Topic: Server "disappears" from network

[mophilly]

I have a Shuttle SB62G2 XPC machine that is four years old; running SME 7.4. The machine has two NIC's; one is RealTek and the other Intel. This machine is in Gateway mode with external users for email and VPN.

Yesterday, I discovered I could not ping the machine from within the LAN and it was unreachable via the WAN port. Machine was running. Console was active.

I took the machine down, booted again and checked through the logs; I didn't notice anything new or alarming, which is probably meaningless given how little I truly understand about such things. While I was there I backed up everything; one more set of backups is never a bad thing.

After about an hour, it "disappeared" again. Same symptoms. I pulled the it again, booted up on the bench and let it run for two hours. No problems. (argh) Put it back in service and it ran for at least three hours. Sometime last  night it "disappeared" again. I checked with the ISP and our access devices are in good shape.

I suspect the NIC or possibly the motherboard, but I am not certain. The hardware tests did not show any problems. Could it be an OS issue?

So, I am stuck in a quandary. I thought I would pose the question to this group before jumping into a wild rip and replace session.

All ideas or suggestions are most welcome.

[Stefano]

mmmhhh.... going to bugzilla and raising a bug?

thank you

[mophilly]

Hi, Stefano,

I wanted to eliminate the possibility of a hardware problem if possible, before submitting a bug report to the SME team. Then again, I don't need a lot of encouragement to ask for help at bugzilla.

Submitted: bug 5520

[mophilly]

for anyone who reads this thread...

I did replace the network adapter and the server is up and running. Now only time will tell if this issue is behind me.

I think it is correct to say it is a hardware issue, and not something within SME.

[Boris]

Could be the issue with power management (BIOS?) puts the LAN card to sleep?

[mophilly]

Now that is an interesting idea. I will try to dig into it, although I am not real deep in the BIOS stuff.

The old card is integrated on the motherboard. In this case, on Ethernet 1 is a 100/10 Mbps Realtek 8100B; on Ethernet 2 is a 100/10 Mbps Intel 562EZ.

I put a Netgear GA311 in the PCI slot today, and set SME to use it for the LAN port, just to see how things go. Still up some 4 hours after installation and measurably better throughput "inside" the gateway.

Of course, if it "disappears" tonight while I sleep, all bets on this solution are off.

In the meanwhile, since the XPC has only one PCI slot, I am considering an Intel PRO gigabit dual port server adapter to use instead.

[chris burnat]

AFAICT, this issue is now the subject of a bug report:
http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5520
Please follow up at Bugzilla

[mophilly]

Hi, Chris,

Thanks for the reminder.

Please take a peek at comment #3 in issue 5520. I will follow up. As of today only one person is having trouble with the vpn, but that report may be misleading as he seems to be having other internet issues as well.

I am going to put an Intel PRO MT dual port gigabit adapter in the PCI slot by week's end. After that new card has run a day or two I will add a follow up here and in issue 5520.

Bottom line is that I believe the issue was entirely hardware. Charlie Brady asked a couple of questions but hasn't replied so perhaps he agrees.

[mophilly]

The new dual port NIC seems to be working fine. General impression is that some file transfers are little bit faster. My hope is that as long term stats are gathered the impression will be verified.

Thanks for the replies. I consider this one closed.