[WBEL-users] Investigating a kernel panic

[Simone]

Thanks for all the replies. I performed a smartctl -a test and it looks 
ok, despite /dev/sda is 59°C pretty close to the Drive Trip Temperature 
60 °C.
hdparm results:

 Device: HP       18.2GB A 80-S1A0 Version: S1A0
/dev/sda:  
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   428 MB in  2.00 seconds = 214.00 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   78 MB in  3.00 seconds =  26.00 MB/sec
Device: COMPAQ   BD0186349B       Version: 3B05
/dev/sdb:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   428 MB in  2.00 seconds = 214.00 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   66 MB in  3.07 seconds =  21.50 MB/sec

Looks pretty the same to me.
 I am somehow thinking of a memory related problem, but I have some 
questions. The previous install was on a pentium III 866Mhz 768Mb PC100 
ram 2x 10Gb ATA66 Disks RAID1, and it crashed every 20 days more or less 
(it happened also 2 times in 2 days). This install is on a Celeron 
1300Mhz, 512 Mb PC133 Ram Computer, 2x 18Gb SCSI RAID1, and it has 
crashed after 30 days. Power supply is different as well as the entire 
case/motherboard and whatever you can imagine (know it is not really 
server hardware, but it's what they gave me, and I won't give up on 
having Linux present in the company). It's 2 completely different 
machines, but the issue is the same, so maybe I'm wrong, but I would 
exclude the power supply or disks or mobo. 
I thought of the memory like  Brian suggested, considering that under a 
high load it could heavily swap leading to the panic, even though top 
doesn't show such a heavy memory usage or swapping during normal operation.

Is there a way to get more info on the machine state just previous to 
the panic?

Thanks for all your help
Simone




Sudev Barar wrote:

>On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 11:38 +0200, Simone wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi list,
>>I periodically experience kernel panics on my wbel3 box. This server is 
>>running as a front end mail filter for exchange, with a typical 
>>MailScanner - sendmail - clamav setup. I also have mailwatch for 
>>mailscanner running, which is a LAMP kind setup. Every 3-4 weeks I have 
>>a crash, with keyboard blinking lights, and I don't understand the 
>>reason for it. Recently installed a new server same configuration, 2 x 
>>18Gb scsi disks raid1, thinking it was possibly a hardware problem, but 
>>this morning after a month running fine, I had the first crash. Could 
>>you please tell me where to look for possible indications on what could 
>>have caused the panic? Checked log/messages but it looks like no useful 
>>info is in there.
>>    
>>
>
>We faced a similar behaviour on server running RH9. Two changes were
>done and till date I do not know for certain if any were responsible.
>1. Upgraded the power supply with higher wattage.
>2. Changed the drive cables as on of the drives was giving slow results
>when checked with #hdparm -tT /dev/sd[ac]
>HTH
>
>  
>

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