We have been running Small Business Server 2003 (and it is current for all service packs and updates) for a couple of years on the same platform with no real problems. However, from time to time the system get very very slow, almost stops. After a few minutes, the system continues along as though nothing has happened. Since we don't log into the machine, we have just lived with it. But now, the system, seems to completely stop exchange. You can login into the physical console and shutdown the machine, however, you cannot remote terminal to the machine. And the machine does not appear in the "network" of the clients. After restarting the machine, there is no indication of any problem. No errors. The event log just shows the machine running along and then the restart. We are thinking perhaps there is some resource in the O/S that is running out, or something taking time. Looking at the task manager, we don't see CPU using maxing out. There does not seem to be much disk I/O going on. The things that get effected seem to be a) Exchange is not responding and b) we can't access the machine via the network. Any ideas, or suggestions on something we should check or tune would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help. Bernie

How old are the network card drivers? If they are more than two years old, then update them. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/

Hi Have you run SBS BPA? Or maybe it's for 2008, i don't know I think you will get better answers in the SBS forum http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/smallbusinessserver/threads Jonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

Sembee, thanks for the quick response. Well the network cards came with the server. It is a dual port and one port is used for the HP Integrated Lights Out Management console (ILO). Your idea seems to make some sense. We will need to look into the impact on ILO or maybe just add another NIC and use that for all the network access and disable the one port on the integrated NIC. I will let you know what happens there. Thanks so much for your insight, it is really appreciated.Bernie

Jonas, thanks for the quick response. I have not tried running BPA and it does work on SBS 2003 so I will give that a try. And I think you are right about asking this on that forum. I was trying to locate that Forum to post the questions. However, finding those links seems very baroque and not intuitive. In any case, I will use your link and make a posting there. Thanks, and I will let you know what comes from the BPA, great idea. Bernie

I wasn't referring to the cards themselves, but the drivers. The fact that you have an iLO involved shouldn't make any difference. If this is a HP system, make sure it has the latest support pack for that server model installed. SBS 2003 has its own BPA tool, so while you can use the Exchange one, the SBS one might be a better fit. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/

It appears the real issue that caused this problem was a very intermittent failure of the on-board NIC. Some time after these posting the machine lost the NIC completely. Since it was on-board we replaced the mother board and the problem appears to be gone. Thanks for everyone who offered their suggestions on this. Your time and effort are greatly appreciated. ThanksBernie