Re: Tru64 5.1 System hangs when creating Oracle data file > 1Gb - any suggestions on cause

On 3 Jul 2003, James Blackmore wrote:

> Last week I saw a very scary problem on a system I am doing some Unix
> admin work on.
>
> This is an alpha Tru64 5.1 1885 standalone (no cluster) machine, which
> was running Oracle 8.1.7.0.0 with a large (mostly empty) database
> totalling about 40Gb of space, with about 1Gb of actual data at
> present.
>
> The system was updated to Oracle 8.1.7.4.0, and due to previous
> database corruptions it was decided to export the entire database to a
> text file before the upgrade. Delete everything, perform the upgrade
> then re-create empty tables from scratch, create static data files for
> the larger tables and import the database.
>
> All went well until it was time to create the 23Gb data file for the
> largest table, at which point the console hung, not even the cursor
> would flash, all disks were quiet, and the only thing you could do to
> this system was ping it !
>
> After a manual reset, the system booted normally, /var/adm/messages
> had no entries before the reboot to indicate anything about the
> problem (obvious really given the complete and total hang), no crash
> file was generated (I didn't know to type crash at >>> prompt then,
> and we cannot now use this system to repeat the test as it is back in
> partial use).

We had exactly the same problem with a new XP1000 - system would run fine for 2-4 weeks and then suddenly hang. The reset button didn't work and no crash dumps were created. I tried running syscheck fron a script more or less continuously in the hope that error information would be captured but no problem was ever found. As the machine was new, it was reported to Compaq and various log files sent to them for analysis but no problem was ever found. By then Compaq had become HP and then finally HP conceded taht the CPU or the CPU daughterboard was faulty, sent out an engineer to replace it and it's been fine ever since.

Andy Received on Fri Jul 11 2003 - 08:14:53 CDT