# Windows Server 2008 Going Unresponsive



## AdmnPower

I recently put windows server 2008 on my main server, I also installed a gigabit nic in it. I have a 1 TB hard drive in it and I'm having a strange issue. I access the computer's shared files over my local network. While copying files off the computer works just fine, even large files like cd images and what not work fine. Copying files to the computer makes it crash. The odd thing is, small files seem to work just fine. Copying word documents and stuff to it is fine. If i try to copy a cd image to it though the computer disappears off the network and stops responding. Any Idea what might be causing this.


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## kimsland

Run CCleaner to clear out all temp files
Also confirm your Pagefile is set correctly
Do you receive any logged error codes in Event Viewer?


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## AdmnPower

What do you mean by, page file set correctly. Should I be setting a static size or should I let windows manage the file? I'll take a look at event viewer and let you know what I find.


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## kimsland

Actually mine is static
But I would recommend to start with Windows Managed
Windows is very good at managing the PageFile, Users tend to muck it up 

By the way, if you have another Drive though (and I don't mean Partition) You should place the PageFile only on that secondary drive


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## AdmnPower

I haven't messed with it so it's what ever is default, I'm assuming windows managed. I wonder if my drives could be causing an issue. I have the os installed on a 40 gig IDE drive while all the other drives in the computer are SATA. I'm sure the page file is on the IDE drive. So I'm wondering if there are some speed issues here that are causing the crash especially with the gigabit network connection. Perhaps the computer crashes have something to do with that?


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## kimsland

I would highly recommend to update your old "ATA" drive (IDE connected) to SATA.
But regarding your Network, I hope that all your drivers and Windows Security Updates have been completed, and that you are using Ethernet and not USB on your network connection

Having extra drives means you can place the PageFile on the other drive
How much Ram is installed on your computer?
And you haven't mentioned if running CCleaner has fixed the fault yet


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## tlarkin

run CCCleaner on a server?

Wow

What version of Windows is your client running?  Are you running XP with SMB1 instead of SMB2?


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## kimsland

tlarkin said:


> run CCCleaner on a server?


Yes
Actually it would be interesting to know howmany Gigs it removes


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## AdmnPower

The server has a 3.0ghz pentium dual core and 2 gigs of ram. 1 x 40 gig IDE drive 1 x 500 gig SATA and 1 x 1tb SATA drive. I will give ccleaner a shot when I get home. I'm currently out of town. Also the computer is up to date with the most recent windows and driver updates.


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## kimsland

Oh, sorry I meant howmany Gigs CCleaner reports that it has removed
I still also believe the the IDE connected drive should be SATA.
If you need instructions on imaging the IDE to a new Sata drive, let me know.
I actually use Ghost, still (I know I know) but most users prefer Acronis (I don't think that works on Server 2008 although) But Paragon Drive Backup does 
Or, maybe just purchase a new Sata drive and re-install clean


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## tlarkin

wow if you need a third party app to clean gigs and gigs of files off a server platform, then that speaks for itself right there.

The reason I asked the client is that server 08 uses NTLMv2 and SMB2 versus the older version which is found in server 03 and XP client.  There are some known backwards compatibility issues.


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## AdmnPower

It seems to be pretty indifferent as far as clients go, I've had the issue when copying large files to the server with windows xp as well as vista business.


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## tlarkin

AdmnPower said:


> It seems to be pretty indifferent as far as clients go, I've had the issue when copying large files to the server with windows xp as well as vista business.



All the drives have ntfs file systems right?

There is a known issue, that is an older one, that happened in Windows machines when copying large files over the network.

Are you shaping network traffic at all with networking hardware?

The specs of the machines don't really matter as they could only transfer at 1k per a second and still actually work just fine, but I think the issue lies with in a networking component or networking hardware.


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## AdmnPower

Hmm, well i'm not shaping traffic. Everything runs through a little 8 port gigabit switch so nothing too insanely complicated. All the drives are formatted NTFS so that doesn't appear to be the issue. I still haven't had a chance to run Ccleaner or check anything out in terms of the event log. I'm pretty behind on stuff lately. I'm hoping to be able to look into it tonight. I'm thinking about completely ditching windows server and making the device a NAS. Before I resort to that though I might install windows server 2003 on one of the sata drives and give that a shot.


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## tlarkin

The only reason you need to run Windows server is to manage windows clients.  If you don't need group policy or directory services you might as well just run any old OS on there instead of server.  Unless you are doing it to teach yourself, which is always good.  I am always for self education.


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## AdmnPower

Yeah, I just finished up a windows server class last semester so I was definitely using to to learn on then but I'm not any more. Do you know of any good NAS operating systems i could put on it?


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## tlarkin

AdmnPower said:


> Yeah, I just finished up a windows server class last semester so I was definitely using to to learn on then but I'm not any more. Do you know of any good NAS operating systems i could put on it?



I believe most NAS devices just run a Linux kernel with a web front end on it.  I mean loading a light weight linux OS and then just enabling samba would be perfect for what you want to do.


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## AdmnPower

I have things like these sprinkled through my event log near unexpected shutdown notices. they might mean something

Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication.  The data field contains the error number.


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## tlarkin

AdmnPower said:


> I have things like these sprinkled through my event log near unexpected shutdown notices. they might mean something
> 
> Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication.  The data field contains the error number.



You are running kerberos?  Well is your client machine bound to the AD server then?  Kerberos is a ticketing system for authentication, and it is time/date sensitive.  Tickets can only vary by 5 minutes.

I hate Windows error logs, maybe if you could start those services in debug mode?  Maybe it might give you a better log file?  I don't know off the top of my head how to do that, but I am sure google will tell you.


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## AdmnPower

Well I wasn't really intending to be running that, I just wanted to be running simple file sharing. I'm not running AD on the server nor am I running on a domain.


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## kimsland

AdmnPower said:


> nor am I running on a domain.


That error "kerberos" just means you are not running a domain
And therefore can be ignored

Also try this: (diagnostic test)
1)  Type msconfig in the search box, press ENTER, 
2)  Go to Services tab, 
3)  UNCHECK *cryptography services* (that's the Kerberos service), 
4)  Click APPLY, 
5)  Restart computer.


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## tlarkin

kimsland said:


> That error "kerberos" just means you are not running a domain
> And therefore can be ignored
> 
> Also try this: (diagnostic test)
> 1)  Type msconfig in the search box, press ENTER,
> 2)  Go to Services tab,
> 3)  UNCHECK *cryptography services* (that's the Kerberos service),
> 4)  Click APPLY,
> 5)  Restart computer.



I don't see how cryptography and kerberos are even related, as kerberos is just an authentication tool based on a ticketing system, where as cryptography has a very broad use.



> If the Cryptography service is disabled, either manually or through a Group Policy operation, or its support files are damaged, a great variety of things can go wrong. Application installs may fail with a warning that the integrity of a file could not be verified or that it has not passed Windows Logo testing, that a digital signature could not be found, or that a package was not signed properly.



source:  http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1040220,00.html

There are a lot of security features stuck in that service.  Not sure I would want to disable it.

Now kerberos probably sends and receives tickets over an encrypted connection, that is secure.  You wouldn't want kerberos tickets sitting in clear text, that would make them easy to spoof.


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## AdmnPower

So do you have any idea what I should do. Everything seems to work perfectly. I can transfer files between hard drives if I remote into the computer so I don't think it's an actual hard drive issue. I can also copy files off of the computer perfectly fine. I did move the swap file to one of the sata drives. What I'm thinking about doing is trying the 10/100 card that's built into the motherboard and see if it still crashes if I use that. If it doesn't then it has to be something to do with the gigabit nic or the fact that I'm using gigabit.


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## kimsland

AdmnPower said:


> Everything runs through a little 8 port gigabit switch.


Yes try removing that and test with onboard


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## tlarkin

AdmnPower said:


> So do you have any idea what I should do. Everything seems to work perfectly. I can transfer files between hard drives if I remote into the computer so I don't think it's an actual hard drive issue. I can also copy files off of the computer perfectly fine. I did move the swap file to one of the sata drives. What I'm thinking about doing is trying the 10/100 card that's built into the motherboard and see if it still crashes if I use that. If it doesn't then it has to be something to do with the gigabit nic or the fact that I'm using gigabit.



Well, I gotta ask this.  Is this a legit copy of Win Server?  Is it fully updated?


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## AdmnPower

It sure is lagit  I got it through Microsoft Developer Network at my school. Yay for free legal copies. I just checked to see how up to date i was and it seems the only thing I didn't have was a deal for .net framework 3.5. Other than that everything is up to date. I'm going to test it out tonight and see if I can get it to crash. I enabled flow control on the gigabit nic as well as upped the buffer size on the receiving end to match the outgoing side. I'll report back what I find out later today.


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## tlarkin

AdmnPower said:


> It sure is lagit  I got it through Microsoft Developer Network at my school. Yay for free legal copies. I just checked to see how up to date i was and it seems the only thing I didn't have was a deal for .net framework 3.5. Other than that everything is up to date. I'm going to test it out tonight and see if I can get it to crash. I enabled flow control on the gigabit nic as well as upped the buffer size on the receiving end to match the outgoing side. I'll report back what I find out later today.



Like I said earlier, your transfer rates can be as slow as 1k per a second, but that won't corrupt data or crash a server, unless you are shaping network traffic and packets are being dropped at a massive rate.

I would see if you can find any relevant logs in the event viewer, or whatever MS is calling their log viewer in server 08, as I haven't ever really fussed with it.  The last windows server I touched was 2k3


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## AdmnPower

Ok, here's what i've found. I disconnected the gigabit nic and am now using the 10/100 built into the motherboard. Transfers are stable now and I'm without crash but they are also slow. Typically wire speed on 100 megabit connections yields around 10 - 11 megs a second and i'm only getting about 5.5 megs a second. I'm going to try replacing the cable to see if that fixes anything.


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