Topic: SME 5.6 hangs without warning

[darkforcess]

Hi There,

We have a SME 5.6 Server running
hardware: Intel Serverboard
Pentium III 1333Mhz
512MB Ram
Intel Ethernet controllers
3ware raid controller
3 x 80GB Maxtor harddisks RAID 5 total 160GB diskspace

The server hangs sometimes without any warnings, the monitor shows a black screen, the only way to get him up is power of en power on.

What we already have done is new firmware on the 3Ware Raid controller and a new driver (we have to compile a new kernel 2.4.20 i believe) before this the problem already exist.

We thought we solve the problem, but now its back, same problem when i go to the server i see a black screen and the keyboard does nothing.

We don't no what to do anyone a idea?

[Peter]

a. This has every chance of being hardware related & could be your memory.
B. This is a very low end CPU for the amount of work you’re giving it to do and could be running out of resources.
C. Power output from you PSU is not good enough for the amount of equipment you are hanging of it. If I was out on site looking at this problem I would firs have a look at the memory!

Peter

[byte]

If its memory try Charlies mem-test package you can find it @ http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/e-smith/contrib/CharlieBrady/memtest/

HTH

Byte

[RavenIV]

B. This is a very low end CPU for the amount of work you’re giving it to do and could be running out of resources.

we use a PII-350 AMD with 256 MB RAM and a 10 GB harddisk.
the server works very good in the dayly job.
the only thing where it is too "small" is the server-manager, but you don't re-congigure the server every day

cheers

[Anonymous]

> We have a SME 5.6 Server running
> The server hangs sometimes without any warnings,
> the monitor shows a black screen, the only way to
> get him up is power of en power on.

I have a 5.6 server that locks up between 50-60 days of uptime.  It will be replaced with a brand new 6.0 server shortly. In the past I had a problem with a 5.1.2 server that was solved by disabling all unused ports..ie serial/parallel, IDE, mouse, usb, etc.  I also had an IPCOP server (Linux based) that was on a MINI-ITX based PC that had the same problem and solution.

[darkforcess]

The memory i have allready replace that was our first impression to, we think it is the backup, because the backup runs om a Windows 2000 server with arcserve and a Linux client, we have to install a arcserve client for linux on the sme server, (this is allready uninstalled) now we backup up using a mapping. But he is still going down. The Windowws 2000 server must backup about 20GB trough a 10/100MB Switch. Everything els works well there are 40 workstations and during the day are there no problems, for whats its worth the server is fast en stable, but hangs at evenings without a warning

Thanks for the reply  

[Jáder]

I think your problem can be a power surge.
Do you have an UPS?
If YES, Try to change it by another.
If NO, try with one!

Most of time my hardware problems are power surge and BAD UPS!

Other good reason to hang up is memory... but so it should hang up during the day and not in the night!

If you decide to test your memory, there is (search for it in Google!) a MemTest3 (you must boot from a disk/CD! ) and it test your memory in 7 steps!

Good luck.

[smeghead]

I had a client with a system that would intermittantly lock up for no apparant reason.  It was pulled apart, rebuilt & re-installed with meticulous detail, all to no avail.

I eventually tracked the prob down to the fact that the PSU was running right on the limit and when the more intensive stuff happened the power draw was too much; swapped out the 300W PSU for a really good 450W PSU and have not had another problem.

They were a country client with poor power but running an interactive UPS.

HTH

[RavenIV]

i had several "server-dies" with a unstable win98-client.
first i thought, a hardware-problem with SME.
unknown lockup at different times.
checked the memory with charlie's tool.
changed the NICs, removed the SCSI-controller (only for tape backup), removed all unneeded hardware, disabled all not needed bios-settings.
nothing helped.
then i checked the logfiles.
everytime when the win98-client runs about one hour i had a lockup at the server.
checked the win98-client and found an old installation of WinMX (music-exchange-client).

my explanation:
the WinMX tried to get connected to any other WinMX and got an error because the ports were not opened. then it sent bad tcp-packets and the server chrashed.

re-installed the win98-client and the server runs now for 180 days without any problems.

cheers klaus

[darkforcess]

[/quote]I think your problem can be a power surge.
Do you have an UPS?
If YES, Try to change it by another.
If NO, try with one!
[/url]

[darkforcess]

I think your problem can be a power surge.
Do you have an UPS?
If YES, Try to change it by another.
If NO, try with one!

We already changs the UPS for a new one, it is a 2HU Cabinet with redundancy power supply, also the windows 2000 server is a same machine. If it was a power supply problem, i think the server is going down but do not hang!

I had several "server-dies" with a unstable win98-client.
first i thought, a hardware-problem with SME.
unknown lockup at different times.
checked the memory with charlie's tool.
changed the NICs, removed the SCSI-controller (only for tape backup), removed all unneeded hardware, disabled all not needed bios-settings.
nothing helped.
then i checked the logfiles.
everytime when the win98-client runs about one hour i had a lockup at the server.
checked the win98-client and found an old installation of WinMX (music-exchange-client).

There are 18 Windows XP Workstations en about 12 Windows 98 workstations, no apllication WinMX is running.

Remember that the server hangs at evenings when al the client are offline and not during the day when all the client are online

[smeghead]

hmm, intel nics - might pay to load the latest drivers courtesy of Darrell May; the nics may be going into low power mode and then the system cannot wake them up.

Check you BIOS settings and turn off all the power saving options, particularly the HDD, & the NIC's.

V6.0 may work better with the motherboard but that is a guess.

HTH

[darkforcess]

yes i was thinking about upgrading to version 6, but thats tricky because we compiled the server for the new driver for the 3ware raid card.

[gavincowie]

We have a SME 5.6 Server running
hardware: Intel Serverboard
Pentium III 1333Mhz
512MB Ram
Intel Ethernet controllers
3ware raid controller
3 x 80GB Maxtor harddisks RAID 5 total 160GB diskspace
...
What we already have done is new firmware on the 3Ware Raid controller and a new driver (we have to compile a new kernel 2.4.20 i believe)

Oooh! Hey, any chance of sharing the kernel you compiled with the 3ware driver in? I'm looking for one of those.

G