[Novalug] need help: server freezing / locking up

[Richard Ertel]

@Nick:

good idea. i was planning to try the 9.10RC live cd, but that probably
uses the same kernel that i have now (maybe not, i dunno). i'll try
the 8.04 live cd also. thanks for the idea!

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 22:07, Nick Danger <nick at hackermonkey.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:49:20 -0400
> Richard Ertel <richard.ertel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> @Nick:
>>
>> server has been running for years, but about 2 months ago i took out 2
>> drives and put in 2 new larger ones, and reconfigured the arrays. then
>> about a month ago, the lockups started happening (while i was in
>> africa of all places, trying to troubleshoot over ssh with my
>> girlfriend turning it on and off, ugh). luckily, the backup server is
>> working in the meantime...
>
> You said its all patched and up to date. Can you run a previous
> revision kernel? My thinking is that its related to the kernel bit of
> your drive controller. And if it was stable for all those years, I am
> doubting its hardware related.  If you can live without it for a few
> hours, you can boot your Ubuntu 8.04 cd, mount the controllers and just
> run Yes or asciiquarium, maybe a shell script in cron to tar or bz a
> bunch of files over and over to keep the disks busy.
>
> Also for the monitor, I havent found a way to keep them from going to
> sleep. I usually use a serial console, and send everything to the
> serial port. Your backup buffer in your serial terminal program in
> whatever you use to connect should catch any errors that get lost when
> the monitor shuts down, at least if its kernel/software related.
>
> Nick
>