Application Hanging - where to start?

[E3xtc]

Hi All,

We have an application which is hanging periodically - appears to be relativly random in time frame, however is generally always associated with a given application.

I have run perfmon logging the following:
Pages/Sec
% Committed Bytes in Use
Disk reads/sec
Avg Disk Queue Length
Interrupts/sec
% Processor
Total Sessions

When the application hangs it doesn't appear to be linked with any of the above items.

The application is a vb application, which runs off a SQL backend.
I have the same perfmon stats on the SQL server - however this also fails to show anything of interest.

Server is Win2K3 Term Serv, Dual Xeon 3ghz, 2gig ram, approx 15-20 users, 15krpm drives
SQL server is same spec except not a Term Serv.

Is anyone able to give me any hints on things that I should be looking for which might give me an insight as to why it is hanging? (ie I could very well be missing an important item in perfmon)

I understand this is probably a "how long is a peice of string" question, however I just need some ideas on where I can go to hopefully get an answer.

Thanks in advance
Troy

 

[markdmac]

Have you checked the application logs?

I hope you find this post helpful. Please let me know if it was.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Jpoandl]

Here is Microsoft tool to troublshoot hangs and crashes:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;286350

Heres another one:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;286568

Some more information:

http://labmice.techtarget.com/troubleshooting/hang.htm

Before you go to crazy looking at these documents, make sure that you perform some basic troubleshooting. Sounds like you already doing some advanced stuff with Perfmon.

However, I would investigate the Event Viewer for errors. Especially pay attention to the event viewer error or warnings and the TIME that they happen. If you can link an event error with the performance problem, you will have a lot of information to work with.

Also check the basics, make sure your pagefiles are created properly (I usually make the Min and max size the same to prevent pagefile fragmentation. Also this ensures that you don't run out of disk space as the pagefile goes...), there is free disk space, the latest service packs are applied, defrags are run periodically, unused apps are removed, etc. Sometimes just doing the basic cleanup will solve your problem..

-hope this helps..

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.NJCOMPUTERNETWORKS.com

(Sales@njcomputernetworks.com)

 

[E3xtc]

thanks everyone.

There doesn't appear to be anything out of the norm on the event logs (system and apps).

Jpoandl - thanks for the links. I will have a wade through them today and see if I can make any sense of things.

Page file is set up to be fixed size - as per your recommendation.

The thing that is really annoying, is that I cannot recreate it at will - it seems to happen at relativly random times....*argh*

Thanks again - and I will post back should I have any luck.

Cheers
Troy