SUMMARY:Should I reboot daily?

From: sardellp@meadow.mdso.vf.ge.com
Date: Tue Aug 23 1994 - 21:50:33 CDT


Thanks for all of the responses. At this writing, I have received
a lot of replies, consequently, my summary is late.

Here is the original post:
> Hi,
>
> What is the group concencus on rebooting machines? I
> have a user on my network who insists that a workstation
> or fileserver must be rebooted every day to kill of any
> zombie processes and keep the machine from bogging down.
>
> I've never considered doing this before, and frankly, it
> sounds stupid. However, I recognize that I could be wrong.
>
> Opinions?

A couple of you are for rebooting every day, some are for rebooting
periodically (once a week or twice a month), and a staggering majority
find it to be stupid to do it unless something you have installed requires it.
Most pointed out that the symtoms indicate a need to fix a software problem
on the system (ie. something is leaking memory).

The system in question is a Sparc 5 clone running 4.1.3 (Solaris 1.1.1B). The
two main resource hogs are INN and the mud. One or both of these is seen to
be the nasty software in question (actually, the mud is really under the microscope).

If you have any experience with them, let me know.

The following is a sample of the many people who replied:

tim.cannon@amp.com weekly
tgsmith@sun.com never
ajs6143@eerpf001.ca.boeing.co periodically
ric@artisoft.com never (stupid)
mxsq@alpo.casc.com periodically
rao@hobbes.crc.com periodically?
Dave.Curado@hk.super.net never (bonkers, that's when problems occur)
misik@alpha.dcs.fmph.uniba.sk never (it's nonsense)
weitzel@burke.com reboot daily, if necessary
stern@sunrise.east.sun.com never (they aren't toys)
dan@ees1s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu never (it's a syptom of something else)
chughey@tango.cos.com periodically (once a month)
AROSSITE@us.oracle.com never (stupid)
fetrow@biostat.washington.edu periodically
ljm@halsp.hitachi.com never (just say "no")
satmb@gauss.med.harvard.edu never (stupid)
boenning@becherovka periodically (daily is stupid)
gturner@aer.com never
strombrg@bingy.acs.uci.edu never? (once a week for a mainframe IBM, etc)
zegarac@gdls.com periodically
kowal@ide.com periodically
Ian_MacPhedran@engr.usask.ca never 9stupid, looses valuable time)
dlw@lincnet.syntex.com periodically? (not sure if it is necessary)
pburyk@leis.leis.bellcore.com never (what will it gain you?)
reynolds@camg2.icgmfg.mke.ab.com never
edk@mach10.utica1.kaman.com periodically? (sometimes you have to)
eww@hobbes.crc.com periodically (once a week at most)
tom@yac.llnl.gov periodically (once a month)
pamela@legato.com periodically (depending on use)
rackow@mcs.anl.gov never
valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu never (unless you want to do it when when
                                       he needs access to it)
len@netsys.com never (legacy from the old days)
griffin@lehman.com periodically (one a month)
syd@dsinc.myxa.com never
tmb@banjo.myxa.com periodically (2-3 months)
bsd670mp!david@uunet.uu.net daily
sud@philabs.philips.com never?
acmcr!vr@murphy.com never
wolfgang@sunspot.nosc.mil never (is this guy a DOS refugie?)
kwthomas@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu never (no need to reboot on a daily basis)
dominick@khan.protocol.zycad.com periodically (once a month)
jamesm@matrix.newpaltz.edu periodically (once a week)
john@pendragon.zim.bms.com never (saturn up 259 days, 11:47)
garrett@athena.sdsu.edu never
gmerin@panix.com periodically (once every 2 weeks)
cds@sanjose.ssds.com never (*maybe* 1/month if Openwin is used)
stefan@centaur.astro.utoronto.ca never (but boarders on periodically)
glenns@sa-cgy.valmet.com never (now and then perhaps)
mikey@truman.lanl.gov never
lar@trib.com never (could blow up on re-boot)
antonson@umiacs.umd.edu periodically (once every 1 to 2 weeks)
crm@lgi.com periodically (once a week)

I missed a few, I know. However, there were so many responses, it was taking forever
to summarize. Thanks to you all...



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:09:08 CDT