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OmniOS freezing consistently

S

securitux

n00b
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
44
Hi all, I just did an install of OmniOS and it doesn't appear to be too stable. It boots fine, then freezes between 10 mins and 1 hr after.

The system is a new build, as follows:

SuperMicro X9SRH-7TF
Xeon E1620v2 CPU
8 sticks of Kingston non-ECC RAM (32GB). All sticks are identical.
IBM M1015 SAS controller (no disks on it yet)

/var/adm/messages is useless, of course, since it flushes each reboot.

I pulled the M1015 controller and am waiting to see if it freezes again. I haven't flashed it to IT mode yet, so maybe it's something to do with that. It shouldn't be, but who knows.

Freeze issues sometimes indicate memory as well, so I may do a memtest.

Any other suggestions? Anyone seen this before? Freezing is really quite a rare thing in a modern OS, shouldn't happen. I haven't seen an OS freeze with no input or load for a very long time.

EDIT: I should mention, I have Napp-It installed as well. Latest production version as of last night. 0.9e1
 
Is the RAM you're using on SuperMicro's tested list? I just went through a major issue with RAM on a SM board. I ended up purchasing something they listed. That seems to have solved all my issues. Also, I assume you are planning to use ZFS, in which case you need ECC RAM.
 
Why do I need ECC RAM for ZFS? I know it is the best to get, I just happened to have a stack of non-ECC here and wanted to make use of it for now. I've been running ZFS quite successfully without ECC for about 2-3 years on my old ZFS server.
 
You don't need it in the sense that it won't work otherwise. But having checksums is less useful if ram can have bit-flips and you end up with undetected corruption.
 
ZFS does not need ECC - just like any other filesystem or server.
But with ZFS RAM errors are the most probable way for unreported data errors.
This is different to older filesystems where there are a bunch of other common reasons for an undetected dataloss.

If you buy new RAM, always buy ECC for a server (and a desktop if supported).
Its worth the premium.

In your case, I would check for problems in this order: RAM, Power, Cabling, Others
I would go back to 8 GB RAM and retry.
If the problem persist, try another RAM module, if the problem persist try a different module.

If you can lower RAM performance parameter in Bios, try this as well.
 
Hmm.. makes sense. I'll keep testing to see what's causing the freezes, so far it looks like it's the M1015.

@_Gea, as soon as I pulled the M1015 it never froze. I am flashing it now and will check to make sure there's nothing in conflict. I am going to keep the server running without the card for the next 6 hrs and see if it locks again. If so I'll drop the RAM down to 8GB.

I agree with new purchases, I always buy ECC for server. I just happened to have all these 'old' pulls that I wanted to use. I may just go get ECC now though if it's going to cause grief, short or long term.

-J
 
Alright, so I finished flashing both M1015's using my Asus board by doing this:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg124393#msg124393

And I also flashed the onboard SAS to IT firmware using this process:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1758318

Couldn't have been easier.

Since then I haven't had a single freeze. Looks like the SAS controllers caused it somehow, perhaps a conflict of some sort. Can't be sure.

Anyway, I think I will still hunt down some ECC in the next few weeks.
 
Well spoke too soon. Froze again :( Going to order ECC RAM today.

If that doesn't do it I will pitch OmniOS. I am not too sure about the stability of this compared to OI.

-J
 
securitux said:
Well spoke too soon. Froze again :( Going to order ECC RAM today.

If that doesn't do it I will pitch OmniOS. I am not too sure about the stability of this compared to OI.

-J
Click to expand...

OI and OmniOS are basically quite the same. Both are using the newest bits from Illumos. The main difference is that OmniOS is a commercially supported OS with regular stable releases and regular bugfixes.

OI is a pure community project without a stable and regular updates but includes the desktop option. If its for a pure server, I would go with OmniOS and check for hardware problems as this is the source of the problems. Start with a very basic config with low RAM and Sata.
 
_Gea said:
OI and OmniOS are basically quite the same. Both are using the newest bits from Illumos. The main difference is that OmniOS is a commercially supported OS with regular stable releases and regular bugfixes.

OI is a pure community project without a stable and regular updates but includes the desktop option. If its for a pure server, I would go with OmniOS and check for hardware problems as this is the source of the problems. Start with a very basic config with low RAM and Sata.
Click to expand...

Ironic that I am having more problems with the more 'stable' version :) Ok I just picked up 32GB of ECC registered RAM, should be here in the next few days.
 
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