Re: Hardware failure -- how to find out?

[Cassiano Leal <cleal@via-rs.net>]

Marty wrote:
> Cassiano Leal wrote:
> > People,
> >
> > I have at work a mixed system Debian sarge/etch running a firewall and 
> > vpn server on a K6-2.
> >
> > Today, we were experiencing some connectivity problems, and we found 
> > out that they were caused by iptables not initiating properly and 
> > segfaulting. So, I went into the servers room, to find out that the 
> > computer in question was beeping constantly, which led me to believe 
> > it was a hardware failure.
>
> If it was the speaker then it could mean the motherboard was resetting 
> while still in the BIOS.

I'm not sure about what you mean by the mobo resetting while still in 
the BIOS. This system was still allowing some traffic through it and did 
respond to commands sent via SSH, but nothing on the console.

> > The computer wouldn't respond to 'init 6' via ssh, so I tried to 
> > Ctrl-Alt-Delete locally, without success. Tried to login, again to fail.
>
> You probable got a kernel oops or your root hard drive went offline.  A 
> kernel oops will usually make it to the console but not to the logs.  

Hard to tell, since the firewall logs were all over the console.

> If it was caused by a hard drive error then it will show up in the 
> /var/log/message and /var/log/syslog unless the disk went offline before 
> any errors were logged.  If you are ambitious you can use the kernel's 

Will check that, although I don't think the disk has actually gone 
offline, unless it did go back online again, since, as I said before, I 
could still issue commands via ssh.

> I use three kinds of tests, usually at the same time to maximize 
> stress.  One is a version a bash script called "burnit" which was used 

Thanks. I'll probably do some testing as soon as possible.

> > Please, bear in mind that this is a production firewall system.
>
> Good reason to set up a backup firewall.  Any old PC will do.  The 
> backup firewall can serve as a replacement while you do the stress 
> testing.  After fixing the failing PC, you can keep keep the backup 
> running and ready to replace the primary firewall at any time.

Yes, I do know I should have one, and it's been in my plans to make one 
for some time, but I haven't got the time to do it. It'll have to be 
now, though, since I'm afraid I'll end up with none otherwise.

Thanks for all the info and thoughts.

Cheers
Cassiano Leal

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