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From: Mel <fbsd.questions@rachie.is-a-geek.net>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:41:31 -0900
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Cc: Peter Steele <psteele@maxiscale.com>
Subject: Re: What is correct way to enable watchdog?
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On Monday 23 February 2009 12:11:38 Peter Steele wrote:

> We assumed this would give us a watchdog timeout of 300 seconds (5
> minutes), meaning a system would not reboot unless it is non-responsive for
> five minutes.

No, meaning, if a system is unresponsive for 300 seconds, action will be 
taken. watchdogd will not prevent proper reboots, panics or power failures.

> However, in a recent stress test we had unexplained 
> spontaneous reboots on two systems, with no logs of any kind to indicate
> why the systems rebooted.

Panic, or overheating. Check the dumpdev/dumpdir variables in rc.conf(5).
-- 
Mel

Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules
    and never get to the software part.