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Sébastien Arnaud wrote: |
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> Hi, |
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> |
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> I have started to "pour" more Gentoo Linux based server in a datacenter |
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> over the past year, I lost control 3 times of remote servers. One of |
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> them was after a hard reboot and filesystem check which required to |
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> press a key on the physical machine, and the two remaining ones were |
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> linked to SSH terminating the connection after running some updates. |
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> So, I wanted to get some advice on how you all handle keeping control of |
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> your remote Gentoo servers, and for instance how to keep SSH running at |
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> all costs. |
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> |
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> I have seen in different FAQs that running a serial cable to each server |
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> and using a SSH serial console switch is a good idea, but I am having |
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> trouble finding something cheap in this arena. Also, how much better is |
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> it in terms of reliability in case something goes really wrong with the |
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> server? FYI, all the servers are plugged into a remote APC reboot switch |
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> but I almost never use this, as many times it ends up invalidating the |
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> filesystem and therefore requiring a physical intervention at the |
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> keyboard. Anyway around this problem as well? |
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> |
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> Thank you in advance. |
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|
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Usually, you run into SSH problems when you update some of its dependencies like |
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glibc or openssl. I've found that if I run 'emerge -u <SSH dependency> && |
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/etc/init.d/sshd restart', it takes care of any problems. You don't have to |
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string together the commands like that, though. You just need to restart SSH |
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before you terminate your current session. Just to doublecheck, try to start a |
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2nd SSH session to that particular server before you kill the one you are using. |
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If you can create a 2nd session, everything is okay :) |
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|
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It sounds like you need to switch to a better filesystem. I use ext3 on my |
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personal machines and the production server that I run and *never* have any of |
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them gotten stuck at boot waiting for a keypress for fsck (or whatever), even |
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after multiple power failures (before I got a UPS) and lockups (from me doing |
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stupid things). If you are using ext2 or some other non-journalled filesystem, |
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that is likely to happen after any power loss or system lockup. |
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|
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-- |
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Andrew Gaffney |
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Gentoo Linux Developer |
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Installer Project |
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