Hi Kev, Actually not completely. My machine(s) have sorta settled down a bit because the 'inhouse' program(s) are not being run as often. The question that's still in my mind is: is ps and top the only tools available to keep an eye on processess and programs in detail (how are they making use of memory? what type of loads they are cousing on hard drives reads and writes etc.)
Thanks for asking Kev, Rafael. J.Rafael.S�nchez Itres Research Limited www.itres.com P.403.250.9944 F.403.250.9916 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Anderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 11:13 AM Subject: Re: (clug-talk) Programmer(s)/User(s) crashing my system. > Was this ever resolved? > > (Cleanup day for me...) > > Kev. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "J. Rafael S�nchez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 4:07 PM > Subject: (clug-talk) Programmer(s)/User(s) crashing my system. > > > > Good day all, > > I have user(s)/programmer(s)who are crashing one of my servers. > > > > Users have access to this RH 7.0 system over Xwin32 using XDMCP. > > > > System decription: 512Mg Ram, Dual Pentium III 933, 1GB swap file, 1GHZ > > Ethernet Card. > > > > The crash(es) are so bad that when I go to the machine, I can't even log > in, > > no console access whatsoever; to the point that the only option is to > "push > > the on/off button". Of course after that I have to do manual e2fsck(s) on > > all my 6 180GB hard drives. > > > > I have been able to pinpoint that the system crashes is because they are > > running a home-made program using IDL language over a gui > interface/program > > called ENVI. We deal with imagery a lot (huge files and outputs). Some of > > these programs have to break-up huge amounts of image-data into pieces, do > > some sort of processing on them and stitch them back together. > > > > It could have to do with the fact that the program(s) may not be using the > > resources efficiently, memory, 32bit file system limits (2GB file size > > limits), etc, etc. > > > > I'd like to help them and myself by finding out what exactly is that they > > are doing or not doing. Is there a system utility or OS utility that I can > > use to monitor the system. I've used top. I've looked through the log > files > > but I cannot seem to find anything important to help me. > > > > The last few lines of my /var/log/messages file of today's crash: > > > > *** real name replaced by "thishost" > > > > Nov 12 14:00:01 thishost CROND[28389]: (root) CMD ( /sbin/rmmod -as) > > Nov 12 14:01:00 thishost CROND[28391]: (root) CMD (run-parts > > /etc/cron.hourly) > > Nov 12 14:10:01 thishost CROND[28402]: (root) CMD ( /sbin/rmmod -as) > > Nov 12 14:37:12 thishost syslogd 1.3-3: restart. > > > > Output of ls of /etc/cron.hourly > > [root@thishost /etc]# ls -laF cron.hourly/ > > total 16 > > drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 24 2002 ./ > > drwxr-xr-x 56 root root 4096 Nov 12 15:20 ../ > > -rwxr-xr-x 1 news news 65 Jul 24 2000 inn-cron-nntpsend* > > -rwxr-xr-x 1 news news 68 Jul 24 2000 inn-cron-rnews* > > > > Cat of inn-cron-nntpsend > > [root@thishost /etc]# cat cron.hourly/inn-cron-nntpsend > > #!/bin/sh > > /sbin/chkconfig innd && su - news -c /usr/bin/nntpsend > > > > > > Cat of inn-cron-rnews* > > #!/bin/sh > > /sbin/chkconfig innd && su - news -c '/usr/bin/rnews -U' > > > > > > Would this be what's crashing my system? > > > > Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. > > > > > > Rafael. > > > > > > +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > > j.rafael.s�nchez > > Systems Administrator > > +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > > Itres Research Limited > > www.itres.com > > Phone: 403.250.9944 > > Fax: 403.250.9916 > > +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > > > > > > > > > >
