Mac issues

[Chrish5]

Ok bit of setting the scene.

We have an Apple Xserve (OS 10.5) connected to a Hyperstar NAS for 48 Mac Workstations (Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6). Recently all the desktops seem to freeze together, the pinwheel will show and users can't do anything, it can last a few seconds or minutes then all will come back and it'll behave fine for a few minutes/hours. Any idea what could be causing that?

I'm not great with Apple products (ie I don't know my way around very well) but the server seems fine with no warnings in the activity monitor, I've recently changed the switch that most of them connect through to a new 48port Gigabit HP switch, and all appear to be connected at a gig (this was a possible fix for the problem, ie the problem existed before switching the switch)

 

Another issue I have with the macs is that the HDDs seem to fill up with user data that I can't clear out.

For instance I'm using Disk Inventory X (similar to WinDirStat) and it only shows 30GB of files yet the Mac says that 120GB is used up (logged in as local admin and trash is empty). How do I stop the Macs filling up and how can I delete what's on them already?

[tech-man]

Check DNS is all in order Inc forward and reverse lookups.

[Chrish5]

All seems well dns wise. The server and the workstations appear in the windows dns server Forward and Reverse zones. The mac server and workstations can ping local and remote servers by name (how else can I check on the macs). I've flushed the cache on the Mac server and a workstation to see if that effects it or not. Edited September 29, 2016 by Chrish5

[3s-gtech]

Are there any scheduled jobs or routines on the NAS (such as backup jobs run by it or from other machines to it) that could do this?

[Chrish5]

Nope, there was an external HDD attached to the Xserve for Time Machine Backups but that stopped working a while ago so currently no backups running on the Macs at all (it's on the list!).

Today the Mac Server rebooted itself, I logged back in and it would freeze for a few seconds before doing anything (ie constantly freezing while switching windows etc) and nobody was able to login. Rebooted it and it seems fine for now (but I imagine all Macs will freeze in unison again tomorrow)

 

For the other matter about clearing each imac hdd? I've tried OmniDiskSweeper and as before it shows only about 40GB used but MacOS says 119GB is being used. It's got to be other user folders that not even the local or domain admin seems to have access to!

[3s-gtech]

Disk Utility is needed often on those version of OS X. You may have some disk errors, try that next. Do it on the server too.

[Chrish5]

Ok I did Verify and Repair Permissions on the Server HD, can't do it to the drive that the home dirs. are on.

With the Hyperstar 6116 (any idea where I can get a manual or firmware upgrade for this?) I ran a disk check which did show a Reading error on one of the IDE drives, this couldn't be causing everything to freeze together could it??

[3s-gtech]

Yup, it could. If the OS is reading data from that damaged drive, it will re-try and struggle with other reads (to an extent). That'd be a classic cause.