[kennedy]

Three times in the last 10 days, my main server machine, a Power Mac dual-G4 running OS X Server, has just shutdown. After months of running just happy, I'm now trying to figure out how to respond.

Do PowerMac's have an auto-shutdown "feature" if they get too hot?

If a PowerMac's power supply begins to fail, might it just shutdown?

Is there a log somewhere that is kept across re-start's that might give me some clues?

Other suggestions?

Thanks.

[OreoCookie]

There is an auto-shutdown feature, but afaik it's daily. If the machine crashes, it hangs, so judging from what you tell me, I would guess it's a faulty power supply. But we would need more info.

What PowerMac are you talking about exactly? Does the machine have enough breathing room? PowerMacs (like any other computer) are designed to cope with full load situations.

So please give us the detailed specs of the machine (including harddrives and extension cards).

[kennedy]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

What PowerMac are you talking about exactly?

Power Mac G4 Dual 800 (almost 4 years old?)

Has super-drive which isn't so super... under that an 80GB HD partitioned into 4... one is OS X Server. Down where the HD's normally sit are two 120G drives configured as RAID1. I am utilizing its GigaBit ethernet capability. It is powered by a mid-size APC UPS.

It sits on top of the desk, 12" from the back wall and 24" from the monitor (which is rarely on)... otherwise its in open air (slightly dusty air). The temp in the room it is in sometimes gets into the mid-80's ... I have an extra exhaust fan that kicks on when the temp gets above 78'F to try to bring the temp down by increasing air flow... but I have not gone so far as to put in a special air conditioning system for that room.

The machine serves about a dozen iMacs on my network... their home directories and some of their applications live on the server.

It has operated near flawlessly for all those years. One of the drives got flaky for a while. I replaced it with a pair configured in a RAID set ... no problems with that. In the last 3 weeks, the machine has shut itself off 5 times. And I haven't found any sort of log that is preserved across shutdowns that would give me any clue.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[OreoCookie]

This reinforces my suspicion of a faulty power supply. Does it make any strange noises, chirping, buzzing sounds or the like? (It doesn't have to make a sound even when it is defective.)

[kennedy]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

This reinforces my suspicion of a faulty power supply. Does it make any strange noises, chirping, buzzing sounds or the like? (It doesn't have to make a sound even when it is defective.)

No, no telltale power supply sounds or smells... but then, nobody's around when it shuts down.

One theory was intermittently failing power supply.
Other theory is that it was overheating and automatically shutting down in response.

Does OS X Server not record these things in some log?
Unix servers have been doing that for decades.

[OreoCookie]

If the power supply shuts down, regular unix machines will crash as any other, only those with redundant power supplies will, ahem, not. If your unix machine has a special system health controller (e. g. like my parents' Netfinity 5000) then you can do that.

Did you clean all air intakes and fans? Have you monitored the temperature of the CPU? You can do that remotely with this tool. However unless your server's load is constantly high (which I don't think is the case if it is just a file server), I'm not convinced that this is the culprit.

If it were a RAM problem, the machine would hang, but not shut down. So all signs point to the power supply. Although it might also be a faulty mainboard, but this is less likely.