W2K Unresponsive - RAID wierdness

[Silmarillion]

For the last 1 1/2 weeks, I have been having an issue where the server becomes unresponsive for about a minute at a time. This is causing network apps to freeze while this is happening, and the Maximizer (CRM app) gateway PC (running a Pervasive.SQL engine in workgroup configuration, pulling data from the W2K server) loses its connection to the server (I am assuming it times out). While this is happening, one of the 4 drives in the RAID 5 array is blinking (on and off slowly, but not regularly) while the other 3 are mostly solid. I find this unusual, as normally the 4 drives operate mostly simultaneously (with some flickering of drive lights accross the drives as it stripes the data). I don't know if this is symptomatic or the cause of the problem. I have talked to Compaq tech support, and we have run the array diagnostics (it is a Smart Array 5i controller (daughterboard that sits on the built in motherboard SCSI channels) in a Compaq Proliant ML370 G2 PIII Dual 1.13GHz)). They did not show anything on the controller or drive. I have also pulled the physical drive that the light is blinking on (it is always the same drive), and let the array rebuild onto an online spare, and the spare does exactly the same thing the original drive did.

I have also tried to pin it down to any changes that were done on the server. I can not find anything specific that happened before the problem started. There is a fair bit on the server, but it has not been an issue in the past. We run W2K Server SP4, Exchange 2000, SQL Server 2000 (not currently used but required for SMS 2.0, also on this server), GFI MailEssentials 9, Executive Software Diskeeper 7 and Undelete 2.0, CA eTrust Antivirus V6.0 with Exchange Connector. We have not had issues with any of these in the past, at least none that were not identified and resolved.

When the problem occurs, it seems to be indicative of a disk channel problem, rather than processor. There will be spikes in the processor usage, but it does not pin at 100%. I am starting to suspect a bad array controller, but I have to convince Compaq of that to get them to replace it under warranty.

Any suggestions / similar experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Glen

 

[FredUG]

Our AV program was causing apps to "hang" for a minute or two until we disabled the 'realtime" protection but it certainly could be your controller. Any errors in the eventlog?

Good luck,

FredUG