Re: Entire Network stops resonding!

Oliver O'Boyle wrote:
"Mike Bailey" <mbailey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ujcjc86yGHA.4576@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My basic network is three of MS Server 2003. One which is PDC, DNS, DHCP and also servers our accounting app, one file and IIS server, and one ftp. I've got 2 Netgear 10/100/1000 smart switches and 1 HP 10/100 switch. I've got about 50 XP workstations.

What is happening is that all the sudden, every PC on the network, including the main server stops responding - seems to hang. They don't response to anything - even trying to Ctrl-Alt-Del or trying to open other icons. I've even had all icons on desktops disappear then eventually come back.

My main server responds this way also. I can click on program icons like Event Viewer, TS Manager, Active Directory..., and they don't respond.

Then after a little while, maybe 5 mins, things start responding again - even workstations.

When I check my event viewer, I don't see anything logged at all and there are no other indications of any problems.

The only thing that I can think of that has changed recently is that I added one of the Netgear 1000mb switches listed above. I'm using it as the "backbone" with all of my servers, other switches and firewall connect to it.

I have no idea how to begin to figure out what is causing this and need some help and suggestions.



Mike,

Check the resource usage on your DC. Everything "windows" is losing connectivity, but I doubt that your entire network is losing connectivity. I'm willing to bet that your DC becomes unavailable for a short period of time, and because it's the only DC on the network, nothing can authenticate or perform DNS queries etc...

I've actually seen this same issue before. A client of mine on a W2K network had a similar problem. I resolved it by reducing the load on the DC. In their particular case, they were also using the DC as a router, and this was causing too much overhead for the DC to perform it's Active Directory duties in a timely manner.

Another factor that could be causing this is also related to excess network card usage on your DC (in other words, it may not be related to excess CPU or RAM usage). If your NIC is pumping out too much traffic, and your network card isn't optimized for this (if it even can be), then client's will not be able to contact the DC.

The common theme here, is that your clients might be losing contact with the DC.

Hope this helps!
Oliver


Thanks,
Mike Bailey



Thanks Oliver. These do sound like likely causes. I have in the past seen a few errors for Active Directory and DNS and the such - but not recently with this issue.

When you say that you reduced the load on the DC, what did you do? This sounds very likely also since that one server is doing everything PDC, AD, DHCP, DNS... Could I solve this by using my second 2003 server as a secondary DC?

As for the NIC possibility, how would I know if this was the case? And if it was, does this mean just getting a higher end NIC, or can I do something like run two NICS? This server actually does have two nics, but only 1 is being used currently. I think the original card was a 10/100 and I added the currently used 10/100/1000.

.

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