Dave Cotton wrote:

On Tue, 2007-09-11 at 09:59 +0100, Kevin Thorpe wrote:

...

My server crashed last night and I can't see anything in the logs as to why. I couldn't ssh in so I connected a screen and keyboard, the screen stayed on standby and I couldn't even toggle the caps-lock. I'm thinking that it was a kernel panic but without the screen I don't know what caused it. I can't see anything except a huge gap in the logs so they're no help. Is there anywhere else I can look to try and find out what the problem was so I can stop it happening again? I don't appreciate being dragged out of bed and half-way across the city by our Australian friends who can't go to bed at a sensible time.

Big gap in the logs suggests to me no electricity.

That would depend on whether the BIOS is set to automatically restart the system on return of power. If it went down and the gap is due to some guy hitting the power button, then the gap is still unexplained although "no electricity" could still be the logical culprit for the crash in the first place. "No electricity" is still a good starting point! Does the box have a UPS that communicates with the box? If so, what do the ups logs look like? You are correct that not being able to see the physical screen could be a problem. If it is kernel/harddrive/memory related, the spewing of gibberish and hex codes on the screen can be helpful to have. However, without the screen, without any info from the logs, the probability is high that you will just have to wait until you are "dragged out of bed and half-way across the city by [your] Australian friends who can't go to bed at a sensible time." If you can't beat'em join'em, I hear the Aussies are a load of fun to party with, Onya mate! -- David C. Rankin, J.D., P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 (936) 715-9333 (936) 715-9339 fax www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Aaron Kulkis wrote:

Kevin Thorpe wrote:

...

My server crashed last night and I can't see anything in the logs as to why. I couldn't ssh in so I connected a screen and keyboard, the screen stayed on standby and I couldn't even toggle the caps-lock. I'm thinking that it was a kernel panic but without the screen I don't know what caused it. I can't see anything except a huge gap in the logs so they're no help. Is there anywhere else I can look to try and find out what the problem was so I can stop it happening again? I don't appreciate being dragged out of bed and half-way across the city by our Australian friends who can't go to bed at a sensible time.

thanks Did you check all of the following:

/var/logs/warn /var/log/messages? /var/log/localmessages

If there's nothing in any of these files, I would suspect a CPU lock up due to overheating, or some similar sort of hardware problem (video card hanging the bus, etc). How's the airflow and internal cleanliness of the physical box, and/or any rack mount it might be inside.

Nothing but a huge gap in all those logs. The box is at a reasonable height (desk height) in a barely populated rack (two servers, one switch) with front and back open. Both servers are cold to the touch, I know that doesn't tell you the internal temp. but I've never had an overheat problem in an established server where the box hasn't felt hot. Office environment, but it was early hours of morning so unlikely to be overheating. This box used to sit on the floor (carpeted) for several months and didn't overheat there despite being full of dust, now cleaned out. Hopefully it's a one-off. If it happens again I'll strip and rebuild the box. Failing that I'll have to replace the mobo etc. At least that'll give me a kick-ass workstation and I'll put up with an occasional reboot. It still doesn't give me anything to tell our Ozzie colleagues. thanks -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org