TCP lockup

[Carlitos71]

I wrote earlier about a server having an Allocb failuer on ver 5.0.5...well, it seems to be back.
The server will lock telnet users out at some point during the afternoon and again in the middle of the night. Once the server reboots manaully, it is fine again for a few hours. We have replaced NICs, NIC drivers, different brand name NIC's and drivers, replaced an old hub with a new switch, but nothing is working.
There are no error messages anywhere. When it locks up and try to do a tcp stop and a tcp start it shows that it is out of stream resources.
At night we have unplugged the server from the switch and it stays up, but if you shut down everything else at night it still locks up.
I need some help and I need it bad! Anyone think going from 5.0.5 to 5.0.7 might help? Any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks.

 

[unixchick]

There's a really good article at

http://www.sco.com.

If you look in the Knowledge Center and search by TA# look for 116684. It talks about troubleshooting streams failures. The first thing I would do is take a look at the kernel parameter NSTRPAGES. This probably needs to be increased. Hope this helps...

 

[Carlitos71]

Yeah, sorry, I meant to put that in the message. I already did pretty much all of that article and NSTRPAGES was one of them. If I remember correctly, once I did that it did stop the error messages from showing up and filling the syslog and the messages file. But, now I have no error messages but a huge problem.

 

[motoslide]

The times I've had this occur in the past has often been resolved by replacing a network component external to the SCO box (normally a flaky HUB, but sometimes another device). The SCO NIC drivers aren't very forgiving when there is a device which is either flooding the network with garbage, or putting a load on the cable.

You have said you replaced the old hub with a switch. That should have eliminated "external" causes. However, I recently witnessed a site where the latest "Switch" was very incompatible with the SCO system. We had to put a $25 5-port 10Mbit hub between the two to force the SCO box to stay at 10Mbit. Worked great!

 

[Carlitos71]

Tried using a old 10mbs hub and the new switch like you suggested motoslide, but that did not work. They came into the system not accepting telnet again this morning. Thanks for the suggestion though.
I am down to either loading an upgrade from 5.0.5 or replacing the server. Both of which involve going to Kentucky and I have been there and done that and got the crappy t-shirt to prove it.
Any other ideas?

 

[PHV]

Is samba running on the SCO box ?

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[Carlitos71]

Nope no samba, nor merengue or salsa.

 

[stanhubble]

Is the "new" switch a DLINK? or are there any dlink hubs/switches on the network?
we have had very similar situations and a dlink device on the network turned out to be the cause.

 

[Carlitos71]

Well, I finally had to come to Kentucky. No Dlinks. One Linksys switch and a Netgear hub.
I replaced the old server with a near identical server except for some SNA software/hardware. Both were locked up again this morning. Both showed failures on Class 6 when doing a netstat -m.
I did find OSS497C and loaded it. OSS497B was loaded on both machines previously. If the newer OSS does not work then I am down to loading 5.0.7 on the machine. Problem is that I do not have the boot disk (I am an idiot and forgot it). Any other suggestions? And does any one know how to create a 5.0.7 boot disk? Thanks for the help.

 

[motoslide]

I dropped a "dd" image of one on our FTP servers. You can grab it here:

ftp://198.107.49.76/incoming/boot_5.0.7

Most of the 5.0.7 installations work fine just by booting on the CD. You'll have to download any BTLD drivers you might need from the SCO or manufacturer's websites.

I still think your problem is external to the SCO box, but maybe 5.0.7 will be more forgiving.

Never been to Kentucky. Hope the weather is nice, 'cause it sounds like you'll be there awhile.

 

[Carlitos71]

Thanks for the file.
I am pretty sure that it is external to the box, but I can not pinpoint it. I have tried a packet sniffer, but everything seems to be in order.

Nice weather, but not the same as being at home. And it is a dry county. Damn!