Hello,
There is a strange problem at the moment for a very mission critical machine (That is running Microsft SQL Server 2000 with service pack 3 and all the latest patches havebeen updated on the machine). The problem is that sqlserv.exe process is consuming upto 90% of the cpu resources. The operating system we are using is Microsoft Windows 2003 (all patches applied). I would appreciate if someone could list down the approach for tracing this problem to its roots.

According to my understanding and the approach I am following is:

1) Immidiate antiVirus Scan (Norton with all definitons updated), which showed nothing.

2) Process Explorer for each and every process description that is executing on my machine.

3) Spyware Scans which did fix nitti grittie sort of worms and spyware, but the problem remains there.

I was thinking of monitoring all the inbound and outbound traffic of that machine (MS SQL Server Machine) i.e. monitoring all the ports and the traffic on it. Can someone recommend a handy tool for this ??

The biggest problem with this machine is that it is connected to internet (only for the sakeo f patches). I am trying to convince my administration that the machine should refuse all connection from the outer world (or machine has no access to internet) and we can apply the patches manually or by means of our patch updation server.

Any ideas from the community towards troubleshooting the problem that consumes around 90% of the cpu resources?? I would appreciate if someone could recommend any tools or suggest anything else.

Thank you
Ommy