Symptom: Event Viewer message reporting “Long delays processing Mac client commands have been detected. This could be an indication of a server hardware or operating system problem. Please see the following knowledge base article for further information”

ExtremeZ-IP is designed to log this event whenever Windows fails to respond to a request for more than 300 seconds. When this hang threshold is hit, ExtremeZ-IP will produce a dmp file (default setting) in order to trap forensic info about the state of the thread and types of requests leading into the stall.

There are two types of stalls:
1) Stalls that complete: Hangs that last more than 300+ seconds but eventually complete
2) Stalls that never complete: Here you will find the ExtremeZ-IP service may have hung or that the entire server operating system may have hung.

In most cases the underlying problem is related to outdated firmware/drivers, a poorly written kernel driver, resource constraints (bottlenecks) or poor disk health. If you haven’t recently checked disk health, running chkdsk with the /f switch and updating controller card drivers has been found to resolve a majority of cases.

Note: chkdsk in Read-Only Mode Does Not Detect Corruption on NTFS Volume. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283340

If chkdsk finds and fixes an error such as “Breaking links between parent file xxxxx and child file xxxxx” then your disk was suffering from what is known as a circular reference and you should no longer have the long delays.

UPDATE: Microsoft has released a hotfix that will prevent the hang when accessing a circular directory reference. In addition once the operating system detects the circular directory reference it will mark the disk as needing to be repaired at the next server reboot. See the following KB articles for more information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2782476 or http://support.grouplogic.com/?p=4207.

If you would like us to review your logs to see if we can help narrow down the problem, please open a support case and upload supporting files as described below:
- Open a support case online (include description/observations): http://support.grouplogic.com/request
- An automated email will be sent back to you with a case number so that you can upload the following files to our support site:
a) ExtremeZ-IP Logs folder: Right-click the folder C:\Program Files\Group Logic\ExtremeZ-IP\Logs and select Send To –> Compressed Folder
b) any dump files (*.dmp) you find in: C:\Program Files\Group Logic\ExtremeZ-IP
c) Generate a System Information report: At Start –> Run, type msinfo32 to launch the tool. Then select File –> Save to save the .nfo file.
d) Export application and system event logs as evt/evtx file

Zip the above files as case#.zip and upload using a browser:
http://mtweb.grouplogic.com
User: supportfiles
Password: $grouplogic123$

Note: If you are not running the latest version of ExtremeZ-IP, please upgrade as the latest release may provide better diagnostics/logging: http://support.grouplogic.com/ezlatest

Tags: chkdsk, disk, Event Viewer, ExtremeZ-IP, NTFS, stall

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