Summary: /var/mail corruption

From: Mark `Hex' Hershberger (mah@eecs.tulane.edu)
Date: Sun Sep 01 1996 - 00:24:49 CDT


Original post:

> Twice within the past week, we have experience power failures on our
> mail server. This, of course, left some of the mailboxes in /var/mail
> corrupted. Some even contained other people's mail.
>
> That is not good.
>
> Is there anything that can be done to avoid this problem, or at least
> fix it after it happens? (Ok, so we should put a UPS on at least that
> machine, but anything else?)

I forgot to mention the OS: Solaris 2.5

Answers (besides get a UPS): Apply Patch 103093-05 (for Solaris 2.5)

Accutal responses follow my .sig.

| _o ) mah@eecs.tulane.edu |
| Mark `Hex' Hershberger `\< New Orleans, LA ( |
| (*)/(*) c[] hex@eecs.tulane.edu |

Men never do evil so completely or cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal

-------------
Subject: Re: Problems with /var/mail after crash
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 17:56:13 +0200
From: Casper Dik <casper@holland.Sun.COM>

Since you're using a Solaris machine, I'm wondering whether
it's perhaps a Solaris 2.5 machine with "sun4m" kernel arch.

If so, you may want to try patch 103093-05 or later.

Casper

---------------
From: Ric Anderson <ric@rtd.com>
Subject: Re: Problems with /var/mail after crash
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 10:18:51 -0700 (MST)

What OS? There's a known file corruption bug in Solaris 2.5
that manifests itself across power outages among other places.

There is a patch as part of 103093-05 to fix the problem
in 2.5. Beyond that, any open file is probably toast across
a power outage. A UPS with enough brains to notify the
host that it is on battery power and the battery is getting
low is what you need. An APC SmartUPS with their PowerChute
Plus software will do that, as will a couple of other vendors.
Check Liebert Datawave (I think) and ParaSystems Minute Man line.

URLs are
        http://www.apcc.com
        http://www.liebert.com
        http://www.parasystems.com

Cheers,
Ric (<ric@rtd.com> "Ric Anderson", using RTD's public internet access)



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