SUMMARY: UPS & Ghostly Reboots

From: Linda Maepa (linda@cco.caltech.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 14 1996 - 11:58:39 CST


On Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST), I wrote:

Dear All,
 
In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
much information to share about what exactly is happening.
 
The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
 
In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving
much of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place.
Prior to the startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
 
Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
 
Thanks for your time,
Linda Maepa

------------------------------- Begin Summary ------------------------------

What I gathered from the many folks who replied so helpfully to my message
was that I was experiencing a problem with my power supply (either the UPS
to which I was connected or the power cord itself). With these pithy
considerations in mind, I descended upon my UPS (which I neglected to mention
in my earlier post -sigh-) and discovered, to my horror, that we were
operating at its nether limits. It is rated for 400 VA and we are using
something nearer to TWICE that number. Oh well. *smiles*

Voltage Amps (VA) can coincidentally be calculated by multiplying the
operating voltage (typically a value between 100 and 240 V) by the amount of
current drawn by your equipment.

For instance,

SPARCstation 20: (120V) x (.6A) = 552 VA
Sun 21" monitor: (120V) x ( 3A) = 360 VA
                                         ------
                                         912 VA

The voltage and current values can be referenced along the backside of your
equipment. On a Sparc 20 look to the far right, near the power switch (be
careful!). It is a metallic gray label. On the accompanying monitor,
look towards the leftward side of the metallic label blazoned across the
back.
Left and Right are relative to the UserEye View(tm).

As for the most recent reboot, it has now been traced ignobly to a power
surge caused by a weekend carpet cleaning.

In the interest of completeness, I have included the full text of the
replies I received as a MIME attachment.

I hope someone finds this summary useful.

Thanks and take care,
Linda Maepa

From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Mon Feb 12 14:11:41 1996
Received: from ra.mcs.anl.gov by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id OAA20500; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:11:38 -0800
Received: (from daemon@localhost) by ra.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.10/8.6.9) id MAA27693 for sun-managers-outbound; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:51:55 -0600
Sender: sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov
Received: from accord.cco.caltech.edu (linda@accord.cco.caltech.edu [131.215.48.152]) by ra.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.10/8.6.9) with ESMTP id MAA27688 for <sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov>; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:51:52 -0600
From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Reply-to: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Followup-to: junk
Precedence: junk
Received: by accord.cco.caltech.edu
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.45) id KAA01925; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800
Message-Id: <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu>
Subject: Ghostly Reboots
To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL22]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 1047

Dear All,

In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
much information to share about what exactly is happening.

The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.

In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.

Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.

Thanks for your time,
Linda Maepa

PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
will, naturally, provide a summary.



From andrew@mis.mua.go.th Tue Feb 13 17:42:32 1996
Received: from morakot.nectec.or.th by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id RAA25573; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 17:42:16 -0800
Received: from mis.mua.go.th by morakot.nectec.or.th (8.6.8/1.34)
        id IAA11933; Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:43:02 +0700
Received: from localhost.nectec.or.th by morakot.nectec.or.th (8.6.8/1.34)
        id IAA11933; Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:43:02 +0700
Received: by mis.mua.go.th (5.0/SMI-SVR4)
        id AA27836; Wed, 14 Feb 96 08:53:08 GMT
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:53:05 -0700 (GMT)
From: Andrew Lamb <andrew@mis.mua.go.th>
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
In-Reply-To: <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9602140803.A27785-0100000@mis>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
content-length: 604
Status: O


> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than

Check the permissions on
                        /usr/sbin/init
                        /usr/sbin/reboot
                        /usr/sbin/shutdown

Do "others" have read or execute permission for these files? (I think
read permission is just as good as execute permission, because if they
have read permission they can copy the file to their home directory or
/tmp and the copy they made will be owned by them, so they can then
change the permissions on their own copy and execute it.

Do you have a UPS ? Power fluctuations or momentary blackouts could cause
unscheduled reboots.

From kevin@uniq.com.au Tue Feb 13 13:07:59 1996
Received: from upshield.uniq.com.au by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id NAA09059; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 13:07:56 -0800
Received: (from uucp@localhost) by upshield.uniq.com.au id IAA11762
  (8.6.12/IDA-1.6 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:08:23 +1100
Received: from ups.uniq.com.au(192.195.152.18) by upshield.uniq.com.au via smap (V1.3)
        id sma011760; Wed Feb 14 08:08:00 1996
Received: from kalli.uniq.com.au (kalli-ppp) by ups.uniq.com.au with SMTP id AA28744
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:07:50 +1100
Received: by kalli.uniq.com.au (5.x/SMI-SVR4)
        id AA00521; Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:00:29 +1100
Message-Id: <9602132100.AA00521@kalli.uniq.com.au>
From: Kevin.Sheehan@uniq.com.au (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 08:00:27 EST
X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.1.2 7/11/90)
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
Status: RO

Does it have to check the file systems when it comes up? I'm wondering
if it isn't a power problem...

                l & h,
                kev

From glenn@uniq.com.au Tue Feb 13 11:17:54 1996
Received: from upshield.uniq.com.au by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id LAA02985; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:17:48 -0800
Received: (from uucp@localhost) by upshield.uniq.com.au id GAA11067
  (8.6.12/IDA-1.6 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Wed, 14 Feb 1996 06:18:09 +1100
Received: from ups.uniq.com.au(192.195.152.18) by upshield.uniq.com.au via smap (V1.3)
        id sma011060; Wed Feb 14 06:17:42 1996
Received: from upstage.uniq.com.au (upstage) by ups.uniq.com.au with SMTP id AA28333
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Wed, 14 Feb 1996 06:17:33 +1100
Received: by upstage.uniq.com.au (5.x/SMI-SVR4)
        id AA04519; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 18:33:57 +1100
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 18:33:57 +1100
From: Glenn.Satchell@uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
Message-Id: <9602130733.AA04519@upstage.uniq.com.au>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Status: RO

What info does the last(1m) command provide? Were there any users
logged in on or around the time of the reboots? What about logged
shutdown or reboot entries shown by this command? Do the reboots happen
on or about the same time of day? Could it be a power problem?

regards,
--
Glenn Satchell glenn@uniq.com.au | There's a fine line
Uniq Professional Services Pty Ltd ACN 056 279 335 | between fishing and
PO Box 70, Paddington, NSW 2021, (Sydney) Australia | standing on the shore
Phone 02 380 6360 Pager 016 287 000 Fax 02 380 6416 | looking like an idiot.

> From sun-managers-request@uniq.com.au Tue Feb 13 17:22 EST 1996
> From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
> Reply-To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
> Subject: Ghostly Reboots
> To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
> Comment: *** You are subscribed to the connect.com.au local list exploder
> Comment: *** Please send admin requests to majordomo@connect.com.au,
> Comment: *** NOT the actual list.
> X-Lines: 25
>
> Dear All,
>
> In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
> apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
> much information to share about what exactly is happening.
>
> The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
> processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
> tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
> Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
>
> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
> spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
> of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
> startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
> understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Linda Maepa
>
> PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
> will, naturally, provide a summary.
>
>

From adam@ltx.com Tue Feb 13 06:14:37 1996
Received: from ltx.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with SMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id GAA20202; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 06:14:36 -0800
Received: from westwood.ltx.com (admin.ltx.com) by ltx.com with SMTP id AA14610
  (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:14:25 -0500
Received: from rocky.ltx.com (rocky) by westwood.ltx.com with SMTP id AA03842
  (5.65c/ for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:14:23 -0500
Received: by rocky.ltx.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
        id JAA05256; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:14:14 -0500
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:14:14 -0500
From: adam@ltx.com (Adam Nevins)
Message-Id: <199602131414.JAA05256@rocky.ltx.com>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Status: RO

Hi,

I had the same problem on either a Sparc20 or a Sparc5. A new power supply
cured it.

-Adam
=================================================================
Adam Nevins Phone: 617-467-5265
Network Specialist Fax: 617-467-0293
LTX Corporation E-mail: adam_nevins@ltx.com
University Avenue WW4-10
Westwood, MA 02093-2306
=================================================================

> From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Mon Feb 12 22:15:27 1996
> Sender: sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
> Reply-To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
> Followup-To: junk
> Precedence: junk
> Subject: Ghostly Reboots
> To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL22]
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> X-Lines: 25
>
> Dear All,
>
> In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
> apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
> much information to share about what exactly is happening.
>
> The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
> processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
> tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
> Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
>
> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
> spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
> of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
> startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
> understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Linda Maepa
>
> PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
> will, naturally, provide a summary.
>
>

From A700102@aetna.com Tue Feb 13 03:09:03 1996
Received: from alcfire-gw.aetna.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id DAA17435; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 03:09:02 -0800
Received: from alcfire.aetna.com (daemon@localhost) by alcfire-gw.aetna.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id GAA25578 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 06:08:12 -0500
Received: from gw1.aetna.com (gw1.aetna.com [165.7.3.236]) by alcfire.aetna.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id GAA25574 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 06:08:11 -0500
Message-Id: <199602131108.GAA25574@alcfire.aetna.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 06:10:00 -0500
From: "Marks, Evan R" <A700102@aetna.com>
Subject: RE: Ghostly Reboots
To: linda <linda@cco.caltech.edu>
X-Mailer: Worldtalk (NetConnex V3.50c)/MIME
Status: RO


I am experiencing similar problems....
 ----------
From: linda
To: sun-managers
Subject: Ghostly Reboots
Date: Monday, February 12, 1996 2:54PM

Dear All,

In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
much information to share about what exactly is happening.

The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.

In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving
much
of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.

Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.

Thanks for your time,
Linda Maepa

PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated.
I
will, naturally, provide a summary.


From rtrzaska@uk.mdis.com Tue Feb 13 02:53:24 1996
Received: from relay1.mdis.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id CAA17279; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 02:53:18 -0800
Received: from toad.uk.mdis.com (toad.uk.mdis.com [152.114.33.15]) by relay1.mdis.com with ESMTP id KAA10474
  (8.6.12/IDA-1.6 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>); Tue, 13 Feb 1996 10:53:11 GMT
Received: by toad.uk.mdis.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
        id KAA01978; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 10:53:11 GMT
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 10:53:11 GMT
From: rtrzaska@uk.mdis.com (ray)
Message-Id: <199602131053.KAA01978@toad.uk.mdis.com>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Status: RO


you can enable crashdumps to see if there is such a thing -
by uncommenting the crash/savecore lines in /etc/init.d/sysetup

if there are crashdumps put into /var/crash/`hostname` then at least
you will have something more to look at

ray

From uucp@Relay1.Austria.EU.net Tue Feb 13 02:02:47 1996
Received: from Relay1.Austria.EU.net by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with SMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id CAA16221; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 02:02:41 -0800
Received: by Relay1.Austria.EU.net with UUCP id AA10628
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for linda@cco.caltech.edu); Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:03:03 +0100
Received: from bagheera by atnews1 with SMTP
        (1.37.109.8/atnews1-1.04 :EM004 29.11.95) id AA00129; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:02:24 +0100
Received: from tenten by bagheera with SMTP
        (16.8/bagheera-0.1) id AA24383; Tue, 13 Feb 96 11:02:16 +0100
Received: by tenten.atc.co.at (5.x/SMI-SVR4.ao1)
        id AA00949; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:02:03 +0100
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 11:02:03 +0100
From: karaalia@tenten.atc.co.at (Alev Karaali)
Message-Id: <9602131002.AA00949@tenten.atc.co.at>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Status: RO


Hello Linda,

Just seen your news... Please take my words with a grain of salt
I can only offer you my experiences with my humble Sparc5 (Sol 2.4).
(I have no expeience what so ever with your equipment, mind you)

1) reboots: do you have jobs being scheduled ?
   This is a very remote possibility, but just pondering over
   every possibility.
   Reboots do log things on my Sp5. Are you familiar with
   init levels, and "rc" start up scripts ? You may wish to
   take a look at the "/etc/rc2.d" directory to add few lines
   of code to one of the start up scripts to see.
   Have you checked your "dmesg" (which is also in "messages"
   files) ?
   Are the reboots happening during a certain job/activity ?
 
2) Driver problems: I read awhile ago that these messages were
   innocent enough to ignore with Sol. 2.4. Below is fraction of
   the "messages" file from my system.

Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: sd6 at esp0: target 6 lun 0
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: sd6 is /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@6,0
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: <>
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'isp'
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: root on /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@3,0:a fstype ufs
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: obio0 at root
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: zs0 at obio0: obio 0x100000 sparc ipl 12
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: zs0 is /obio/zs@0,100000
Feb 12 10:42:20 tenten unix: zs1 at obio0: obio 0x0 sparc ipl 12
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: zs1 is /obio/zs@0,0
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: cgsix0 at sbus0: SBus slot 3 0x0 SBus level 5 sparc ipl 9
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: cgsix0 is /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/cgsix@3,0
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: cgsix0: screen 1152x900, single buffered, 1M mappable, rev 11
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: cpu 0 initialization complete - online
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'vme'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'mcp'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'mcpzsa'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'vme'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'mcp'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'mcpzsa'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: Unable to install/attach driver 'stc'
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: ledma0 at sbus0: SBus slot 5 0x8400010
Feb 12 10:42:21 tenten unix: le0 at ledma0: SBus slot 5 0x8c00000 sparc ipl 6

Hope this bits and pieces will be able to shed some ligth on reboot, messages.

Good Luck,

  Alev

From and@morgan.com Tue Feb 13 01:36:45 1996
Received: from exinis1-1.morgan.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id BAA15753; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 01:36:44 -0800
Received: (from mail@localhost) by exinis1-1.morgan.com (8.6.12/sendmail.cf.firewall v1.01) id EAA17210 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 04:37:13 -0500
Received: from unknown(140.14.69.95) by exinis1-1.morgan.com via smap (V1.3)
        id sma017206; Tue Feb 13 04:37:11 1996
Received: from lnis118 (lnis118.morgan.com [140.14.100.118]) by cwmail1.morgan.com (8.6.12/sendmail.cf.hub v1.01) with ESMTP id JAA21971 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:37:09 GMT
Message-Id: <199602130937.JAA21971@cwmail1.morgan.com>
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.4 10/10/95
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
In-reply-to: linda's message of Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800.
             <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu>
X-url: http://lndevd1.morgan.com/~and
X-face: =cP7su>gJcuSSc5q*e'k5nfzYs\:=k7s@Kw?RN)zjz_}C$SAZlFCU!&PwiXZ!>b#='D;uB/
 {5;Pm@EN(q%s5d,(DF<177&o`Qh#D.;KgoCOlt-bc5o%Hy+m<XOMh(5n-~[*[4kZM>Ms^nit\("v7{
 MaM6lbzlEB>c1d3Y[[wy'(k+Q`UFkP('Cbmt7T$C@TI3Z56JvJ8D1\fd>;b%Am7x:@aS!NF,}UTmQv
 V`@Vk;np/)c=dr79<PaP?7;~U\~zM;OThl2?/|'O~\BP7r%%[2m$#8
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:37:09 +0000
From: Anderson McCammont <and@morgan.com>
Status: O

if you've no crash dumps (you do have savecore in your startup scripts right?)
then it's most likely to be power spikes/failures
>>>linda@cco.caltech.edu said:
> Dear All,
>
> In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
> apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
> much information to share about what exactly is happening.
>
> The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
> processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
> tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
> Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
>
> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
> spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving mu
     ch
> of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
> startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
> understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Linda Maepa
>
> PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated.
     I
> will, naturally, provide a summary.
>

--
Andy McCammont PGP/MIME and@morgan.com



From ashley@india.ti.com Mon Feb 12 20:20:41 1996
Received: from dragon.ti.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id UAA08045; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 20:20:40 -0800
Received: from robin.itg.ti.com ([128.247.31.238]) by dragon.ti.com (8.6.12/) with ESMTP id WAA15250 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 22:20:54 -0600
Received: from itg.ti.com (magic.itg.ti.com [128.247.93.50]) by robin.itg.ti.com (8.7.3/8.6.11) with SMTP id WAA02061 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 22:19:07 -0600 (CST)
Received: from dadsparc4.india.ti.com by itg.ti.com (4.1/ITG-1.1)
        id AA16158; Mon, 12 Feb 96 22:22:07 CST
Received: from savy.india.ti.com (savy.india.ti.com [134.183.151.155]) by dadsparc4.india.ti.com (8.6.12/8.6.10) with ESMTP id JAA13625 for <linda@cco.caltech.edu>; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 09:45:16 +0500
From: Ashley Gilbert <ashley@india.ti.com>
Received: (from ashley@localhost) by savy.india.ti.com (8.6.12/8.6.10) id IAA24191 for linda@cco.caltech.edu; Tue, 13 Feb 1996 08:53:09 -0600
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 08:53:09 -0600
Message-Id: <199602131453.IAA24191@savy.india.ti.com>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: RE:Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Status: RO

Linda,

Try the following:

o.Use another power outlet for the system(change the power chord also).
o.Ensure proper ventilation(eg: check the FANs are working in the system SMPS)
o.Re-seat the memory modules.
o.Still the problem exsist,Replace the SMPS of the SS20.

I had faced the similar problem and it was a SS20 SMPS ! who caused!

Good luck.

Ps:Take immediate backups.Your HDD filesystem may crash due to these reboot!!

Ashley
Texas Instruments,India
ashley@india.ti.com
----- Begin Included Message -----

>From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Tue Feb 13 05:25:27 1996
From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Ghostly Reboots
To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Dear All,

In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
much information to share about what exactly is happening.

The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.

In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.

Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.

Thanks for your time,
Linda Maepa

PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
will, naturally, provide a summary.


----- End Included Message -----


From ericb@telecnnct.com Mon Feb 12 19:54:54 1996
Received: from uu5.psi.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with SMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id TAA07242; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 19:54:52 -0800
Received: by uu5.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP;
        id AA03047 for ; Mon, 12 Feb 96 22:51:59 -0500
From: ericb@telecnnct.com (Eric William Burger)
Received: by telecnnct.com (4.1/3.2.083191-Telephone Connection)
        id AA27448; Mon, 12 Feb 96 22:33:44 EST
Message-Id: <9602130333.AA27448@telecnnct.com>
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 22:33:43 -0500 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu> from "linda@cco.caltech.edu" at Feb 12, 96 10:52:44 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 412
Status: RO

Try dmesg. Some panics, such as disk driver panics, won't write
to /var/adm/messages.

--
-- Eric William Burger -- Eric.Burger@telecnnct.com --
-- Director of Engineering -- GMU SITE / GWU CCEW --
-- The Telephone Connection -- Tel. +1 301/417-0700 --
-- 15200 Shady Grove Road -- Fax. +1 301/417-0707 --
-- Rockville, MD 20850-3218 -- U.S.A. --

From grnlake@dopamine.ca.boeing.com Mon Feb 12 15:29:20 1996
Received: from atc.boeing.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with SMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id PAA24700; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:29:18 -0800
Received: by atc.boeing.com (5.65/splinter.boeing.com)
        id AA29619; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:33:58 -0800
Message-Id: <9602122333.AA29619@atc.boeing.com>
Received: from dopamine.ca.boeing.com by splinter.boeing.com with ESMTP
        (1.37.109.16/16.2) id AA053027817; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:30:17 -0800
Received: by dopamine.ca.boeing.com
        (1.37.109.11/16.2) id AA207797775; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:29:35 -0800
From: Donnie Culanag <grnlake@dopamine.ca.boeing.com>
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 15:29:35 PST
In-Reply-To: <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu>; from "linda@cco.caltech.edu" at Feb 12, 96 10:52 am
X-Mailer: Elm [revision: 109.14]
Status: RO

>
Cheers:
Hmmmm... could be it went into a panic because of not enuf swap space
I believe I've heard of this in the HP systems...
might want to check swap space to see if you have enuf, especially if
you have a lot of processes running..
later

> Dear All,
>
> In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
> apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
> much information to share about what exactly is happening.
>
> The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
> processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
> tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
> Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
>
> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
> spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
> of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
> startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
> understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Linda Maepa
>
> PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
> will, naturally, provide a summary.
>


From baldwinj@mailbox.ne.tpd.eds.com Mon Feb 12 14:19:26 1996
Received: from ns2.eds.com by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id OAA20964; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:19:24 -0800
Received: by ns2.eds.com (hello)
        id RAA28854; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:19:50 -0500
Received: by nnsp.eds.com (hello)
        id RAA10800; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:19:19 -0500
Received: from aruba.tpd.eds.com by mailbox.ne.tpd.eds.com (5.0/SMI-SVR4)
        id AA23791; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:11:33 -0500
Received: by aruba.tpd.eds.com (5.x/SMI-SVR4)
        id AA01958; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:20:34 -0500
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 17:20:34 -0500
From: baldwinj@mailbox.ne.tpd.eds.com (John Baldwin)
Message-Id: <9602122220.AA01958@aruba.tpd.eds.com>
To: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Subject: Re: Ghostly Reboots
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
content-length: 1953
Status: RO


> From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Mon Feb 12 15:33 EST 1996
> From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
> Subject: Ghostly Reboots
> To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> Dear All,
>
> In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
> apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
> much information to share about what exactly is happening.
>
> The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
> processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
> tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
> Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.
>
> In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
> spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
> of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
> startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.
>
> Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
> understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Linda Maepa
>
> PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
> will, naturally, provide a summary.
>
>
It is difficult to diagnose what is going on with your system without a history, have there been any hardware, software or patches added lately? Check backwards to the latest change. If the problem on your system is not being caused by any of the above installs, a first step would be to install the latest kernel jumbo patch, I think that they are up to rev 36...Another option to take if after you have installed the patch and the system is still burping, you can activate savecore in the file /etc/rc2.d/S20sysetup and do a diagnosis of the core file to pin point the problem....


john

From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Mon Feb 12 14:11:41 1996
Received: from ra.mcs.anl.gov by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id OAA20500; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 14:11:38 -0800
Received: (from daemon@localhost) by ra.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.10/8.6.9) id MAA27693 for sun-managers-outbound; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:51:55 -0600
Sender: sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov
Received: from accord.cco.caltech.edu (linda@accord.cco.caltech.edu [131.215.48.152]) by ra.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.10/8.6.9) with ESMTP id MAA27688 for <sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov>; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:51:52 -0600
From: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Reply-to: linda@cco.caltech.edu
Followup-to: junk
Precedence: junk
Received: by accord.cco.caltech.edu
        (8.6.12/DEI:4.45) id KAA01925; Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800
Message-Id: <199602121852.KAA01925@accord.cco.caltech.edu>
Subject: Ghostly Reboots
To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:52:44 -0800 (PST)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL22]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 1047
Status: O

Dear All,

In a previous message I alluded briefly to unscheduled, unwanted, and
apparently human-independant system reboots. I unfortunately don't have
much information to share about what exactly is happening.

The system is an Oracle db server with 160MB of RAM, two 75Mhz superSPARC
processors, and a lot of nerve! :-) It's a SS20 that's got two SSA100s
tacked on as well as tape drive (XL), CDROM, floppy, you know the story.
Oh, and it's running Solaris 2.4.

In the past two months, the system has spontaneously rebooted (better than
spontaneously combusting, however) four times without, to my eyes, giving much
of a clue as to why the shutdowns occurred in the first place. Prior to the
startup messages in /var/adm/messages there is absolute silence.

Any clues would be appreciated as well as questions of clarification as I
understand this is somewhat sparse information to go on.

Thanks for your time,
Linda Maepa

PS: Once again, if you could email me direct, it would be much appreciated. I
will, naturally, provide a summary.




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:10:53 CDT