Epilogue:
I've tried to disable TSO (ethtool -K eth0 tso off), as was suggested on the poweredge list. This did not help.
I've configured the machine to start with the 5.2 kernel in /boot/grub/grub.conf, changing the default. It has been running for 6 1/2 days, now. I would say that this helped and is what I would suggest to others experiencing the same problem, right now.
Thus, current running kernel is 2.6.18-92.1.10.el5xen.
Regards and thanks for all replies,
Peter
I have booted the previous 5.2 kernel as well with my problem server and it has been stable for the past week too. There is definitely something going on with this 5.3 Xen kernel on that hardware. The CPU is a 3.0 GHz P4 with HT and no 64-bit support. Kernel 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5xen seems to be the last stable one on my server that I am running now.
[root@server1 ~]# uname -a Linux server1.mydomain.com 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5xen #1 SMP Tue Dec 16 13:08:49 EST 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux [root@server1 ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 2 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping : 9 cpu MHz : 2992.572 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid xtpr bogomips : 7485.27
processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 2 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping : 9 cpu MHz : 2992.572 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up cid xtpr bogomips : 7485.27
[root@server1 ~]# lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36.2 [GeForce FX 5700] (rev a1) 02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller (rev 02) 02:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5703X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02) 02:0a.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. Adaptec AAR-1210SA SATA HostRAID Controller (rev 02)
[root@server1 ~]# lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply