on 6-3-2009 11:30 AM Dave Jones spake the following:
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.
Did you ever try the newer kernel with hyperthreading off? It isn't really a second processor, and doesn't add much to a server. I have an older server with 2 HT zeon's, and it actually runs better with HT off. But that is 64 bit, and might be different.