RE: Problems with server stability

See questions in-line (a top poster I'm learning not to be):

[email protected] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to this list, and I'm hoping you may be able to help me
out.
>
> We have 3 generic Intel servers running RH7.2, and 2 of them
have
> major stability problems. They are as follows:
> 1. firewall - no problems.
> This is a small (1Gb memory) machine with 2 software RAID 1'd
IDE
> drives, performing firewall and DNS services.

Just out of curiosity, how do you have these IDE drives hooked
up??  Do you have a single drive on a single IDE channel or do
you have 2 drives on a single IDE channel.  I don't think this
has any bearing on your problem but I have always read that in a
software RAID configuration w IDE drives, we only should put a
single IDE drive on a single IDE channel.

> 2. Application routing server - constant problems
> Medium-sized (2Gb memory) machine with 2 software RAID 1'd IDE
> drives, running Jetty HTTP server serving Java servlets.
> 3. Database server - intermittent problems
> Big server (3Gb memory) + Disk Array: 2 onboard and 6 external
SCSI
> disks, all software RAID 1'd, running Jetty HTTP server and
Oracle
> 8.1.7.

On #2 & #3 are you running the BIG KERNEL or the basic kernel??

>
> In addition to the above mentioned software, all machines also
run
> tripwire intrusion detection software as well.
>
> On both machines that have problems, the system either freezes
or
> crashes just after 4AM, making me think that it may have
something to
> do with the cron.daily jobs. I found some pages on the Web from
> people who had problems with machines crashing when makewhatis
runs,
> but supposedly the problem was fixed in 7.1. On the database
server I
> would sometimes get messages saying that the system did not
have
> enough memory to execute a fork() shortly before the system
froze (it
> didn't halt; the console merely stopped responding). On the
> Application server, the system would simply power itself down
(badly;
> as though someone had simply turned it off at the wall) shortly
after
> 4AM every 3rd or 4th day.
>
> I am completely mystified by the problem as there are no
diagnostics
> or log messages to indicate that any problem is occurring; the
system
> simply freezes or shuts down. It does not happen *every* day,
but
> consistently once or twice a week and most often on Sunday
mornings,
> when the weekly jobs also run (but *before* they do). After I
set the
> database server to reboot itself once a week the problem occurs
far
> less frequently, but it still happens from time to time.
>
> Has anyone else run into this problem? I understand that we are
> probably unusual in running software RAID, but it is essential
for us
> to have servers which can be quickly recovered in the event of
a disk
> crash and hardware RAID cards are expensive (and a single point
of
> failure).
>
> Alternatively, does anyone know of any monitoring tools which
might
> be of help in uncovering this maddeningly un-reproducable
mystery?
>
> Hope you can help me because I'm rapidly losing what hair I
have
> left! :-)
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Winston Gutkowski
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> enigma-list mailing list
> [email protected]
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/enigma-list

stew

---
Outgoing SofTEC USA mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.465 / Virus Database: 263 - Release Date: 3/25/2003