Networking randomly failing on Win2k Server w/ Exchange 2003

[Guest]

As of the middle of the night last night, our mail server has been experiancing serious issues. On a clean boot, it runs fine from anywhere between 10minutes and 3 hours. At some point it will stop sending or recieving any tcp/ip traffic. I can ping myself (172.16.18.220) by IP or name (mail). However, once it's decided to stop recieving traffic, I cannot ping anything (including gateway). The server is a dell poweredge 2650 with 2 gigbit NICs. I've disabled the original and moved the IP to the secondary, with same results. Running the NIC diag tools they pass all tests fine. The Event Viewer shows no obvious errors (we do have some DNS issues with soon-to-be-retired domains, but these have always occured and I dont not feel they are responsible).
I am at a loss as to what to do, considering there is not obvoius error or problem. The machine works fine when logging onto it. We've replaced cable and run a cable test. We've moved the cable to a different port on a gigabit switch. I am totally at a loss, and the powers that be are not so happy! Any suggestions will be much appreciated

 

[Ken Nichols]

Justin,

Going to need some more info from you. The mail server
is the system that's experiencing the problem? Is this
system possibly a domain controller? Does this system
run other services such as DNS and/or DHCP? The event
viewer shows no obvious errors but what are the errors in
there? They may lead you to the root cause of the
problem? More info you can give the better.

Ken

-----Original Message-----
As of the middle of the night last night, our mail

server has been experiancing serious issues. On a clean
boot, it runs fine from anywhere between 10minutes and 3
hours. At some point it will stop sending or recieving
any tcp/ip traffic. I can ping myself (172.16.18.220) by
IP or name (mail). However, once it's decided to stop
recieving traffic, I cannot ping anything (including
gateway). The server is a dell poweredge 2650 with 2
gigbit NICs. I've disabled the original and moved the IP
to the secondary, with same results. Running the NIC diag
tools they pass all tests fine. The Event Viewer shows no
obvious errors (we do have some DNS issues with soon-to-
be-retired domains, but these have always occured and I
dont not feel they are responsible).

I am at a loss as to what to do, considering there is

not obvoius error or problem. The machine works fine when
logging onto it. We've replaced cable and run a cable
test. We've moved the cable to a different port on a
gigabit switch. I am totally at a loss, and the powers
that be are not so happy! Any suggestions will be much
appreciated

 

[Guest]

Ken,
Thanks for your reply, it is a DC and does run DNS. However, I managed to find the root of the cause via simple (and tiring) trial and error. We had 2 (count em!) gigabit NICs fail at the same time. Tossed in NIC #3 and she works like a charm. Going to have to get Dell to come replace those badboys.

Thanks for your help,
justin allen