Green Ribbon of Death on Multiple New Computers.

[WindowsStar]

I have one test machine that is looking promising, it hasn't had a GRoD yet. It is prepped normally and on the domain in a container with no policy and no mapped drives. I have a suspicion that the network drives may be causing the issue, but how can this be corrected? We can't just tell the users that they can't have their network shares. We probaly have 50/50 novell/microsoft shares. The Novell shares use CIFS mapping to map without using the novell client, I'm wondering if this is contributing to my headache also.

Start adding your shares one at a time until you get the problem. Then test if it is that share by removing all the others and adding the one that caused the problem. It is a process of elimination that will give you the solution. -WS

 

[Neight]

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I've been busy with other things. But in my research I have found that other people are having trouble with explorer hanging with Novell shares mapped through CIFS. This is one example on the Novell Forums. As far as I've seen, I don't know of any solution. Does anyone here know enough about this to assist?

 

[WindowsStar]

How is the Novell server configured with networking?? Do you have enough bandwidth in and out of the server?? Say you have 200 computers connecting to this server with ONE 1GB network card, this will not and is not enough bandwidth for a network share. You may need to add ONE or TWO more network cards binding them together to get a 2GB or 3GB connection providing the throughput needed for the server to handle all the connections from the workstations. I have had to do this on all types of server to fix slow network shares.

 

[Neight]

It would appear that the CIFS mapping from the Novell server to Windows is the root of the problem. In the thread from Novell's forums that I linked in my previous post, Many other people have had the same issue and tracked it down to one error that occurs and freezes explorer. The workarounds that they have posted are to turn off search and indexing, which I have attempted before with minimal success. It would seem that the only solution will be the one that is already in process and that is to replace all the novell shares with windows shares, but as I work for a government institution, this is a long and arduous process. My users will not be happy with this answer but until another temporary fix can be found, I guess the solution is to just deal with it.

Thanks for all of your help guys.

 

[WindowsStar]

It would appear that the CIFS mapping from the Novell server to Windows is the root of the problem. In the thread from Novell's forums that I linked in my previous post, Many other people have had the same issue and tracked it down to one error that occurs and freezes explorer. The workarounds that they have posted are to turn off search and indexing, which I have attempted before with minimal success. It would seem that the only solution will be the one that is already in process and that is to replace all the novell shares with windows shares, but as I work for a government institution, this is a long and arduous process. My users will not be happy with this answer but until another temporary fix can be found, I guess the solution is to just deal with it.

Thanks for all of your help guys.

I have been there before so I understand you plight. I have worked for and with government agencies before so I know how tight money is and how are it is to make change. Here are a few things I have done in the past to help make this kind of change without a huge issue for the agency.

If they already have a Windows Server that can be used but space is an issue or moving the data would take to long you can do this: Buy an external USB hard drive 2TB or something. Connect it to the Novell server during business hours and copy everything in the share to the external drive. This way if it takes a long time you are doing it during business hours and not after hours with overtime. Once the copy is complete: Schedule some down time after hours, disconnect the network wire from the Novell Server, sync up the data from the Novell server to the external USB drive, take the Novell Server off line, connect the USB drive to the Windows Server, setup a new share to the USB drive. Make whatever changes you need to the log on script to map the users to the new share off the Windows Server.

With a little prep work, and a drive purchase under $500 and about 2 hours of overtime you will have everything fixed simple and easy. -WS

 

[Neight]

The switch to having all Windows shares in already in process, It's just that we have a lot of shares that have to be moved so the process will probably take place over the next year or so. I'm just desktop support mostly so I don't touch the servers that much, I was just tasked with figuring out what the problem was. Now that I know what it is, the current solution is try to distract my users from the problem or find some sort of workaround until all of their shares can be moved.

 

[WindowsStar]

The switch to having all Windows shares in already in process, It's just that we have a lot of shares that have to be moved so the process will probably take place over the next year or so. I'm just desktop support mostly so I don't touch the servers that much, I was just tasked with figuring out what the problem was. Now that I know what it is, the current solution is try to distract my users from the problem or find some sort of workaround until all of their shares can be moved.

Then the task is easy:

Get the CIO to put out a memo stating that Windows 7 is an amazing OS, however in our deployment we have discovered some slow down issues with the Novell Shares. The IT department is currently working to move all Novell Shares to Windows Servers. Due to the budget cuts, IT staff demand, etc. etc. etc. we must ask for your patients while we work on this conversion. blah blah etc. etc.

You don't need to distract the users or lie to them that will only make the problem worse especially if it will take a year to convert all the shares. Again been there done that. You need to get your CIO to get a MEMO out ASAP. -WS