 8.8.8.8)
If other client PCs are not pingable (check that you can ping them anyway when the problem is not occuring - firewall may be blocking ICMP) then it is probably a network issue of some sort rather than a server problem.