We have a Dell PowerEdge server that hasn’t been in service more than a couple of months. Just a couple of weeks after going into service, it started rebooting on its own for no apparent reason. The only thing we have been able to find is that if we disable the McAfee anti-virus software running on the server, the reboots seem to be less frequent. The server is running Windows 2000. Any suggestions as to where to start looking for the cause of the problem?
– Via the Internet
Since the server is pretty new, I would bring Dell support into the picture quickly to help isolate the problem. Before you call them, I would suggest taking a few steps that they will ask you to do when you call and will save some time getting help. Make sure you go to the Windows Update site and apply the latest updates available, even if you have the server set to automatically download and apply updates. Next on the checklist is to download Microsoft’s Baseline Security Analyzer (BSA) and see what items you need to download or change. It is not unusual for BSA to indicate that items need to be applied when Windows Update says you’re current. These two services are handled by different product groups within Microsoft that don’t seem to talk to each other. You should be able to go to one site and get everything but at this point, you have to check two different places.
Go to the Dell support Web site and see what updates need to be applied to the server. I would look at any bios or driver updates specific to your system and get those applied. Since it is possible that your problem may be hardware related, try unplugging and reseating the memory, CPU and any plug-in cards. Make sure that the contacts look nice and shiny so oxidation of the connectors can be ruled out as the source of the problem. Try changing the order that the memory is plugged into the slots on the motherboard. For example, if memory is in slot 1 and 2, take the memory in slot 2 and put it in slot 1, and put the memory in slot1 in slot 2. If you can arrange for some downtime for the server, run the hardware diagnostics that should have been installed on a special partition on the server and test everything on the motherboard, especially the memory. Depending on the amount of memory installed on the server, this could take several hours or the better part of a day depending on the extent and number of memory tests that you run. If the problem is hard memory error, it should show up quickly. If the problem is a soft memory error in which the right data has to be in the right order in the right part of memory, this could take a while to find because a walking memory test will have to be used.
Look at event logs on the server around the time the reboot occurred. If you see any entry that says something about “expected shutdown occurred before started,” the problem you’re looking for may be something low level in the hardware that when it happened, didn’t give the server time to write anything in the event logs. To rule out the anti-virus software being the problem, call McAfee support and get its document for completely removing its software from the server. Once this has been done, reboot the server and reinstall the software or go to a newer version if available to see if the problem continues. This isn’t all inclusive of what you will need to do but should give you some good information to give either Dell and/or McAfee if the problem continues.
