WIN2k-Dell Poweredge 2650 Reboots 1--2 times a week.

[oakuniv]

Hi - I recently purchased 2 Dell PowerEdge 2650 servers.
They have 2 dual 2.4 GHZ processors, 2 GB of RAM, 5 36 GB 15K RPM Harddrives in a RAID 5 configuration.

It is running as an Apache Webserver - running an application called WebCT. We also use a software product called DoubleTake to mirror our install of WebCT to another identical server. I use the Gigabit network card with a cross over cable to send the double take data to the other server.

Anyway - here is the problem. The server reboots itself at random times. 2 to 3 times per week. The last software I installed before the reboot problem appeared was Windows Service Pack 3. I have since uninstalled service pack 3 but the reboot problem continues.

Using Dell Openmanage software I have run diagnostics and found no problems. I have also taken the server down and re-seeded all the components. But it still re-boots.

The only error that I get once the server has rebooted is that the server restarted unexpectedly. I haven't used the Failover capabilities of the DoubleTake software yet - because I believe the other server may have the same problem.

The first time these servers rebooted - one of our other server admins tried to access each of the machines with terminal services. When he did that each of the machines rebooted as he tried to connect to them. This was several days after we had already gone into production with these machines.

At one point I was rebooting the server myself and I did get a blue screen but I wasn't able to read it fast enough before the system re-booted. I know there is an option to not allow the system to re-boot so that it just hangs on the blue screen. . .and that might be the last thing we try. . .I can't afford to have the systems down for long and it is so hard to know when they might re-boot.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[micon55]

Hi,
We also had a similar problem with the Dell Poweredge servers. We are running W2K server on them and one particular machine randomly has had this same problem.

Did you have any problems with the Gigabit Ether card? We found that if you install a card with the manufacturers drivers, (not the Dell disk), we had problems. We installed the Intel Pro 1000T cards.

I would be interested to find an answer to this as we re-built the server in the end.
Mike

 

[oakuniv]

Well when I got the machines I did format them and install them using the microsoft drivers. . .not the ones from Dell. . .but the ones that came with W2K Server. I am using the gigabit card for a direct connection. . .I haven't had any noticable problems with them although recently when I installed the Openmanage software I started getting a NetBT error in the event viewer. Reinstalling the network adapters resolved that.

If I do end up re-building these I will make sure to do so with the Dell install disks. . .hopefully there is something else I can do to resolve the issue.

 

[ktiller]

Do the admin users who are using Terminal Server have access to the shutdown command in their sessions? If shutdown is selected from inside a session you will reboot the server. Loopback policies can be set to remove any options within Terminal sessions which may cause admin headaches if mistakes happen. If you need info on loopback processing for Group Policy objects, try Q231287 and Q260370 in the MS knowledge base.

Kris

 

[GlenJohnson]

Did you go into advanced settings and uncheck automatic re-boot? Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures."
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747); French moralist.

 

[oakuniv]

I have removed terminal services from the machine when the problem arose. . .so no one has been using terminal services.

I haven't unchecked automatic reboot because I am afraid the system will completley hang and no one will be able to access it. I know I might need to do that in the end to figure out the problem. . .except I am under pressure to keep the system up at all times.

Shajan

 

[GlenJohnson]

I had that checked on my desktop pc, and the unit started re-booting. The amount of time the re-boots occured kept getting less and less, until it got to the point it would re-boot, load the os, then re-boot. Only option I had was f-disk. Go to

http://www.sysinternals.com/

and look for Process Explorer. It's a freebie, and one of the options is view process tree. This shows the threads running under applications. I found an old version of a non-windows software that kept freezing my server there, got an upgrade to the software, problem solved. Good luck.
Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures."
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747); French moralist.

 

[oakuniv]

The application that we run on our server is a 16 bit app. . .the company orginally designed it for Linux. . .and ported over to Windows. It has run fine under windows for the last 2 years. . .and the company is always upgrading it. . .don't know why the keep it a 16 bit app though.

Shajan

 

[jrf2112]

It is very unlikely your application is causing your machine to reboot. Go to Dell or your video chipset manufacturer's site and get the latest video drivers. Switch to Linksys 10/100 cards for your network temporarily to eliminate that possibility. I know, Linksys == cheap. NOT TRUE. Thay have excellent drivers.

Things that cause reboots are low-level devices and drivers, i.e. bad memory, incorrect video drivers, disk subsystem drivers, RAID memory, power problems, mismatches CPUs, CPU fan failure (personal lesson, 3-hours lost on that one), loose chips, etc.

Start with the basics. Dell builds a great box.

Godd luck!

Jim

 

[oakuniv]

Everything seems to point to some type of driver conflict - the one time that the system did blue screen in front of me I saw the following:

DRIVER IRQ not_less_equal

That's all that I could catch before it rebooted. . .

(Aside from this problem - I have never had a problem with Dell.)

 

[GlenJohnson]

Go to

http://www.sysinternals.com/

and look for Process Explorer. Have you tried this? It saved me.


Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures."
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747); French moralist.

 

[oakuniv]

HI. . .I have downloaded it. . .and used it on my PC and our backup server. . .but I am not sure how to interpert it.
[purple]

 

[GlenJohnson]

What happened to me was, I kept the monitor up all the time. When the software that was causing me grief, it eventually showed me that it was using 85 to 90% cpu usage. I contacted the software vendor, and they sent me the updates. The ms monitor doesn't show enough. It only showed services.exe had the cpu hung up, the Process Explorer showed me what process called the services.exe to begin with. Make sure you have the option to see the process tree checked. Good luck. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures."
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747); French moralist.

 

[devilman0]

I have tried all of the above steps, disabled term. services (it is rarely used by me anyway) and tried process explorer from sysinternals and to no avail. Services.exe still locks up, can't see what is causing services.exe to lock up (use 100% cpu) because process explorer stops at the same time. This happens at different intervals and about 3 times per day. I have stoped all non essential services and still happens. I am using a lpt printer (lexmark t522) with the latest drivers downloaded yesterday (12/18/2002) and still happens. Is this a problem with the program/registry and i need to rebuild. Nothing changed when this started happening. Users were already added. Nothing in event viewer about service failing to load.
any thoughts are greatly apprecieated

thanks, James

 

[mrregan]

Hi,
Another non-software issue that can cause this behavior is a bad ups battery. Is this system plugged into an old battery?

 

[fuunstatic]

try removing terminal services component

(i installed in on a dell server which made it reboot endlessing in a loop, removing it cured the problem)

you could also get permission to log a one off call with microsoft, they will get you to carry out a dump of the system and go through it with a fine tooth comb

 

[devilman0]

what about TS causes 2k to lock up? All i am using it is for administration (reading logs, editing webpage,etc.)

Thanks James

 

[oakuniv]

Hey. . .I don't know if it will help you but when I originally posted this thread I posted it to two different areas here is the other area that I posted it to and I got some other suggestions there.

I found that by leaving my system logged in it would not reboot. We are failing over to our backup system today actually because I rebuilt that system about a month ago using the Dell System disks and it doesn't seem to have had any problems. Wish me luck.

thread485-364900

 

[devilman0]

Yes, old ups battery, how does this cause this issue, there is no monitoring software installed (battery doesn't have a monitoring port)? I know we have major power problems here, (voltage before the batt is usually 100v, droppes below 95v at times, i know this is damaging to electronic equipment's power suplies, but we are getting a new office soon, so..) but this has been the case for 1year, and all the other compters here (xp and 2kpro) have no problems that i am aware of.

thanks james

 

[devilman0]

It hasn't rebooted yet (loged in or not) but it'll lockup (or apparently lockup, services.exe uses 100%cpu) and if i let it sit for 2 or 3 hours, it goes back to normal (with out resetting). If i reset it using the pannel swith it comes back to normal and won't lock up at the same point in time (random intervals) backup sofware is native nt backup (that comes shiped with 2k server, which has been working fine for over 3 months)

thanks for your suggestions
james