Server unexpectedly locking up

[Guest]

I am running Windows 2000 Advanced Server on a Dell PowerEdge 6650 and I'm
experiencing lockups during the evening or early morning hours.

This morning the server locked up and I could see what the BSOD had to say.
The error had to do with scsiport.sys and said driver_irql_not_less_or_equal.

I'm running SP4. I noticed there is a hotfix available for a scsiport.sys
error but the version number is prior to what is currently installed for that
particular file.

The server is attached to a SAN PowerVault 650F and running Veritas
BackupExec v8.6. There are several other minor applications running as well.

When I arrive in the morning the server has an Event ID 6008 recorded in the
System Log.

The server is essentially dead. I am unable to ping the server. I am
unable to power down the server using the power button on the front panel. I
have to unplug the two power cords in order to restart the server! When the
server has experienced lockups in the morning the backup job has completed,
last evening when the server locked up it was during the backup job.

Last week I thought it might possibly be a corrupt pagefile so I booted the
server with a Winternals CD and deleted the pagefile and the server was fine
for 2 days and then started exhibiting the same behavior again.

I was thinking of running Performance Monitor in case it's a memory leak but
I'm not convinced it's a memory leak or Veritas at this point. I'm leaning
toward a possible hardware problem. If I were to run Performance Monitor any
suggestions as to what parameters I might want to choose?

This is a critical server and I'm getting a lot of user complaints! I'm
starting to feel backup up against a wall here!

Any other ideas as to what I might want to look at?

Thank you.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I am running Windows 2000 Advanced Server on a Dell PowerEdge 6650
and I'm experiencing lockups during the evening or early morning
hours.

This morning the server locked up and I could see what the BSOD had
to say. The error had to do with scsiport.sys and said
driver_irql_not_less_or_equal.

I'm running SP4. I noticed there is a hotfix available for a
scsiport.sys error but the version number is prior to what is
currently installed for that particular file.

The server is attached to a SAN PowerVault 650F and running Veritas
BackupExec v8.6. There are several other minor applications running
as well.

When I arrive in the morning the server has an Event ID 6008 recorded
in the System Log.

The server is essentially dead. I am unable to ping the server. I am
unable to power down the server using the power button on the front
panel. I have to unplug the two power cords in order to restart the
server! When the server has experienced lockups in the morning the
backup job has completed, last evening when the server locked up it
was during the backup job.

Last week I thought it might possibly be a corrupt pagefile so I
booted the server with a Winternals CD and deleted the pagefile and
the server was fine for 2 days and then started exhibiting the same
behavior again.

I was thinking of running Performance Monitor in case it's a memory
leak but I'm not convinced it's a memory leak or Veritas at this
point. I'm leaning toward a possible hardware problem. If I were to
run Performance Monitor any suggestions as to what parameters I might
want to choose?

This is a critical server and I'm getting a lot of user complaints!
I'm starting to feel backup up against a wall here!

Any other ideas as to what I might want to look at?

Thank you.

When do your backups run?

This definitely sounds like a hardware problem, so I'm not sure why you'd
think your pagefile was an issue. Did you upgrade the driver & firmware for
the SCSI controller? Is your server still under warranty? Did you contact
Dell for known issues/support with the SCSI controller? Is the SCSI
controller you use for your backup drive used for anything else? Do you
have another SCSI controller you can install instead, to see if you can
isolate the problem?