Got a bit of an odd one here. I've got a HP DL180 running SBS2011 that will run happily for days, then out of the blue it will hang. When it hangs, I cant log in through RDP, nor by walking up the the server and logging in via the console. Everyone
looses access to the network shares, exchange, etc, however it will still respond to ping, thats about the only thing it will do.
When I check the logs after it comes back up, theres nothing unusual there at all.
Ilo is also unresponsive. That comes and goes tho. It will work sometimes, but so far, I havent been able to get in while the server was frozen. I'm not sure if thats any way related, or if thats a seperate issue. But I thought I would mention it just
in case.
So the iLo problem and console not working got me thinking it was a hardware problem. When I have been able to get into iLo, the logs show nothing recorded for the times the server locked up. I phoned HP for their advice, they had me run a whole heap
of tests which generated a diagnostic report. HP guy went through the report and came back to tell me there were no problems anywhere. (I beg to differ...)
Anyway, normally when it locks the only way to get it back it to do a hard reset. We usually have to do that pretty quickly because people need it running to do their work. But it went again yesterday afternoon, just before everyone was going home, so they
were a little delayed in telling us it had hung. Then because everyone was done for the day, I spent a little longer than usual trying to get in via iLo and/or RDP than I normally would, and after about 15-20 it suddenly let me RDP in. Everything was back
to normal. I had one of the guys on site try to access the console again, and it was working too.
A check of the event logs once again showed nothing of use for the period the server was frozen. But interestingly, it was still logging like nothing was wrong. There were no gaps in the log.
So the fact that, given time, it will recover itself now has me leaning more towards it being a software problem rather than a hardware problem (so that would make iLo being not responsive a seperate issue, I would assume).
Another thing I should probably mention. This server is running trend worry free business... the one that has issues with SBS and causes the network to drop out. But from what I've read, that issue causes the server to not respond to ping, and I've installed
the patch to fix that problem anyway. Just thought I'd mention it anyway.
So my question is, where do I go from here? It appears totally random, I cant pinpoint any possible cause. And now im even unsure as to whether its a hardware or software problem.
Happy to provide more details if needed.
Thanks.