Server freezes using during terminal sessions

[Guest]

I have a Win2k Server running Terminal Services. It is about 14 days that the
server freezes randomly during terminal sessions. It is required to restart
the server manualy and than it is OK for a while. I do not know why is that
happening. I have all the Windows Updates installed, the event log does not
show any signs of trable. Can someone please help me?

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

It's not uncommon for a Terminal Server to need a regular reboot.
You could have an application running which "leakes" memory
(meaning that it doesn't return used memory to the OS when a user
quits the application).
Keep an eye on the available memory on your server. If you see that
it steadily decreases, you have a memory leak. In that case,
schedule a automatic reboot during off-hours, once a week or so.

You can also check if one of these hotfixes apply to your
situation:

817446 - Terminal Services Stops Responding
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817446

823747 - Windows 2000 Terminal Server Stops Responding and a Black
Screen Appears
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823747

837439 - Windows 2000 Terminal Server stops responding after you
experience access violations in a Terminal Server session
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=837439

 

[Guest]

I have had systems that I would never reboot, except to apply Windows Updates
or when doing software installations, but I currently reboot every server in
my MetaFrame Farm during my backup window.

It'd also be worth while to examine the event log when the server freezes to
see if something happened, i.e. service failure. Keeping a perfmon stats
would help to, so you can see if a certain program consumes all of the system
resources when you have this outage.

One other thing to look at is BIOS updates for the motherboard, SCSI
Controllers, SCSI Disks and NIC.

As always, I will warn that using 3rd party printer drivers that did not
ship with the server OS can cause all kinds of nastiness, like BSOD, printer
spooler failure....

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
http://www.workthin.com