Question

Why did my Server reboot?

Asked by: ddiazp

Hi there,

We have a production linux server running SuSE. The server restarted by itself some time ago, and I need to know why.

I've checked /var/log/messages but it only shows the server boot process some minutes after the reboot. Nothing before that.

This is the actual output of 'last reboot':

reboot   system boot  2.6.16.60-0.31-s Sun Sep 20 00:06         (1+10:37)


only 2 other people have access to the server but none of them were even logged in that day, how can I prove whether this a power issue or an emergency reboot initiated by the system itself or something like that?

The server is at a datacenter, Nobody accessed our suite during this time. What else should I be looking at (what other log files, etc)?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-09-21 at 07:47:41ID24748451
Tags

SuSE

,

Linux

,

reboot

Topics

SuSE Linux

,

Linux Network Security

,

Linux Networking

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Create Emergency Disk
    I want to know how to Cerate an Emergency disk in Uinxware 2.0.1 and in SUn solaris 2.5.1. Which command we have to use... what is thge sys ntax.
  2. emergency help: stringreplace
    hi! Emergency help ! I need a string replacer that works like the Delphi standard method type   TReplaceFlags = set of (rfReplaceAll, rfIgnoreCase); function StringReplace(const S, OldPattern, NewPattern: string; Flags: TReplaceFlags): string; but includes rfWholeWord...
  3. Emergency:Boot up problems
    Hi guys, I'm using a Compaq deskpro en series 6350. After the Compaq splash screen comes up, the screen goes black and there's a flashing white underscore in the top left hand corner of the screen.I replaced the RAM - same. Even tried putting the new ram in a different DIMM ...
  4. Reboot if nobody is logged on
    I want to reboot a computer remotely (shutdown.exe?), but only if nobody is logged in. Is it possible to set up a automatic schedule for this?
  5. Why SUSE on Mainframes?
    As I know, SUSE Linux is the leading Linux OS for the Mainframes. So, why are they using it if SUSE linux is known to be insecure? SUSE is not secure.
  6. SUSE Linux vs. Trusted Solaris
    Can I setup SUSE Linux to be like a Trusted system? If yes, then how? Links would be greatly appreciated..Thanks

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: ddiazpPosted on 2009-09-21 at 07:48:02ID: 25383409

1 more thing.. what does (1+10:37)  mean on the above output (from 'last reboot')

 

by: mrcustardPosted on 2009-09-21 at 08:38:37ID: 25384038

That (1+10:37) should be the time. Can you run the following command and post the output?

cat /etc/sysctl.conf | grep -i kernel.panic

                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: ddiazpPosted on 2009-09-21 at 08:39:56ID: 25384054

kernel.panic_on_oops = 1
kernel.panic = 60

 

by: mrcustardPosted on 2009-09-21 at 09:16:47ID: 25384510

So, your server is set to reboot 60 seconds after a kernel panic. So this could have caused it assuming that you had a kernel panic. Can you look through all of the logs in /var/logs and see if you see anything resembling a kernel panic or anything that was happening about that time?

 

by: ddiazpPosted on 2009-09-21 at 10:24:26ID: 25385258

Don't I need some kind of kernel debugger to see anything at all regarding kernel panics?

None of the logs have any reference to kernel panics, or any issues at all.

Normal application log entries stop at 11:55pm (which is when server went down) and then the next data is from 12:07 showing boot up logs (services going up, interfaces up, etc).

no other data is shown -- if this was a kernel panic shouldn't I see it somewhere other than /var/log/messages?

 

by: mrcustardPosted on 2009-09-21 at 10:34:13ID: 25385349

Well, it depends on the type of kernel panic. Take a look at this link:

http://rhcelinuxguide.wordpress.com/2006/06/01/linux-kernel-panic-prevent-cardiac-arrest/

A kernel panic (depending on the type) can write messages to /var/log/messages. Sounds like you had a "hard kernel panic"...

M.

 

by: ddiazpPosted on 2009-10-22 at 18:10:08ID: 25640622

Turns out we were over-loading the power supply at the data center.. this has been taken care of

THanks!

 

by: ddiazpPosted on 2009-10-22 at 18:10:52ID: 31631426

Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...