Performance log setup, help

[Guest]

I'm trying to diagnose a problem with a Win2k server that freezes up just
about once a week, at night. I'm running Brightstor Arcserve for nightly
backups (which run at 11:59pm) and eTrust antivirus. Those are the only
applications that run at night, along with Active Directory replication to
the other OU's. No error's are being thrown by the two applications so that
doesn't help me. In the morning, the system is frozen with gray squares for
icons in the system tray and the mouse, keyboard etc. are all locked up. I'm
unable to use the Ctrl-Alt-Del and are forced to hard reboot. I have all the
updated patches from Microsoft and Computer Associates installed. Can anyone
help me set a performance log to track what is going on at night or have an
other suggestions of where to look?

AC

 

[Aurelien [MS]]

I'm trying to diagnose a problem with a Win2k server that freezes up just
about once a week, at night. I'm running Brightstor Arcserve for nightly
backups (which run at 11:59pm) and eTrust antivirus. Those are the only
applications that run at night, along with Active Directory replication to
the other OU's. No error's are being thrown by the two applications so
that
doesn't help me. In the morning, the system is frozen with gray squares
for
icons in the system tray and the mouse, keyboard etc. are all locked up.
I'm
unable to use the Ctrl-Alt-Del and are forced to hard reboot. I have all
the
updated patches from Microsoft and Computer Associates installed. Can
anyone
help me set a performance log to track what is going on at night or have
an
other suggestions of where to look?

AC

_________

Hi,

Typically backup programs use a lot of page pool memory during the first
step of the backup.
Frequently if filter drivers (as antivirus for example, which also uses page
pool) are installed you can easily reach the maximum page pool used. The
symptoms of this behavior is event 2019 in event logs, slow perfmormance or
system hang.

To check if you have this issue you can use the perfmon tool in w2k and
trace the memory object and check the value of the page pool during the
backup. By default on W2k system the maximum page pool is around 164 Mo

Then you can custom your W2k by increasing the pagepoolsize or limiting the
pagepool usage.
Please find below a technical artical listing the registry entries you can
customize:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;304101

If your server is in production I suggest you contact the Microsoft Support
before doing such a modification.

Regards

Aurelien Goillot
Microsoft France

 

[Guest]

_________

Hi,

Typically backup programs use a lot of page pool memory during the first
step of the backup.
Frequently if filter drivers (as antivirus for example, which also uses page
pool) are installed you can easily reach the maximum page pool used. The
symptoms of this behavior is event 2019 in event logs, slow perfmormance or
system hang.

To check if you have this issue you can use the perfmon tool in w2k and
trace the memory object and check the value of the page pool during the
backup. By default on W2k system the maximum page pool is around 164 Mo

Then you can custom your W2k by increasing the pagepoolsize or limiting the
pagepool usage.
Please find below a technical artical listing the registry entries you can
customize:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;304101

If your server is in production I suggest you contact the Microsoft Support
before doing such a modification.

Regards

Aurelien Goillot
Microsoft France

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll try and add the monitors to watch the suspected server. Is there a
specific monitor for the pool paged under memory? If I select Memory for the
Performance object, it lists 2 Pool Nonpaged (Bytes and Allocs). Also lists 3
Pool Paged (Allocs, Bytes, Resident Bytes).

I did receive more information regarding this site server and according to
IT, the server is running in the morning when users log in (Win2k BDC).
Shortly after Print jobs are sent to one of the 3 printers, the server
freezes. The printers are shared off the server. I'm wondering if printing is
the cause of this and not the backup jobs. Like I said, the backups are
complete from the nightly jobs. It only freezes once every 1.5 weeks or so,
and always in the morning. Should I be monitoring Memory for both issues? Do
Perfmon's take up a lot of processes?

I appreciate all the help so far.
Adam

 

[Aurelien [MS]]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll try and add the monitors to watch the suspected server. Is there a
specific monitor for the pool paged under memory? If I select Memory for
the
Performance object, it lists 2 Pool Nonpaged (Bytes and Allocs). Also
lists 3
Pool Paged (Allocs, Bytes, Resident Bytes).

I did receive more information regarding this site server and according to
IT, the server is running in the morning when users log in (Win2k BDC).
Shortly after Print jobs are sent to one of the 3 printers, the server
freezes. The printers are shared off the server. I'm wondering if printing
is
the cause of this and not the backup jobs. Like I said, the backups are
complete from the nightly jobs. It only freezes once every 1.5 weeks or
so,
and always in the morning. Should I be monitoring Memory for both issues?
Do
Perfmon's take up a lot of processes?

I appreciate all the help so far.
Adam

_______

Hi,

Typically printer drivers can create a hang on the server, especially if the
drivers are out of date or with different version on the server and client
computer.

If you say that the hang appear just after a print job I would check that
the drivers are up to date and that they have the same version on the server
and client computer.

Regards

Aurelien