SUMMARY: e250 hanging

Late summary because this one has taken a bit of time to resolve - we had to
wait for the machine to crash before we could make any progress.

Thanks to:

Adriaan Kotze
Henrik L. Poulsen
Michael Kiernan
mike.salehi@kodak.com
Jeff Horwitz
Greg Gallagher

Michael suggested adding snoop=1 to the kernel, and do a sync from the
openboot prompt the next time the system crashes. This will create a dump
that we can then send off to Sun. snooping=1 is also known as the deadman
timer according to the Sun support guy I spoke to afterwards.

Jeff suggested booting with the kernel debugger using 'boot kadb' from the
openboot prompt.

Both good suggestions. I have added the kernel parameter, but ..
unfortunately? .. the system hasn't crashed once in the last two weeks. I'm
having this idea that it's related to Solstice X25 and the SunSAI/P ports on
the box, but I cannot prove anything as long as the machine hasn't crashed.

Original question:

We have a problem where an e250 (Solaris 8) hangs so bad that not even the
stop-a key combination works. No coredumps are generated, the entire system
is frozen and we can't do anything but flick the power-key. SunVTS and
Openboot diagnostics don't find any errors.

I'm looking for ways to reproduce this to try and figure out where the cause
is. Does anyone know of various ways I can try and get an e250 to hang?

I know it's not network related, so flood ping and all that stuff is no
good. I have got root access and physical access to the box.

Cheers,
Thorfinn


Everything in this e-mail and any attachments relating to the official business of Standard Bank Investment Corporation and all subsidiaries (Stanbic) is proprietary to the company. It is confidential, legally privileged and protected by law. Stanbic does not own and endorse any other content. Views and opinions are those of the sender unless clearly stated as being that of Stanbic.
 
The person addressed in the e-mail is the sole authorised recipient. Please notify the sender immediately if it has unintentionally reached you and do not read, disclose or use the content in any way.

Stanbic cannot assure that the integrity of this communication has been maintained nor that it is free of errors, virus, interception or interference.