[CentOS] Hard I/O lockup with EL6

[Benjamin Smith]

On Monday, September 26, 2011 10:16:14 PM Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:
> On 9/27/11, Benjamin Smith <lists at benjamindsmith.com> wrote:
> > When booting a non-working system, it boots straight up to the boot
> > prompt (runlevel 3) without issue, and everything works fine. When the
> > machine sits idle for a period of time (ranging from 15 minutes or so
> > and up) the HDD becomes unreadable/unwritable and the system is useless
> > for any purpose and must be hard restarted with a full power cycle - it
> > won't even shut down.
> 
> I'm thinking I might have a similar problem with my test install of
> EL6. Initially I had dismissed it as a one-off but it has apparently
> locked up again. I'll be visiting it physically later and maybe have
> more information to share. However, it is also a 3400-series Xeon, the
> rest of the hardware are all cheaper hardware.
> 
> What drives are you using in these servers?

The drives are confirmed irrelevant. SATA/SAS with different manufacturers make 
no differents; it's not a factor. 

However, I did eventually find update instructions for how to update x8si6f 
motherboard (having the SAS 2008 chipset) chipset that matches the board I 
have. I've (roughly) followed the instructions and have achieved a full 8 
hours of uptime - already well ahead of expectations. If it lasts 48 hours, 
I'll consider it a success, and will post details here so that other techies 
can find it. 

http://www.servethehome.com/howto-flash-supermicro-x8si6f-lsi-sas-2008-
controller-lsi-firmware/

I wish you the best of luck! 

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