Occasional groups of iSsciPrt Errors on Server 2008 R2 - CIFS vols on ReadyNAS3200

Question

 I have a Windows Server 2008 R2 serving 4 volumes via iSCSI and a Netgear ReadyNAS 3200.  One user reported getting an error trying to save to the network. Looks like the below happened at the same time:
 All events have same time stamp (6/12/2014 2:07:16 PM)
Event ID: 129 (Warning)  ISCSiPort  "Description cannot be found"
Event ID: 9 (Error) iSCSIPrt "Target did not respond in time for a SCSI request   (x21)
Event ID: 39 iScsiPrt "Initiator send a task management command to reset the target."
Event ID: 27 iScsiPrt "Initiator could not find a match for the initiator task tag in the received PDU"
 I opened a ticket with Netgear, and they gave the NAS a clean bill of health. Only other things I noticed on the unit was that the time was off and the one of the bonded LAN ports was showing an amber link status rather than green.
 So I don't have a lot of experience with iSCSI and I'm not sure what the next steps would be.  This doesn't happen often, but it may be part of some reoccurring problems.  Any advice appreciated.
James A. Helfer | COMPUTER SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR WTW ARCHITECTS | PITTSBURGH PA

Answer 1

Hi,
When the issue occurs, whether all users have the same issue or just the specific user?
If all users have the same issue, it could be the connection between your server and the NAS.
Please try the following suggestions one by one:
1. Upgrade the NIC driver to the latest version
2. Disable TCP Chimney offload
Information about the TCP Chimney Offload, Receive Side Scaling, and Network Direct Memory Access features in Windows Server 2008 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;951037
3. In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk, edit or add the TimeOutValue entry to set it to 60 seconds in decimal format ((0000003c in hexadecimal).The default is 10
-- To edit the value for the TimeOutValue entry if it already exists, double-click  the entry, enter the new value, and click OK.
-- To add the TimeOutValue entry if it does not yet exist, right-click anywhere in the list of values, and then click New > DWORD value. Name the new value TimeOutValue, and then double-click it to edit the setting. 
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