From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 8 17:24:04 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85EE31065753 for ; Wed, 8 Apr 2009 17:24:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gfritz@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0506.google.com (rv-out-0506.google.com [209.85.198.230]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E0BE8FC34 for ; Wed, 8 Apr 2009 17:24:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gfritz@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id l9so197813rvb.43 for ; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:24:04 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:received:date:from:to:cc :subject:message-id:references:mime-version:content-type :content-disposition:in-reply-to:user-agent; bh=jHDf5ETjpxIR2VPoX2u/lEjGVy9vq4G4/xoQcc03WjU=; b=v2eiJSwIhGe5o4S6tkTHgUONty4wnKOZaweGVpUkjSo3tc6AiqYc8VqFC0OYe00CMy RRvyVmrA7yU3Ofwj73gn4KY80r2cGg5aHbQphNovmwrgaum87vnLaKuLLwp8j9UljrPO zatGHZLbiKHZFK6eVAwSDQYFShLrwdzm2ISAs= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:cc:subject:message-id:references:mime-version :content-type:content-disposition:in-reply-to:user-agent; b=n5izpTZNxy/ggXZQM/wKMNvA4Wypi3vIq4ztFDFW7CjadZFS+1IZXJ9fAx60gxb9IH FBt0nsKDwNwykrv4eZia+3CkiUPhAIXpfXwrOtle5aM06M94L4XU9oo/OC/yppesk44/ O4PsM0yPjco3LQleF6wHKGIjxKUiNZ5IwYXE4= Received: by 10.142.49.20 with SMTP id w20mr524357wfw.328.1239211443976; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:24:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dev.null (153-12-66-208.dsl.cust.wirelessbeehive.com [208.66.12.153]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id l31sm212185rvb.5.2009.04.08.10.24.03 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:24:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: by dev.null (Postfix, from userid 1001) id D3AC133; Wed, 8 Apr 2009 11:24:01 -0600 (MDT) Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 11:24:01 -0600 From: Geoff Fritz To: John Almberg Message-ID: <20090408172401.GA76244@dev.null> References: <13D52068-D184-42D9-AE6C-F095C1283975@identry.com> <3A934D4A-1864-401C-8CD8-86B37EB2B183@identry.com> <20090407204242.GD62574@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <14CAA4F0-E027-4C28-B53D-A781E8F8CF68@identry.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <14CAA4F0-E027-4C28-B53D-A781E8F8CF68@identry.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.19 (2009-01-05) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: low-level format before install? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:24:06 -0000 On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 05:41:27PM -0400, John Almberg wrote: > Thanks for all the tips. At least I have something to start with. > > The guys in the data center reinstalled FreeBSD (the filesystem was > totally corrupted again), and then ran what they called "SMART test", > which might be smartctl, and said the hard drives look good. > > I am now able to get back in. > > So the system ran fine until I put a load on it with the database > (many transactions a second). This corrupted the file system again. > > So I guess I need to load it enough to produce error messages > (hopefully) but not enough to destroy the file system again. I've had issues with a few hosted servers, and more often than not, it was a bad PSU on the server and/or rack. Assuming that you can't get these folks to run a good hardware diag for you, there are a few things you can do. You can beat up the RAM/cpu with various burn-in programs (I like benchmarks/stream for its simplicity -- you'll need to "make extract", customize, then ,"make install" for your own memory size). You can thrash the disks pretty well with either dd or "badblocks" from sysutils/e2fsprogs, both can be non-destructive. -- Geoff