Handle count

We have 2 Windows 2003 fileservers. They are clustered, and this problem

seems to impact them both. The handle count is enormous - it grows in a

stepping sort of fashion until it reaches about 25,000 or so, then the

server starts complaining about not being able to allocate from the shared

pool, and then within a day or so after that it dies (if we don't reboot it

first). Digging in a bit further, it looks like the System process is the

one that is consuming all those handles and not closing them. Again, over

time, the graph looks like a stair case. I ran Handle.exe, and many of the

files do look like legitimate files that users actually have open. But why

don't they ever get closed? Why does our handle count increase every day?

These servers are used for home drives and departmental data.

Thanks!