W2k8 DataCenter File shares inaccessible

[JacksonGuy]

W2k8 Datacenter running as a VMware host. This is a file server housing 20-30 file shares for aprox 4000 users. Server has 2X 3.1GZ processors and 2GB RAM allotted to it, 4GB network to the server shared with 7 other low hitting machines (stats on switch show >40MB for the group). Things will work right along then no one will be able to connect to any shares. The shares still exist on the server but not accessible. Rebooting the server fixes the issue, however this is happening upwards to 2 times a day. Have rebuilt the server with a fresh install. Anyone have any ideas?? Event log give no errors or information as to why anything would be wrong.

 

[people3]

HI JacksonGuy,

Is this a dell server by any chance?

I know they have had an issue with a newtork card driver

 

[people3]

some more info,

Not the same issue but worth checking

http://www.petri.co.il/network-issues-with-windows-server-2008-rdp-on-dell-servers.htm

 

[JacksonGuy]

Yes the VM Servers are Dell Poweredge 2950s.

 

[JacksonGuy]

Thanks for the info. I read through the article and that seems that the W2k8 was installed directly on the server. In my situation I have VMWare ESX 3.5 as a server OS and on it sits a number of VM host machines. Some are W2k8 but most are W2k3. Could this issue be still the case but on a Linux level? When this happens I do not see any outages on the other host machines, however, at this time I am not ruling it out. Do you by chance know of any information on the network card issue that you mentioned? I will check to see if this setting exists on the Virtual Network card that is installed on that machine.

Since this post I have temporarily installed a W2k3 Server and attached the data drives on it to keep the issue from happening, however I would still like to get this running on 2008.

Any other help would greatly be appreciated.