Windows Server 2008 Going Unresponsive

[AdmnPower]

I recently put windows server 2008 on my main server, I also installed a gigabit nic in it. I have a 1 TB hard drive in it and I'm having a strange issue. I access the computer's shared files over my local network. While copying files off the computer works just fine, even large files like cd images and what not work fine. Copying files to the computer makes it crash. The odd thing is, small files seem to work just fine. Copying word documents and stuff to it is fine. If i try to copy a cd image to it though the computer disappears off the network and stops responding. Any Idea what might be causing this.

 

[kimsland]

Run CCleaner to clear out all temp files
Also confirm your Pagefile is set correctly
Do you receive any logged error codes in Event Viewer?

 

[AdmnPower]

What do you mean by, page file set correctly. Should I be setting a static size or should I let windows manage the file? I'll take a look at event viewer and let you know what I find.

 

[kimsland]

Actually mine is static
But I would recommend to start with Windows Managed
Windows is very good at managing the PageFile, Users tend to muck it up

By the way, if you have another Drive though (and I don't mean Partition) You should place the PageFile only on that secondary drive

 

[AdmnPower]

I haven't messed with it so it's what ever is default, I'm assuming windows managed. I wonder if my drives could be causing an issue. I have the os installed on a 40 gig IDE drive while all the other drives in the computer are SATA. I'm sure the page file is on the IDE drive. So I'm wondering if there are some speed issues here that are causing the crash especially with the gigabit network connection. Perhaps the computer crashes have something to do with that?

 

[kimsland]

I would highly recommend to update your old "ATA" drive (IDE connected) to SATA.
But regarding your Network, I hope that all your drivers and Windows Security Updates have been completed, and that you are using Ethernet and not USB on your network connection

Having extra drives means you can place the PageFile on the other drive
How much Ram is installed on your computer?
And you haven't mentioned if running CCleaner has fixed the fault yet

 

[tlarkin]

run CCCleaner on a server?

Wow

What version of Windows is your client running? Are you running XP with SMB1 instead of SMB2?

 

[kimsland]

run CCCleaner on a server?

Yes
Actually it would be interesting to know howmany Gigs it removes

 

[AdmnPower]

The server has a 3.0ghz pentium dual core and 2 gigs of ram. 1 x 40 gig IDE drive 1 x 500 gig SATA and 1 x 1tb SATA drive. I will give ccleaner a shot when I get home. I'm currently out of town. Also the computer is up to date with the most recent windows and driver updates.

 

[kimsland]

Oh, sorry I meant howmany Gigs CCleaner reports that it has removed
I still also believe the the IDE connected drive should be SATA.
If you need instructions on imaging the IDE to a new Sata drive, let me know.
I actually use Ghost, still (I know I know) but most users prefer Acronis (I don't think that works on Server 2008 although) But Paragon Drive Backup does
Or, maybe just purchase a new Sata drive and re-install clean

 

[tlarkin]

wow if you need a third party app to clean gigs and gigs of files off a server platform, then that speaks for itself right there.

The reason I asked the client is that server 08 uses NTLMv2 and SMB2 versus the older version which is found in server 03 and XP client. There are some known backwards compatibility issues.

 

[AdmnPower]

It seems to be pretty indifferent as far as clients go, I've had the issue when copying large files to the server with windows xp as well as vista business.

 

[tlarkin]

It seems to be pretty indifferent as far as clients go, I've had the issue when copying large files to the server with windows xp as well as vista business.

All the drives have ntfs file systems right?

There is a known issue, that is an older one, that happened in Windows machines when copying large files over the network.

Are you shaping network traffic at all with networking hardware?

The specs of the machines don't really matter as they could only transfer at 1k per a second and still actually work just fine, but I think the issue lies with in a networking component or networking hardware.

 

[AdmnPower]

Hmm, well i'm not shaping traffic. Everything runs through a little 8 port gigabit switch so nothing too insanely complicated. All the drives are formatted NTFS so that doesn't appear to be the issue. I still haven't had a chance to run Ccleaner or check anything out in terms of the event log. I'm pretty behind on stuff lately. I'm hoping to be able to look into it tonight. I'm thinking about completely ditching windows server and making the device a NAS. Before I resort to that though I might install windows server 2003 on one of the sata drives and give that a shot.

 

[tlarkin]

The only reason you need to run Windows server is to manage windows clients. If you don't need group policy or directory services you might as well just run any old OS on there instead of server. Unless you are doing it to teach yourself, which is always good. I am always for self education.

 

[AdmnPower]

Yeah, I just finished up a windows server class last semester so I was definitely using to to learn on then but I'm not any more. Do you know of any good NAS operating systems i could put on it?

 

[tlarkin]

Yeah, I just finished up a windows server class last semester so I was definitely using to to learn on then but I'm not any more. Do you know of any good NAS operating systems i could put on it?

I believe most NAS devices just run a Linux kernel with a web front end on it. I mean loading a light weight linux OS and then just enabling samba would be perfect for what you want to do.

 

[AdmnPower]

I have things like these sprinkled through my event log near unexpected shutdown notices. they might mean something

Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication. The data field contains the error number.

 

[tlarkin]

I have things like these sprinkled through my event log near unexpected shutdown notices. they might mean something

Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication. The data field contains the error number.

You are running kerberos? Well is your client machine bound to the AD server then? Kerberos is a ticketing system for authentication, and it is time/date sensitive. Tickets can only vary by 5 minutes.

I hate Windows error logs, maybe if you could start those services in debug mode? Maybe it might give you a better log file? I don't know off the top of my head how to do that, but I am sure google will tell you.

 

[AdmnPower]

Well I wasn't really intending to be running that, I just wanted to be running simple file sharing. I'm not running AD on the server nor am I running on a domain.