RE: Problems with server stability

Hi Chris,

Sorry for delay in replying. Can up2date be run securely? Currently these servers are isolated from the outside world and only allow
ssh access. If it is possible, I would prefer to run it on a separate machine and then download whatever patches it produces myself.
Is this possible?

Also, I wasn't quite sure what you mean by "don't forget the kernel". Is this something you have to specify separately?

Thanks for your suggestion.

Winston

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Reynolds, Chris
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 6:48
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Problems with server stability


Have you updated to the latest set of patches.  Try running "up2date"
and don't forget the kernel.

-Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Winston Gutkowski [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 7:19 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Problems with server stability

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.
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.

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



_______________________________________________
enigma-list mailing list
[email protected]
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/enigma-list