Server intermittantly locking up, dropping connections until reboot. (Screenshot)

[thecomputerguy]

I have a client who's running a file server with server 2003 in a workgroup with about 8 or so workstations.

I've been trying to combat the server locking up and hanging intermittently which persists until the server is rebooted.

I get calls almost daily with them saying the server locked overnight and we had to reboot it in the morning. I'll also get calls during the day saying no one can get into their stuff and it shuts the whole operation down until someone reboots it, and the clients reboot their workstations.

What's even worse is the logs really dont give me any sort of information regarding what causes the server to lockup. Below is a SS of the log.

Per the log you can see ...

1.) Friday (6/29/2012) - Everyone left around 6pm for the weekend.
2.) Saturday (6/30/2012) - The server was ON but dead all day, no one was at the office so it didn't matter.
3.) Monday morning (7/1/2012) - The server had to force reboot by pressing the reset button on the server triggering a log event for 6/30/2012 saying there was an unexpected shutdown.

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4.) Shortly after a logged uptime of 14531 seconds at 2:25.43 a USER32 entry was created because the server had to be restarted again.

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5.) The only X entries in the log are the unexpected shutdowns and these which has something to do with the RAID but both hard drives were recently replaced.

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Please help! the client is losing patience with my battle against this!

 

[thecomputerguy]

If the logs aren't giving me ANYTHING useful ... where else can I look?

 

[thecomputerguy]

Im thinking about grabbing a new hard drive and just reinstalling server 2003 onto the new hard drive then just reinstall SQL express for the software they use. Since it's a workgroup it seems like it should be pretty easy to re implement the server aside from redoing SQL which I can have customer support do for their software.

 

[bigdessert]

What backup software or antivirus is installed?

 

[thecomputerguy]

What backup software or antivirus is installed?

Antivirus has already been uninstalled for troubleshooting purposes ... backup is only carbonite and ntbackup

 

[thecomputerguy]

Im sitting here F5'ing this page ... I'm in desperate need

 

[OfficeTechs]

drivers?

update the RAID (Promise Fastrak SATA raid)NIC and then graphics driver as a starter.

 

[techmaverick85]

Hi are you still there?

What make of server is it? Are there any manufacturer tools (eg HP Systems Management Homepage) on there?

 

[seedubya]

You're not really giving enough information. Does the server stop responding completely to all input? Does the mouse pointer move? Does taskmgr pop up when invoked? Have you been in front of the server when this happens? If not you need to get there. The logs don't record everything. For instance if it's a case of the NIC going to sleep and refusing to wake up (quote common) then that won't show in the logs.

Also what make/model/spec/age etc is the server?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I would suspect the age, and budget hardware, to be your enemies here. "fasttx2k1", as mentioned above, points to a promise fast trak raid controller.

To me, that rules out any Tier-1 brand servers like HP and Dell...so I'll suspect it's some home grown cloner motherboard of the month club box with mixtures of desktop grade components.

I'd spent a little bit of time updating the BIOS and motherboard drivers (if you can find them), video, and the latest RAID controller drivers from Promise for the particular card installed in this system.

Is it hard locked when pushing the power button is required? Curser move at all?

Make a proposal to this client for a quality brand server.....and keep an eye on the backup system. After a few big bills from you on troubleshooting this box, data restores from corruption, and just getting tired of power cycling it, hopefully they'll agree to the proposal.

 

[techmaverick85]

Yeah I would agree...No place for home-grown servers in a business.

Even if they get an HP ML100 series server with a couple of SATA disks in it and a half decent RAID controller, it will be so much easier to manage, and will have HP support with it. These things are as cheap as chips.

Given the customer is getting a bit ratty, and it looks like a hardware rather than software issue, if the current server has a retail copy or volume license version of Server 2003, then you can image the server and plonk it straight on the new one to save time - OEM you cannot.

If OEM - build the new one with Server 2008 R2 Foundation side by side, robocopy the files across out of hours and then update shortcuts on the client PCs.

But yeah as other people have said, update drivers, bios etc first, you never know.

 

[Dagooseisloose]

Usually when I have a server issue, I disable ASR (Automated Server Recovery) if the server supports it and there's an option under advanced in system properties which basically says reboot on lock up that I also disable. If you can't find he error in the logs you want the server to blue screen to give you a hint. Sometimes the server will stop rebooting once this is done. It seems that the auto reboot options sometimes thinks the servers locked and boots it.

Most of he times I see this is on SQL boxes.

Also I usually run all firmware and software updates. I also generally work with all enterprise class equipment. It might be time to sell them enterprise class equiptment. You an get a dl360 g4 or dl360 g5 used on ebayfor cheap and it will blow away anything they got. I don't do used but if there on a budget it might be the only choice.

Good Luck