Server disconnects then reconnects...is it on strike?

Here is a strange issue I have come across...but it is one that by the time I begin to gather information on it, it will cease to happen and all goes back to normal.

At first I get disconnected from our share/program server. I try to remote to it and cannot as well as not being able to connect to the share drive. After a few minutes it comes back online and everything resumes. This has happened probably about once a month for a 5 minute time frame.

It has me quite unnerved and makes me wonder as to why this issue is happening. The only events I find in the even log which seem to happen just moments before the actual disconnect are event logs 1030 and 1058 which seem to refer to permissions with the GPO (gpt.ini).

Has anyone experienced this problem before or something similar. Is there a way to resolve this or is this server doomed with permanent hiccups?

If you have any specific questions just ask and i will try to provide some more depth to help. Thanks in advance for looking into this.

Is it happening on all workstations....or just yours??

Are there any messages in the event log around the same time this happens??

What 3rd party software is running?

What service does the server provide to the network? Just file sharing?
Share point? exchange? ISA etc

MLF

As MLF said are you the only one expereincing this issue or others too....... Besides Group Policy there could be other issues, like media (cable) or other hardware devices like switch which is involved in your connection with server...... You have to check first with other workstation casue if they are expereincing the same issue then might be something wrong at Server end.

This affects all workstations. The server literally becomes unresponsive to application or file requests. It will not let you remote into it, but during one episode I could still ping the box, but other than that I couldn't get anything to work.

The only messages in the event log are 1030 and 1058 which specify GPO issues. The only third party software running is Perforce which is a database app for game development and then of course there is a backup server that collects any changes in the data on that server. It also has a wiki that runs on it, but I don't think these are the cause of the problem...perhaps I am wrong...do you need more info?

Anyone ever seen this happen to a server before?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904946

or try a different NIC....

Does it happen same time everyday???

>>Sorry posted before I finished :rolleyes:

I had a WS that was acting as a basic file server.....that would crash every night around 7pm.

I couldnt figure out what was going on...til I went in and sat beside it...around the time it was crashing.

Just so happens the cleaning staff would be in at that time.....and they used to vacum in the area....banging the desk the machine was on...causing it to reboot (old PII...terrible CPU mounting IMHO)

MLF

That microsoft article does seem to list the sympton we get.

It doesn't seem that this issue always comes up at the exact same time or date. It is not happening over and over at the same time, date, etc.

I kind of wish it was from the cleaning people, but they don't come in until later.

Referring to the different nic...I noitced that the nic that is plugged in is the secondary port, so I changed the nic priorities so that it is now the first/primary nic. Should I still try changing to the other nic? Perhaps a bad nic or something...which seems strange as it works 99.9% of the time without a problem.

Got a good laugh from your story though...can't believe a vacuum would mess up the server like that. Guess anything can happen.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908370/en-us

MLF

Could be a bad NIC, but you can also check the lan connection which is going into the switch. Try changing the port, might be that port is the cause of the issue.

Cause after eliminating these two hardware causes we can come up on other things like you said Group Policy, but the strange thing is you don get even ping reply means all the network get down sort of thing.

Let us know whats the outcome of nic changing and port changing!

I would check that nic Blunted One. I had a similar issue and switching the nic resolved the issue. If it is an embedded nic, I would suspect that as most server /pc manufacturers use embedded nics that are of lower quality.Try running a diagnostics utility from the manufacturer to check for any errors. Also, as stated by others, check all cabling and your switch ports. Good Luck