if its is power supply, its going to be very hard to trouleshoot it.....if you are under warranty call dell as you dont want this doing any more damage
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Server powers off Randomly
We have a Dell Win 2003 server that runs fine normally but seems to randomly shut down for not apparent reason. The server is mainly used as a remote terminal server that users log into. The last time it went down, it had to be powered back on, and there were no errors in the log before it shut down. It is plugged into the same UPS device as another server that stayed up when it went down. There are no power supply errors and there were no users logged in the hours before it shut down. It has worked fine since Sunday. Is there a way to check the power supply or can anyone think of any reasons why it would shut down on its own with no errors in the event logs?
Thanks,
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Answers
As mentioned, the P/S would be suspect. Also, if you have Dell OpenManage running, take a look at it for any errors, warnings etc. If you don't have OpenManage, get it! There are also diagnostics to run from OM.
The other possibility is a thermal shutdown. If you have a dead fan (or two) it could result in this behavior.
Also, to help us out, please post the Dell model and config.
fs
It is a Poweredge SC1420 with Win2003. I am going there today to look at it, we are going to put it on its own UPS battery backup as it may be sharing one with another server now. The other servers do not appear to go down. Users can shut down but there was no users logged in in the log the day it went down last. I am also going to check on the warranty status and make sure the fan is running. There would be a heat warning before it went down if it was overheated, correct?
If you run Dell OpenManage, it will log the event and show an alert in the interface until you acknowledge it. As far as OM or the machine itself warning before it went down would only happen if alerts in OM were configured to do so. Many times an overheat condition does not give much if any warning. It will shut down as a hardware protection feature... smoke is a bad thing.
fs
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by: jared_lukerPosted on 2007-03-21 at 14:21:21ID: 18767409
The power supply would be my first guess on this one. It's possible that there is something shorting out the motherboard and causing the system to power off, but not very likely. Has someone been playing under the hood lately?
Check the power connections to all the devices like the HD's, CD's, and floppy drives.
The only good way to test it is to get Dell to send you another one and swap them out.