RH9 Slow on Proliant ML330

[Rick Stevens]

mickey wrote:
> I'm having an issue with my Proliant ML330 server and RH9, can't tell if 
> it's hardware or software...
> 
> The problem is that the server - (usually lightning speed) will go into 
> freeze or just take a break for a few seconds.  A couple of times, I've 
> had to power off to clear it, but other times, after 5 to 30 seconds it 
> will take off again.
> 
> The easiest way to test it has been to tar cz a group of large 
> directories while running top in another window.  I notice that several 
> times, I get about 500 -600 MB gets created, then suddenly the tar job 
> will pause (on a 1 or 3 MB file), top will show processor speed dropped 
> from 50% down to 0%, and the keyboard will even hang, nothing seems to 
> happen.  Just as suddenly, the tar job will usually (eventually) take 
> off again, the terminal window shows the keys I had typed during the 
> "hung" time, and top will again show tar sucking 40-60% processor.  Last 
> night while I tested it, I observed this at least 10 times in as many 
> minutes...
> 
> No errors present in /var/log/messages.
> 
> 
> SW - RH 9 [almost] current RHN, The only processes running are samba 
> (build from Jan 04) and iptables NAT, Squid with DansGuardian.
> 
> HW - ML330 G3 Xeon 2.8, 1.2GB
> 3 Internal 36 GB SCSI drives SW raid 5 on the integrated SCSI Controller
> Built in 100/1000BaseT NIC

Do you have any NFS mounts and are they involved in your tar operation?
If so, you may want to switch to using TCP rather than UDP for your
NFS operations.  Also, if you can, try running a "top" in a spare xterm
when you try to create the freeze and see what's sucking up your CPU.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.       -
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