stability of RHEL ES 4 (was: RE: trouble installing/running the Domain Name Service Configuration Tool)

[Rick Stevens]

Ed McCorduck wrote:
> Tesekkür. This Linux novice has now gained another bit of knowledge the hard way, i.e. with a little embarrassment over my ignorance. Not only do I now know how to spot source RPMs but I know what to do with them, too, so again, tesekkür. 
> 
> But before I could try your solution, for the third time my Linux system has crashed with kernel panics and file system errors that have again left me with a nonbooting system, so I'll need to reinstall Linux one more time. With my limited capabilities I can't tell if the problem is with my computer's hardware or with the Linux system software itself, but one thing I can do is this: I'd like to ask if any of you have also experienced major problems keeping Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4 stable. I downloaded the installation files for the "Update 1" version of RHEL ES 4 and it has usually installed fine, but after a short time (a couple of days or a week) of doing anything with the system it crashes into uselessness. 

The first thing you should do is boot off the first CD and run memtest86
on your machine.  Many times this sort of instability is caused by
flakey memory (Linux beats on memory much harder than Windows).  You
should also take the time to do a little maintenance on your machine.

You'd be amazed at how often things such as this get caused by flakey
connections between your cards and the buses they live in.  Power down
the box and open it up.  Put on your grounding strap and remove and
reseat every PCI card you have in your buses.  I also recommend you
reseat your memory DIMMs. If you have the courage, it may also help to
reseat your CPU(s), but be CAREFUL on that.

There are several other possibilities.  You may also have a CPU cooling
issue (which can make things REALLY queer).  Make sure the fans on your
CPUs are spinning at speed.  If you have an infrared thermometer, use it
to check the CPU temperature(s) while the system runs.  You may also
have a power supply that's starting to die.  Check the voltages.  I have
a very nice multimeter (Extech Intruments 470) that has the infrared
thermometer, a type K thermocouple input and full multimeter functions.
I've used the thermocouple to monitor machines when the airflow design
requires buttoning up the machine, but usually the IR measurement is
adequate.  That Extech has found and helped to fix many a flakey system
(and we have over 1,200 systems).
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Memory is the second thing to go, but I can't remember the first! -
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