GroupWise/NW 4.2 Server Losing connection

[deejay33]

Hello,

During the last three weeks our GroupWise server has been spuratically losing it's connection with the rest of our network. This server is running GroupWise 5.5 and NetWare 4.11 sp9. Some days it does not happen at all and then some days it loses connection 3 times during a day. I usually down the server and then bring it back up and then the connections are restored. One time though I just switched network cables and the connection came back for about 10 minutes and then was gone again. I have tried 3 different cables which I know were good, and I tried switching the port and switch it was on. I am going to run a diagnostic on the server tomorrow morning but would like to know if there is anything else I should look at. I am new to NetWare and am not sure if there is something software related that I should also check. The funny thing is this server has been up and running for about 2 years and has not had these problem until a few weeks ago. That is why I am leaning toward a bad NIC. Any other thoughts?

DeeJay33

One more thing, the server does not give any strange messages prior to losing connection. Also something else that is strange is it does not always know when it loses connection. I would have our other 3 NW servers beeping at me for hours (sometimes it loses connection in the middle of the night) letting me know that they are unable to communicate with the GW1 but GW1 never realizes that it has lost communication or gives any errors.

 

[deejay33]

I know the title says NW 4.2 but it is a NW 4.11 sp9 server. I was thinking about another server when I wrote the title. Thanks for any help.

DeeJay33

 

[TheLad]

Have you applied the latest NIC drivers or replaced the NIC? If you move the server's patching to another port does the problem still happen?

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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[deejay33]

We haven't applied any NIC drivers since I have been here. (About a year and a half) We did however just apply sp9 when we installed a NW6 server into the tree but that has been about 2 months. I would have expected to have problems back then if that had caused a problem. I did move the patching to another port and still had the problem.

DeeJay33

 

[TheLad]

I'd try replacing the NIC to see whether that does anything.

-----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[SimmChip]

Funny, I've been having the same problem. I my case, we've change the NIC, upgraded the drivers, upgraded the HDD, changed cables and switches, etc.. and the problem still exists. It seems to have happened over night. Did you ever find a cure??

simmchip

 

[SimmChip]

Funny, I've been having the same problem. I my case, we've change the NIC, upgraded the drivers, upgraded the HDD, changed cables and switches, etc.. and the problem still exists. It seems to have happened over night. Did you ever find a cure??

simmchip

 

[marvhuffaker]

I'd also check and verify to ensure that the Speed and Duplex setting are set correctly per the recommendations of the Switch manufacturer. Having mismatched settings is a popular cause of lost communications.

Another things I'd be interested to know...

When communication is lost, I'd like to know what the server itself thinks is going on as far as packets in/out. Go to MONITOR.NLM, then LAN/WAN Drivers, then select your NIC from the list and look at the details.. When the commmunication has stopped, are packets going out and coming in? Is it logging any errors (same screen)?

If you are using a NIC that registers speed/duplex in Monitor.nlm, is it running at the same speed/duplex that you intended?

Marvin

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[SimmChip]

Thank you for your response, unfortunately, our I.T. Dept. decided to come over and run vrepair, purge and caused all sorts of other problems with corrupt data, missing files, etc. They decided on this because they were under the impression that we had server drive problems that were preventing groupwise from working correctly. Long story short, we are now s.o.l. ~

 

[deejay33]

Hello,

Well I know it is a hour late and a doller short but maybe it will help the next person who comes along. We were able to fix our connection problems. It turned out to be the setting for the Packet Recieve Buffers. I found a TID that told me to check it and see if it was maxed out. If it was, that could be the cause of the lose of the connection. I cannot find the TID right now but I basically had you look at Packet Recieve Buffers on the Moniter (ours was at 100) and then check what the Min and Max for was set for. Ours was set to Min 50 and Max 100. So it was maxed out. We changed the settings to Min 100 and Max 200 and that fixed the problem. We have not lost connection since then and its been over a month. I looked at the Packet Recieve Buffers on Moniter right now and it is at 101. So going by that TID I would have lost connection when I hit 100. Hope that helps someone.

DeeJay