Server issues baffling me...

Dan Jenkins dan at rastech.com
Wed Oct 22 23:55:58 EDT 2008


Neil Joseph Schelly wrote:
> I have a server that I can turn on in our office, plugged into the 
> wall, and it will work fine for days, weeks, whatever.  I have never 
> had a problem there.  When I bring it to the datacenter, it won't 
> finish booting before it starts to get hda DMA timeouts.  It's the 
> errors I typically associate with a failed drive.  Without fail, the 
> machine does it every time it's booted up in the datacenter.  And 
> without exception again, it works fine in the office.

Is the visiting server connected to the exact same power source as the
datacenter equipment? Is the monitor/serial console plugged into the
same power as the computer?

Years ago, we had a client with an odd problem, where the system became
intermittently unstable, and the hard drive sometimes failed, when the
equipment was moved into another room. We discovered there was a 400
volt difference in ground between the outlet into which the computer was
sometimes plugged and another outlet used by a peripheral, which was
occasionally connected to the computer, when the computer was in that
room. When the peripheral was connected and turned on and the computer
was plugged into the other outlet, the computer became unstable and
ate hard drives. It took a lot of visits for our tech to find that one.

We had a vaguely similar problem once with network cables with differing 
ground voltages.




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