EV9SP2 - W2008SP2 - Handles

[GertjanA]

Hello all,

I am not sure yet this is EV related, but thought I'd ask anyway.

I'm running EV (multiple servers) on Windows 2008 SP2 (Enterprise Edition, x64, 16 cores, 36GB Ram), with EV90SP2 with hotfixes applied. When I open TaskManager, and look at the performance tab, I see under System the Handles value being at more than 15.000.000 (15 million). A restart of the EV-services sets this back to around 70.000. It takes about a week to have the handles rise to this level.

Some issues I see is the ability to set/clear backupmode on the affected servers, and also I get events 7023 (Partition rollover could not determine which partitions are served by Storage Service). Restarting the EV services (as mentioned) clears this up.

Do you also see this on your server(s)?

These servers in general are Mailbox Archiving servers, having 2 tasks, targeting 1 Exchange server, with an average of 7000 mailboxes per Exchange server.

As far as I can check there are no other programms running on this server except AV (MacAfee), but the exclusions for both on-access and scheduled scans are set properly and according to Symantec documentation.

Any hints on what to look for are appreciated.

Thanks, as always,

Gertjan

[TonySterling]

I don't see that issue.  I have been running a POC for a customer on EV 10 and the server has been up for 22 days and the number of handles is sitting at around 82K.  If I watch it I can see it flucuate up and down.

The server is Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Standard.

[TonySterling · Accepted solution]

Have you seen this?  Interesting read and might help you figure out what is causing it.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/09/29/3283844.aspx

[GertjanA]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the link to the article. I was just wondering if anyone seen this 'in the wild', but in other environments I have been in I did not see this either. Must be something specific. I'll follow the link to see if I can resolve it from there.

[AndrewB]

you'll want to run perfmon and see which process actually has the most handles in use! have you considered EV9 SP3? also strongly consider Win 2k8 R2 SP1 if you ever plan on upgrading to EV10.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

Figuring out handle usage, leaking-or-not, is part art, and part science.  I suggest you start with a perfmon too.

[GertjanA]

Hi Andrew,

I am aware.. r2 is in theoratical planning stage. need to convince customer of 'fail-safe' upgrade plan.... and cost is an issue. BAU.