[CentOS] kernel: Machine check events logged

[m.roth at 5-cent.us]

Alexander Farber wrote:
> Hello,
>
> every few hours I get the following message in /var/log/message:
>
> Jul  5 20:23:28 hXXX kernel: Machine check events logged
<snip>
> And in the /var/log/mcelog I see:
>
> MCE 0
> HARDWARE ERROR. This is *NOT* a software problem!
> Please contact your hardware vendor
> CPU 0 4 northbridge TSC 111a60c5584d4 [at 2500 Mhz 1 days 9:25:51
> uptime (unreliable)]
> MISC c008000001000000 ADDR 1148f5940
>   Northbridge NB Array Error
>        bit35 = err cpu3
>        bit42 = L3 subcache in error bit 0
>        bit43 = L3 subcache in error bit 1
>        bit46 = corrected ecc error
>        bit59 = misc error valid
>   memory/cache error 'generic read mem transaction, generic
> transaction, level generic'
> STATUS 9c1f4cf8001c011b MCGSTATUS 0
> No DIMM found for 1148f5940 in SMBIOS
>
> My machine (a CentOS 5.5/64bit server rented at German
> hoster strato.de) seems to run ok as a LAMP server though...
>
> What do these messages actually mean,
> is RAM defect and how critical is it
> (because I have an important event this Friday
> and would prefer not to take the machine offline)
<snip>
First, this is *very* bad - I'm not good enough on this to tell you if
it's the CPU, or the motherboard, but it's one of the two, *not* just
memory. Second, if you're paying for hosting, and it's *their* server, you
need to get on the phone with them *now*, and tell them that they need to
fix it, yesterday would be preferable. They *should* have seen the logs.

Dunno if you have a physical machine hosted there, or a VM' if the latter,
they can move it without you seeing any downtime at all. If the former,
they can just hot swap the drives into another server.

But call them *NOW*. You're paying for the service.

        mark