Ghost process

The last couple of weeks we have had, what appears to be a ghost reindex job try and kick off on this server, even though there is not currently a reindex job on this server. We usually know when it kicks off because we get a failure alert through email:

DESCRIPTION:[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure COMMENT: The Optimization Job has failed, Review the Job History and logs to determine the error and specific remediation JOB RUN: (None)

When I look at the SQL Server Log, I see no job process attempting to run or a manually generated DBCC Reindex process. But I do see the following:

07/01/2010 10:23:33,spid2s,Unknown,SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of I/O requests taking longer than 15 seconds to complete on file [E:SQLLogsCommerce_log.ldf] in database Commerce. The OS file handle is 0x00000938. The offset of the latest long I/O is: 0x000000004e4800 07/01/2010 10:23:33,spid2s,Unknown,SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of I/O requests taking longer than 15 seconds to complete on file [E:SQLLogsSmartPay_log.ldf] in database SmartPay. The OS file handle is 0x00000914. The offset of the latest long I/O is: 0x000000079c4c00

I looked at the Application Event Log for the same time frame and I see the follwoing:

07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] CheckQueryProcessorAlive: sqlexecdirect failed,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] CheckQueryProcessorAlive: sqlexecdirect failed,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] CheckQueryProcessorAlive: sqlexecdirect failed,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] CheckQueryProcessorAlive: sqlexecdirect failed,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 0; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] CheckQueryProcessorAlive: sqlexecdirect failed,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] OnlineThread: QP is not online.,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1 07/01/2010 10:24:13,MSSQLSERVER,Error,[sqsrvres] printODBCError: sqlstate = 08S01; native error = 2746; message = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Communication link failure,Failover,1073760843,,HLSQLSRV02N1

I am not sure what this means, but it almost appears like the server wants to fail over (although it never actually does). I do not know if it is a result of the ghost process or if it is the cause of the ghost process. I speculate that there is a process that is stuck in cache somewhere and if I were to fail the cluster over it might release this process.

If anybody has experienced this or can add anything to my thought process, I would appreciate it.