RH9 Slow on Proliant ML330

[mickey]

I'm having an issue with my Proliant ML330 server and RH9, can't tell if 
it's hardware or software...

The problem is that the server - (usually lightning speed) will go into 
freeze or just take a break for a few seconds.  A couple of times, I've 
had to power off to clear it, but other times, after 5 to 30 seconds it 
will take off again.

The easiest way to test it has been to tar cz a group of large 
directories while running top in another window.  I notice that several 
times, I get about 500 -600 MB gets created, then suddenly the tar job 
will pause (on a 1 or 3 MB file), top will show processor speed dropped 
from 50% down to 0%, and the keyboard will even hang, nothing seems to 
happen.  Just as suddenly, the tar job will usually (eventually) take 
off again, the terminal window shows the keys I had typed during the 
"hung" time, and top will again show tar sucking 40-60% processor.  Last 
night while I tested it, I observed this at least 10 times in as many 
minutes...

No errors present in /var/log/messages.


SW - RH 9 [almost] current RHN, The only processes running are samba 
(build from Jan 04) and iptables NAT, Squid with DansGuardian.

HW - ML330 G3 Xeon 2.8, 1.2GB
3 Internal 36 GB SCSI drives SW raid 5 on the integrated SCSI Controller
Built in 100/1000BaseT NIC