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Today I discovered yet another reason why I prefer running Linux servers instead of Windows servers... Hardware Failures I noticed over the course of the past week, the Decatur server seemed to have been rebooting for no reason at least once and sometimes twice a day. My first thought was the power supply. I changed out the power supply with a new one - and the server rebooted again for no reason. Next I checked the memory using the memtest86+ Linux utility. The server has 2 pieces of GSkill 2 GB DDR2-800 memory and the motherboard has two banks. I ran the test and it got to about 2% (took about five minutes) and the server rebooted again! So I thought it was possibly the memory. I took out one of the memory modules, ran memtest86+ again, and the test fully completed an hour later. The server was shut down again and the other memory was added back to bank 2. I re-ran the test - just thinking maybe it was a fluke of chance the server rebooted during the process, and again - about 2% it restarted again. This time I took the memory out of bank 1 - the one that previously tested just fine. So only the previously untested memory was in bank 2. Turned the server on - and it wouldn't even post. Oh boy I thought - I've got some bad memory. So I turned the server off and put the memory in bank 2 into bank 1 - this time figuring I would check the memory controller on the motherboard. Turned the server on - and again, wouldn't even post. I put the original tested memory back into bank 1 and took the other memory out of bank 1 and put it off to the side. This previously worked - and again, the server wouldn't post yet again. Luckily a few months back, I upgraded our home computer and had a full motherboard/processor/memory combo in storage. I took it out, got it all setup, hooked in the server's hard drive and CD-ROM and poof.. off and running. Before I booted onto the server hard drive, I booted off the CD and did a full image of the server hard drive - just in case the new motherboard/processor/memory combo caused problems. Rebooted after making the image - and viola! The Linux server kicked right off - and needing no additional drivers or loading anything! I did have to go in and change the MAC address for the network card - otherwise it was showing up as eth1 with no configuration. Easily done - I just opened up the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and removed the line for the old network card - then changed the "eth1" to "eth0" on the end of the new card. Much easier than a Windows server where you would have possibly had re-activation, new drivers to download and configure, and who knows what other potential problems. The Decatur server's motherboard is only about 1.5 years old - I am appalled that the memory controller has gone bad. I did notice there was one capacitor that was raised and looked like it was just beginning to leak - so I wonder if it is the culprit. The original board was an ECS AMD69GM-M2. I just ordered a new JetWay JM26GT4-LF motherboard today. I got it for a steal of $35 including shipping. Otherwise, I was contemplating leaving the system as-is with the AMD XP3200+ 64-bit processor and 1 GB of memory. The other processor/memory was an ADM 64 X2 2.2 GHz and 4 GB of memory.
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