Servers Timeout Issue!!! HELP!!

[Ifti]

I have a new issue thats arisen today, and Im stumped......

My network consists of windows 2003 servers (13 servers, 1 DC) and XP Pro clients. Everythings been running fine up until today.

Around 12.30pm today, we started experiencing communication issues. This is affecting the entire network. Basically, when I ping across the network, even if I ping from one server to another, I get some replies and some timeouts. Its very intermittent. I may get 2 replies, then 2 timeouts, or 1 timeout and 3 replies, and so on. The connection seems to come and go.

This is occuring with all servers, not just one or two. As a result, clients cant keep their connection, and keeping hanging etc.

Ive tried the following so far....

1. Checked services on the DC - all are running fine.
2. Checked DNS, service seems to be running fine. Also when I ping, the host name is resolved correctly.
3. Checked DHCP and all is fine.
4. Checked Event Viewer on the DC, all seems fine. Just he few odd errors where clients arent able to connect properly.
5. Checked my core switch, which seems to be flashing away nicely as though its working.
6. Ive checked the CISCO switches across the network (2950's) since I thought some packets may be bouncing around in a loop somewhere, consuming bandwidth, and when I can connect to them, they are reporting bandwidth usage as being very low.
7. Tried removing the servers from the core switch (HP) and placing them all on their own switch, and pinging between servers is still intermittent.
8. Ive contacted our ISP who manage our firewall, and have asked if they are finding anything strange hitting the firewall - they are yet to get back to me....

The only thing I can think of is a hardware error with the core switch, but I dont want to replace it unless Im certain thats where the issue lies.

Any ideas what could suddenly cause this, when no network changes etc have been made at all?

Hello Ifti,

Some time ago we halso problems with internal communication between servers
and also clients. We figured out that it was caused by our CISCO 4 switch
stack, even after reloading all switches the problems come back, so we started
one by one and at the end we started changing the stack cable, because in
the switch evenlog where some strange errors between 2 switch stack ports.
After changing the cable and reloading the switches everything was fine.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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> I have a new issue thats arisen today, and Im stumped......
>
> My network consists of windows 2003 servers (13 servers, 1 DC) and XP
> Pro clients. Everythings been running fine up until today.
>
> Around 12.30pm today, we started experiencing communication issues.
> This is affecting the entire network. Basically, when I ping across
> the network, even if I ping from one server to another, I get some
> replies and some timeouts. Its very intermittent. I may get 2 replies,
> then 2 timeouts, or 1 timeout and 3 replies, and so on. The connection
> seems to come and go.
>
> This is occuring with all servers, not just one or two. As a result,
> clients cant keep their connection, and keeping hanging etc.
>
> Ive tried the following so far....
>
> 1. Checked services on the DC - all are running fine.
> 2. Checked DNS, service seems to be running fine. Also when I ping,
> the
> host name is resolved correctly.
> 3. Checked DHCP and all is fine.
> 4. Checked Event Viewer on the DC, all seems fine. Just he few odd
> errors where clients arent able to connect properly.
> 5. Checked my core switch, which seems to be flashing away nicely as
> though its working.
> 6. Ive checked the CISCO switches across the network (2950's) since I
> thought some packets may be bouncing around in a loop somewhere,
> consuming bandwidth, and when I can connect to them, they are
> reporting
> bandwidth usage as being very low.
> 7. Tried removing the servers from the core switch (HP) and placing
> them all on their own switch, and pinging between servers is still
> intermittent.
> 8. Ive contacted our ISP who manage our firewall, and have asked if
> they are finding anything strange hitting the firewall - they are yet
> to get back to me....
> The only thing I can think of is a hardware error with the core
> switch, but I dont want to replace it unless Im certain thats where
> the issue lies.
>
> Any ideas what could suddenly cause this, when no network changes etc
> have been made at all?
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

[Ifti]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Ive tried removing all switches from the network, so just have the servers on the main core HP switch, and still get dropped packets and timeout issues between servers, and to the gateway.

Ive checked some of the switches and they report bandwidth usage as being low.

Do you think it could be a problem with my router?? Could that cause communication issues between servers, even though all servers are in the same core switch??

I really don't think this is the problem with your router instead it maybe your core switch. Are you running spanning tree on your switch? you need to make sure there are no intermittent loops.