System crashes every now and again 1

[ScotsLass]

Is there any type of information that would explain why
a Novell Netware system would crash without any apparent
reason. Every time I load conlog.nlm and it fills up
with data, the system will crash and there is no indication
as to why this happened. I do not use console.log any more
and the crashes still persist. I am using a Dell Poweredge
2500 server (which has to have the battery recharged every
6 months).

 

[TheLad]

I take it that the Console log fills up with garbage? You could also check the ABEND.LOG (located in SYS:SYSTEM) as this should report system crashes in there.

It may also we worth checking out the server hardware as this could also be a possible cause if you say the system battery has to be recharged...

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[ScotsLass]

I should have explained that it is a thing with "DELL" that
the battery_reconditioning has to be done every 6 months.
I have checked the abend.log and also the sys$log.err files
and they do not indicate any problems. It is a real mystery
and I wish that I had the answer to this one. I even went
into the Novell and Veritas websites to pose the same
question but they do not seem to have an answer to this
either. I find it very difficult to believe that nobody
else has had this problem.

 

[TheLad]

Are you sure the cleaner is not unplugging it to plug the hoover in?

Do Dell have a Management system similar to Compaq's Insight Manager? If so, it may be worth installing that. It may also do some good to run hardware diagnostics checks to ensure that the hardware is definately not at fault

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[ScotsLass]

I just came in this morning and the server was down
AGAIN, The message that came up was "Error writing FAT
table for volume sys. Do I need to close down the server
to do a VREPAIR?

Thanks

 

[TheLad]

I would definately do some hardware diagnostics before anything else. It could be a dodgy RAID card, or anything hardware related. A VREPAIR would not hurt but it is worth checking the hardware first just in case a VREPAIR stuffs up SYS as a result of hardware issues.

Does it only go down at night? It may be file compression causing it?

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[ScotsLass]

Yes, TheLad, you may have hit on something there. Apparently,
according to Novell, the compression is done between Midnight
and 6AM and the system goes down at 12:21AM almost every
time. What can I do to rectify this or am I stuck with
it?

 

[TheLad]

You could set file compression off to see if this resolves the issue, however I would suggest this only as a temporary measure until you get to the bottom of why this may be causing the server failures. At the console, type:

SET FILE COMPRESSION = OFF

Run with this for a week and see if the server goes down during that period. The Link below is not specific to your problem but may give you some pointers as to what to check next in an effort to resolving the root cause:

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/2922696.htm

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[ScotsLass]

According to what I read, once compression is set to ON,
it cannot be turned OFF. Are the deleted files also
compressed? I purged about 3000 files this morning.

 

[TheLad]

You're not turning file compression off in the real sense, you're simply switching off the process that compresses files every night.

Of course, it does help if I give you the right command

SET ENABLE FILE COMPRESSION = OFF

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[ScotsLass]

Thanks again. I will turn off the compression for about
one week and see what happens during that time.

 

[ScotsLass]

I set the file compression = off which so far seems to have
worked and the server has not gone down (yet). What will
happen to all the files flagged as "ic"? Is there a way
to turn this feature off? Wpuld it hurt to leave the
compression off or will it cause more harm than good?

 

[TheLad]

Like I said before, you have only turned the compression process itself off. Files that are already compressed are ok, although if they are opened they will not get recompressed. Same with other unused files, they also will not get compressed. It won't do any harm to keep compression switched off.

Nevertheless, you need to get down to the root cause of why this appears to be crashing the server. Chances are your server hardware is at fault so you need to concentrate your efforts on finding out what and why (for example, your RAID card could be at fault).

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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