Server 2012 File Server - suddenly stops serving requests (but otherwise looks fine)

[TheCrust]

Our support company have asked me to provide a network monitor trace from an affected client the next time this problem occurs - but in the meantime have asked me to try stopping and disabling the Web Client Service on an affected machine and seeing if this makes a difference.

 

So far, it *might* have done but I'm not sure because this problem doesn't affect all our users all of the time, only some. Can someone else with an affected Windows 8.1 client want to try the same step and see what that does for them?

[laserblazer]

Just happened again. All the computers ground to a halt but no sign of any strain on the server. Reboot the server and it's fine again. It had just picked up some updates.

[Arthur]

Well today we had our 2012 R2 server stop letting shares be accessed

I wonder if the fix suggested below might be worth a try?

 

Hyper-V Virtual Machines losing network connectivity under Server 2012 R2

[bon_clay]

I've applied the following updates since the last time it happened (21/01/2014):

Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 update rollup: November 2013

Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 update rollup: October 2013

 

and haven't had the problem occur again.

[jbailey]

Interesting, was Stalking this thread for while as looking to move dfs off 2008r2.

 

Anyone else who had issues with 2012 shares seeing them resolved after the updates detailed above?

 

Also, in terms of moving over to 2012, can you mix and match in dfs?

 

Ie setup a 2012 machine, add it to dfs, wait for date to copy and then remove old 2008 machine, if not how did others do a smooth move to 2012 with their dfs machines?

 

Thanks

[Silence1]

We have the same issue with 2012:

- Virtual Machine or Physical Machine doesnt matter

- Sometimes Fileshares response slow -> later Shares are inaccessable / do not respond completly

- Installed all Windows Updates

- RDP is possible / no Errors in Eventlogs

- we are able to access files on the local machine

- Reboot fixes the Issue temporäry

 

Is this also happening with 2012 R2?

[Seb1780]

I'm not involved in the technical side here, but I thought I'd post this as we seem to be getting somewhere!

 

We've had the same problem here for nearly two weeks now, although today it seems we might have some progress. We had all the symptoms described in previous posts and ended up with numerous external agencies involved at considerable cost.

 

The latest thing we have done is to update all firmware on the switches / NICs / servers - all of which are HP.

 

We are currently on half-term so we have been running scripts to simulate thousands of read / writes per hour to the file server; prior to today we have cause the system to fail within an hour or so, today the system is still running 10 hours after the last restart.

 

Not saying it's fixed, but it looks a lot healthier than it did yesterday.

 

We're running 2012R2.

[jbailey]

Hi, would you be willing to name hp kit involved?

[Seb1780]

Hi, would you be willing to name hp kit involved?

 

Sorry, as I said I'm not part of the technical team so don't have access to that info. But given the fact that we have updated the firmwear in everything I think this is a moot point as we have a mix of switches / servers covering a wide range of dates / models.

[jbailey]

we have a mix of switches / servers covering a wide range of dates / models.

 

Same here, appreciate your point. Thanks.

[laserblazer]

Interesting. We had all new Procurve switches at the same time as the Server upgrade. I have had other issues with one of the new switches.

[Seb1780]

The latest thing we have done is to update all firmware on the switches / NICs / servers - all of which are HP.

 

Latest news is that this did not fix the problem as we have just lost the fileserver again.

 

I'll keep you posted on where we go from here. I guess knowing what doesn't work could be useful information too?

[Silence1]

- Virtual Machine or Physical Machine doesnt matter

 

I dont think this is a Hardware Problem. We have this Problem with a VM and a physical Machine. Same issue is descriped here:

Server 2012 R2 File Server Stops Responding to SMB Connections

[Seb1780]

I dont think this is a Hardware Problem. We have this Problem with a VM and a physical Machine.

 

You may be right in that it is not a failed piece of hardware, there are signs though that it might be certain hardware not performing as expected with 2012. I've read some stuff on-line where a guy has tried several software fixes and still the problem remains.

 

TBH it's just grasping at straws, but with the file server failing ever hour we need something to grasp onto as waiting for MS to fix the problem is not going to cut any ice with SLT.

[2wheeltinker]

First time poster here and this thread alone made it seem like a good idea to register.

 

We are also having the problem with our Windows 2012 R2 Servers. I have servers running Windows 2012(not R2) and have not seen the problem recently but was most definitely having the issue months ago. The R2 Servers I just stood up are having the issue pretty much daily.

 

We are running a full virtual infrastructure. ESXI 5+ on a mix of hardware. Dell servers, HP servers, extreme networks switches, you name it, we have it someplace. I feel we can all pretty much agree this is an issue on the software end of things.

 

As a work around, I am letting KACE restart the "Server" service every 30 minutes to prevent any down time. That still creates about 15-20 seconds of offline sharing though and is really not an acceptable option.

 

Looking through the logs, I do not see anything going down and the "Server" service has always been running when my shares were not accessible. I can't say I have seen this problem on shares that are not also hosting printers. That said, I have no technical data to back that up. Just what I noticed. I read some info about disabling the IIS roles. I don't have any of that installed on my file servers so that can't be it.

[DJL]

Same problem here. It started today.

 

Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machine running on a Server 2012 cluster. We didn't see the problem with 2012, only started since we upgraded to 2012 R2 last week

 

 

* Those of you having problems do you host roaming profiles on the same server or volumes?

 

* What OS are you running on the clients Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7?

 

* does anyone have any active Microsoft PSS cases about this? If so can you post your case numbers.. I'm going to open a case, it might be helpful to link them.

Edited February 24, 2014 by DJL
PSS question

[DJL]

I now have a PSS case open for this. Case number is 114022411211053

 

* I can reliably recreate the problem by configuring a Windows 8.1 machine to load a roaming profile from a Windows Server 2012 R2 Server. It only causes the problem at logon and not logoff.

 

* I have noticed that in Task Manager | Performance the disk active time shows 100%, both read and write speed show 0KB/s and active time show 0% while the problem is occurring (Disk counters will need to be enabled to see this: Diskperf -Y). Can anyone else see this happening?

 

* These error messages are logged in the SMB Server log:

 

File system operation has taken longer than expected.

 

Client Name: \\[2001:630::98ac:3997:6e7a]

Client Address: [2001:630::98ac:3997:6e7a]:49220

User Name: DOMAIN\USER

Session ID: 0x480004000719

Share Name: \\*\Students

File Name: USER\Photography

Command: 14

Duration (in milliseconds): 39533

Warning Threshold (in milliseconds): 15000

 

Guidance:

 

The underlying file system has taken too long to respond to an operation. This typically indicates a problem with the storage and not SMB.

[psydii]

Glad someone has raised a ticket. Thanks for sharing.

 

Just out of interest have you got the latest version of the components listed here http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2899011 installed?

 

Obviously, don't go changing anything now without PSS telling you too! But others might benefit from trying the above.

[DJL]

We have 2883200 and 2887595 installed (available through WSUS) but not 2913700 (manual download only)

[Seb1780]

The latest from our end (remember I'm not privy to all the technical details):-

 

1 - we start the first day of a new half term with plans to restart the server service every once in a while

2 - our external support has escalated this to MS and following some memory dumps MS are now paying attention

3 - somebody (perhaps MS) remotes into our server and "removes" some of the software - I would love to know exactly what this means too!

4 - since then there have been no further instances of the problem

5 - the latest suspect is VEEAM

 

So, we are pootling along and as a user I am not experiencing any of the issues we've had for the past few weeks.

 

I don't think this is the end of the matter, and if I can find out what "software was removed" I'll repost.

[Silence1]

If this issue is hardware related just to check...

We are using HP Proliant DL 380 G4 and G5.

[Gibson335]

There does not appear to be a single common denominator other than Server 2012. We saw this prior to R2, and I know that R2 hasn't improved the situation elsewhere. What I also know is that rolling back to Server 2008R2 sees the problem go away. If it is in any way hardware related, then it would appear to be how Server 2012 reacts to that hardware as opposed to the hardware itself...ball back in Microsoft's court I think.

[DJL]

We're using Dell PowerEdge R610's connected to Dell EqualLogic PS6000/6110 iSCSI arrays. Network cards are Intel X540 T2 (10Gbps). Switching is HP ProCurve 8206zl's.

[laserblazer]

So does restarting the server service do the trick?

[DJL]

What clients does everyone have accessing the servers - Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1?