High Kernal Usage - What might this be..?

Hi

our Win2000 File Server seems to slow down considerably during certain
periods of the day!

(we've not manage to assess weather it is over the exact same time each day)

I've noticed that in task manager, during these periods the Kernel CPU Usage
seems to jump from around 9% - 55%
I'm sure it's usually a lot low then this..!
and the SYSTEM Process jumps around 2-11% CPU Time

nothing else in the processes list seems to be using any major CPU Time

the server has no network application running. in fact there are no third
party apps running on it.
and is configured for optimal File Share performance

the main purpose of the server is to server MS Access database files around
5-70MB in size

for most of the day it does this fine, but during these periods the database
come to a grinding holt.


does anyone have an idea where to start looking..?

what sort of background services use lots of Kernel Time..??

I thought it might be a scheduled Defrag, but that doesn't seem to have been
the problem..!

any help would be greatly appreciated be me...and my users.

Thanks

Jado

Perhaps it is resizing your page file due to increased
usage at that time, have you checked the pages/sec
counter? Or there could be a virus. maybe it is
renewing its DHCP lease, or checking for and installing
updates from windows update.


>-----Original Message-----
>Hi
>
>our Win2000 File Server seems to slow down considerably
during certain
>periods of the day!
>
>(we've not manage to assess weather it is over the exact
same time each day)
>
>I've noticed that in task manager, during these periods
the Kernel CPU Usage
>seems to jump from around 9% - 55%
>I'm sure it's usually a lot low then this..!
>and the SYSTEM Process jumps around 2-11% CPU Time
>
>nothing else in the processes list seems to be using any
major CPU Time
>
>the server has no network application running. in fact
there are no third
>party apps running on it.
>and is configured for optimal File Share performance
>
>the main purpose of the server is to server MS Access
database files around
>5-70MB in size
>
>for most of the day it does this fine, but during these
periods the database
>come to a grinding holt.
>
>
>does anyone have an idea where to start looking..?
>
>what sort of background services use lots of Kernel
Time..??
>
>I thought it might be a scheduled Defrag, but that
doesn't seem to have been
>the problem..!
>
>any help would be greatly appreciated be me...and my
users.
>
>Thanks
>
>Jado
>
>
>
>.
>