On Mon, 11 Jan 1999, Mohamed Toufali wrote:
> Allow me to include myself in the discussion of OS (UNIX versus NT)
> reliability.
> Yes UNIX has a long history and NT just started.
> We have aBSDI packet filtering firewall that
> is constantly crashing. Whether it is the configuration,
> hardware or other problem, it is sure a big headache.
>
> Any ideas where to remedy this ?
Look at the log files and any core dumps and figure out why it's
crashing. Update the OS if it's been around a few years without any
maintenance (I find about a 3-year cycle if there aren't any outstanding
DoS issues to be about right for most any *nix system - though I've got
machines which have been upgraded farther in the past I wouldn't adivse
it for a firewall).
Any Unix machine that's crashing is odd, I've never seen one constantly
crash, and most of my uptimes are in the "last time we messed with
hardware about a year or two ago" range. Syslog *.debug somewhere, check
free memory regularly, look for zombie processes, and check the
concurrent open sockets/mbuf pools. Make sure it's on maintenance and
call for tech. support if you don't have the in-house skillset.
I (fortunately) can count the Unix crashes I've seen over the last
several years, generally they've been either hardware, or running out of
memory.
Paul
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Paul D. Robertson "My statements in this message are personal opinions
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