RE: [cobalt-users] THE GRINDING DRIVE PROBLEM

[webmaster <webmaster@xxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
>Jeremy,
>
>Interesting problem, but it's presented to the list a little
>simplistically.  Most hard drives make a high pitched screaming noise,
>yes, much like attending an Indy race, when they are failing.  
>

We are having the same problem, and are waiting for a replacement server
even as we speak. (Side note: Thanks Jason and Carol from Cobalt support for
the quick response.  Now where's my server!) :)

>I don't know what you mean by "grinding" however.  A server that does
>not have enough memory will start swapping, the hard drive will start
>chugging away, server performance will decrease rapidly, and if not
>fixed in a few weeks or months time the hard drive will fail.  As
>expected.  Get an OS restore CD, buy any brand hard drive, add it to a
>server that does not have enough memory, and watch the drive fail as
>expected. 
>

In our case it's a lightly loaded e-mail-only RaQ2 server we've had for
about nine months.  It started making the "grinding" noise about three weeks
ago.  We, too, were hoping it was only a fan, but after popping the case
cover off, it was obvious that it was the WD drive (13GB).  It doesn't
"grind" _as much_ if I leave the cover off and keep it under the AC vent in
our server room.  MTBF rates are so stinkin' high anymore that I'd expect a
drive, especially one from Western Digital, to last more than nine months.
The high-spindle-speed drives in my HP LPr's aren't failing, and they are
accessed a LOT more than the drive in my Cobalt box.

>Jeremy, could you telnet to a RaQ that is making this grinding noise and
>type the following, then send output back to this list?
>
>cat /etc/build
>cat /proc/meminfo
>w
>df
>

For IBSI:

[root admin]# cat /etc/build
build 2.561 for a 2800R in English
[root admin]# cat /proc/meminfo
        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:  64917504 51023872 13893632 33001472 23965696 12128256
Swap: 133885952   188416 133697536
MemTotal:     63396 kB
MemFree:      13568 kB
MemShared:    32228 kB
Buffers:      23404 kB
Cached:       11844 kB
SwapTotal:   130748 kB
SwapFree:    130564 kB
[root admin]# w
  3:09pm  up 11 days,  3:17,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
admin    ttyp0    mail             3:08pm  1.00s  0.73s  0.12s  w
[root admin]# df
Filesystem         1024-blocks  Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda1             495745  247431   248314     50%   /
/dev/hda3             198601    7996   190605      4%   /var
/dev/hda4            11424230   13562  11410668      0%   /home


>
>Please be patient as I don't think the problems you're experiencing are
>common problems to other Cobalt users.  
>

Seems like it IS fairly common!

>You will make the nice technical support guys take offense by implying
>that they haven't been honest with you when no doubt they haven't been
>able to obtain a reasonable set of symptoms about your problem(s).  Why
>do you double quote "The Grinding Drive Problem"?  A search of
>cobalt-users from its inception does not turn up this phrase so I don't
>see how you could expect other Cobalt users to be familiar with this
>problem.

See reference to Jason and Carol earlier.  As a 23-year veteran in the IT
industry, I know what you're going through: You've been shot at so often,
every BANG seems like it's directed at you.  Just looking for reasonable
solutions to our problems and issues.  To my not-so-young-anymore-ears, it's
not so much a "grind" as a "whine" like when a bearing is going bad.  That's
why I originally thought it was the fan going south...

Final question and I'll close this overly-long missive:  I've been told by
Cobalt that, once the new server comes in, all I'll have to do is set the
normal network config, load the upgrades and patches, then click the Restore
option in the GUI and all my config and customer files will automagically
appear on the new system.  [Here's where you knock holes in this theory.]

Thanks,
Andy Cooper
Partner/Chief Technologist
Interactive Business Solutions, Inc.
http://www.n2biz.com