SB server 2003 crashes every 12 hrs

[jdwvw]

Client has a server running Microsoft SB server 2003 and will Slow down to a crawl and causes the network to crash every 12 hours. The only way to get back up is to completely shut down and restart all the users computers but restarting the server is NOT necessary.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[porkchopexpress]

How many clients and how are they all connected?

It might be worth next time it happens trying to shut down the PC's one at a time to see if you can isolate a particular problem PC.

 

[jdwvw]

About 6 computers give or take a laptop or 2 connected through Lan. We have not been able to isolate it to 1 computer as of yet.

 

[markdmac]

Anything in the event logs?

Before you shut down the server have you looked at the running processes?

Is the SBS server acting as the gateway for all Internet traffic? Do you have any users playing Internet radio broadcasts?

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[porkchopexpress]

Yes Mark has made a very good point, i would also check the PC's for P2P software e.g Limewire.

 

[jdwvw]

The Server does not have to be restarted just the users computers. The users basicly lose connection to the server and lose what ever they are doing. All scheduledtasks have been turned off as well. I will check the event log and the process list.

Thank you

 

[markdmac]

Bear in mind that while you believe the problem is a workstation, one workstation should not be affecting other workstations from accessing the server unless they are either flooding the network with packets to cripple it or unless a workstation is totally monopolizing the server. A review of the server processes and logs should give you an idea of what the server was doing at the time of the problem.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[monsterjta]

Look at the events on the server. Sounds like a client is firing a runaway process and slowly leaks the memory on the server.

When it gets to the level of needing to reboot your client machine, take a look at the Task Manager and see what PID is out of control. SQL tends to gobble up memory as well. If you're running SQL, try throttling back the memory usage on any instances you have.

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

Hope This Helps,

Good Luck!

(I do what I can with what I know)

 

[jdwvw]

One bad day.

Step 1: It started out, the active directory in SBS 2003 was found to be corrupted which corrupted Exchange server. It was decided to install a 2nd drive and mirror to it and then to disconnect it giving us a failsafe backup plan. (Yea right) All the data had also been backed up to external discs.

Step 2: (12 pm Friday afternoon) Disconnect the “already tested good” mirrored drive and uninstall active directory and exchange server. (This is where it started to go wrong) Active directory would not uninstall. 3 hrs later active directory was finally uninstalled along with exchange server.

Step 3: Reinstall active directory and exchange server. It didn’t take. Given that it was 7 pm on Friday night it was decided to go to our fail safe plan. Disconnect main drive and connect mirrored drive. BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. (panic starts to kick in) Try reconnecting the main drive again. No luck. Install a new out of the box drive and attempt to load SBS 2003. Wont recognize the drive. (panic really kicks in as this a tax firm and the server just fried) As it turns out the IDE controller crapped out on us. (8pm on Friday night)

Step 4: Coworker went home and got his new custom built pc. Pull the drives out of the new server to be and install the now 3 drives from the old server (2 -160 G and the new 120 G) only hooking up the new drive for time being. Install SBS 2003. Set everything up. Install active directory and exchange server. Recover data from original mirrored drive. Build all the profiles. (it is now about 2 am on Saturday morning)

Step 5: Join all the local users to the domain. (thank God it worked) 3am time to go home and take a 3 hr nap.

Step 6: 9 am Saturday morning. Install necessary programs and make sure they will at least open with out any errors. Recover all the local users’ files, favorites and shortcuts. Set up and recover their email. Run needed updates. Gost the new hard drive to the original drive. Set the new drive up as an internal backup. Install and configure Veritas backup program. Reinstall Norton. Test backup. It works properly. Re install the mirrored drive and mirror the drives again. (1 pm Saturday afternoon)

Step 7: Work out all the kinks as needed.

 

[markdmac]

So from the sound of it I am guessing that you are running SBS on IDE drives?

I would highly recommend you switch to SCSI or at least go with SATA as they are more robust.

If the company relies on the technology, as any tax firm would, they need to recognize the importance of purchasing adequate hardware. You are much better off with a hardware Mirror than a Software Mirror (from a performance perspective). This is especially true for RAID 5.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark