File Sharing / Complete Lockup Under a class of children accessing the same file!!!

[RobBaxter]

Okay ... i'm at my whits end so lets hope something knows a simple "i know whats wrong".

 

So i have a Windows Server 2012 DC which is serving User Home DIRs and Share Files.

 

Dell R610 with a DAS MD1220 connected.

 

So i have a standard share which is all privileged nicely.

 

We have \\server\ShareFiles (the share path) mapped to K:\ which contains all our lovely shares that fill we useless detritus over the years.

 

== Here is the problem ==

 

Teacher A places a file in K:\Students\4F\editandreturndocument.docx

 

Teacher A asks class to "Open the File" and "Save As" to their own workspace, fill it out and return it.

 

Class of (22) children click the file (or any file shared for that matter) and every station cant (it crashes waiting for the file to open) a file just previously accessible is now "inaccessible".

 

It is obviously caused by some kind of limit. But 2012 server standard does not seem to have one, and yes it is licensed. Unlimited connections allow to the share, unlimited users allowed.

 

It is certainly not confined to simply share files either \\server\userhomes\students\ is also effected. So if you say login as a group login say "year1" (babys not so good with the logins ) then they all take a solid 5 minutes to login over the previous 30 seconds.

 

Offline Files are OFF, Folder Redirection On.

 

This is driving me up the wall. If you know of anything that may cause this, please post, at this stage i will try anything. My Microsoft Certs do NOTHING! Proving useless!!!! Respectfully requesting out geeking

[RobBaxter]

Update:

 

Not fixed... but i think i'm getting further with this...

 

I have "Impero" the Network / Classroom management solution. Using Impero (as adminstrator) to mitigate any access stuff i have missed. I instruct the systems to load k:\testfile.doc.

 

All 22 stations then show the Office 2010 loading dialog for word. 4 made it and opened the file. The others it seems "LAGGED" out as if the file was no longer there. In about 2 minutes to 3 minutes all the stations suddenly went "BANG", word unfroze and the document opened.

 

This is truly weird.

 

It's as if there is some "Spam Protection" feature built in which i can't find for love nore money ...

 

Anyways still trying to isolate where the issue actually is!!

 

R

 

p.s. Repaired 3 Roaming Profile Glitches in the process ... at the very least its spring cleaning!!

[RobBaxter]

Okay .... maybe im a slight retard magnet ... but this seems confined to Office 2010 ...

 

Images FINE

Notepad txt = FINE

 

So i wonder of something i have done is breaking Office 2010 .... seeming more than likely right now

 

So i update my query: Name me some reasons Office 2010 (which accessing the same Doc) from a shared drive opens about 4 instances then the rest hand on the pretty animation screen...

[psydii]

Have you installed the latest cumulative updates for 2012 and Office 2010?

 

If not, do it.

 

Otherwise use procmon to record what is happening, and see if there are any clues.

 

Impero and your AV are both things that hook into windows in all the right places to cause these sorts of symptoms, so try to see if the problem goes away with them removed.

 

It could also be a plugin for word, or something kookie in a template that is hanging trying to access an unavailable resource.

 

Procmon should help. http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Defrag-Tools/Defrag-Tools-3-Process-Monitor

[RobBaxter]

Yep... after LOADS of investigation. It seems something broke on WSUS, Office was not updating and i missed it. I repaired it downloaded 2010 SP2 aswell as the updates, pushing it out to the ICT suite as we speak. Also i updates the KMS for office with my latest VL KMS key. Basically... if its Office related, i'm checking it. If that fixes it, i will beat myself with a large stick and add "Oi ... syslogs ... " to the helpdesk Or ofc just pay attension to the host of Warnings Spiceworks gives

 

Thanks for the Ideas and Help!

[Ashm]

Have the students got write access to that folder where they are opening the file from? We had a similar issue and I put it down to office getting confused with multiple computers trying to create a temporary word file at the same time as it does that by default when a file is opened. Which is why you probably had no issues with the other file types you tried. Making the folder/word doc read only solved the issue for us.

[RobBaxter]

Update: Fixed!

 

Okay ... this was a horrible error ....

 

It seems i had a fault Network Controller. "1" of the 4 network adapters was so broken that packets where just being dropped. Wire shark showed clearly that all matters of horible hell were breaking loose.

 

Once i disabled the adapter and failed over just the other 3 all the problems went away.

 

Talk about a needle in a haystack ...

 

ANyways ... matter closed, does anyone know a decent monitor that might catch this kind of issue going foward?

[psydii]

Microsoft Message Analyzer?

 

The trouble is that because of the perceived required knowledge and skills people don't dive deep enough for the causes of problems like these to become obvious. In most cases these sorts of tools, to most of us, are great for showing "something doesn't look right with this thing over here" which is often enough to nail a solution, and if it isn't you have collected detailed evidence to pass to 3rd line who should have the skills/knowledge/experience to interpret the data and quickly identify the root cause.

 

MMA seems to hold the promise of cracking open the various black boxes that make up the desktop/network/server stack and make troubleshooting a hell of a lot easier for us.