Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:22:05 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:21:55 -0500 Received: from [204.179.120.86] ([204.179.120.86]:253 "EHLO smtpout.mac.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:21:44 -0500 User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:22:17 -0800 Subject: Re: Nasty suprise with uptime From: Laurent de Segur To: Linux kernel Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org NTP? Oh, this thing I once installed and that was hanging my machine at boot time for a couple of minutes until it timed out when my laptop was not connected to the network? Thanks, but no thanks. Laurent > From: Chris Meadors > Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 10:56:30 -0500 (EST) > To: bert hubert > Cc: Linux kernel > Subject: Re: Nasty suprise with uptime > > On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, bert hubert wrote: > >> Having huge uptimes is by the way not adviseable operational policy >> according to many. Chances are you will be in for a nasty surprise when you >> reboot - do you remember after a year which daemons you 'started by hand' >> and how? > > While this isn't exactly on topic for l-k, I just thought that I would > share my recent pain as it does fit in this thread. > > I had a box that I inherited. It just did its job. Actually most of my > co-workers didn't even know which box performed this function, and when > they saw the physical box, they didn't know what it did. > > It was running a 2.0.x kernel. One day after running for a long time (I'm > guessing close to 500 days) it just went wacky. I tried getting into the > machine by ssh, but nothing was really working right at all. So I figured > a reboot was in order. > > This was a crappy 486/66, with no reset button. So a power cycle was > called for. When I started the machine back up, it did the file system > has not been checked in a long time thing, and it started the fsck. > > After a bit I saw read errors start to spew to the screen, tons of bad > blocks. Then the machine squealed for a few seconds, clicked, and then > all was silent, except for the steady stream of errors on the console. > > A second power cycle confermed what I already knew. The BIOS reported a > failure in the disk controller (the drive would spin up for 2 seconds > squeal and click a little bit as it spun back down). > > This machine was configured to do a task, just forward messages to a > paging terminal. It's configuration was never changed. It had a one of > those floppy-tape drives in it. I knew were the backup tape was, it was > made 3 years ago when the machine was first put into action. > > Of course the tape was unreadble at this point. So the installation and > configuration was recreated from my memory. Luckly I have a good memory, > but it did take me 2 days to get everything running right again. > > So the moral of the story is. Reboot every-so-often. Set your fsck to > run at around 2 months, x number of reboots is good too. I like to > stagger my partitions with 5 reboots between each, even on journaled > filesystems. And verify your backups even if the machine isn't changing. > > I usually follow those rules, but the cute little 486 in the corner with > the 240MB hard drive, 16MB of RAM, and the monster uptimes was just too > much fun to brag about. I'm not bragging anymore, and it is disassembled > on the floor in my office. > > -Chris > -- > Two penguins were walking on an iceberg. The first penguin said to the > second, "you look like you are wearing a tuxedo." The second penguin > said, "I might be..." --David Lynch, Twin Peaks > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/