Well anyway, each blade server has Windows 2008 Server running on it. We have one server take care of most of the work load, DHCP, DNS, Active, etc. (lets call it Server A).
Our second server (Server
is our primary file server. Our third server (Server C) is our terminal server.
Okay, a few weeks ago we were having problems with Server C. We could not RDP into it at all, in fact the only way into it was through our KVM we have setup for the servers.
I took a look and figured it must be a issue with the licensing server (which is the same server as the terminal server) but I could not do anything about it, the IT Firm had the information for it so we called them in to uninstall and reinstall the licensing server. Nothing. (We still have contact with them because they are still working on our office in the city).
What they found it out to be, which to me is weird, maybe you guys its not, but it was the fact that Server C's firewall was
not on. Once the service was enabled and started, we could communicate with the server again.
Well today I wake up to find that all the servers took a crap. Initially over the phone it sounded like the file server (Server
was down, I tried RDPing into the terminal server, nothing. I pinged it and got nothing making me think the switch was down.
Got to the site, took a look at Server B - I was able to ping Server C with it, but not ping Server A. I went onto Server A and tried to ping B, nothing, C worked. I looked at the switch and restarted it (which seems to be the fixes for this model, temporary anyway).
Still nothing. I took my laptop out and connected it to the switch and noticed that the DHCP server was not handing out IPs.
I was stumped, I restarted all the servers, etc. Nothing.
One last thing we tried with the suggestion of another IT person was to enable the firewall on the file server. Well we did, and boom! Was able to ping it from Server A. I then thought, well if I cannot still ping Server A let me enable the firewall as well. Well I did and that worked!
Now, internet was up, people were getting IPs and access to files.
Here is my question after all of this. Why, out of no where does the servers suddenly require the firewalls (Windows Firewall) to be active? They have been running for a few months with them off, and now all of the sudden they need to be on to establish any type of connectivity?
That leads to the second question, usually when I had a problem with a computer I would shut the firewall off and be able to access it, yet this is reversal.
I am a networking guy so my server knowledge is not that great so any help would be great guys. The IT firm has no clue why this is happening either.
Thanks!
-Jon
