ESX 3.5 crash - what to look for?

[1q2w3e4r]

Just had a server crash for the sceond time in about a year for no apparent reason. I imagine there is some hardware issues (maybe faulty RAM or CPU?), where is the best place to start looking (esx logs)?

[1q2w3e4r]

I just looked for /root/vmkernel-zdump... and no files match that description. Also nothing in /var/core

[FranckRookie]

Hi,

I would have suggested analyzing the dump using this kb but if you don't find it... It could be due to a hardware failure preventing the operating system to catch anything. Try to have a look at all the logs you could find at the hardware level: BIOS, disk controllers, network...

Good luck!

Regards

Franck

[idle-jam]

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100518...




iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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[1q2w3e4r]

Thanks but I think it may be a slightly different issue as there is no PSOD, at least none that I've seen. The server goes offline and by the time I've gone in to check it is already booting up again. Since it's only happened twice in the space of a year I passed the first one off as a one off event, but since it has happened again it means it will probably repeat again in another 6 months.

[idle-jam]

if you have a valid vmware support, i suggest you export tthe diagnostic file via vm-support in command or export diagnostic file from the vsphere client.




iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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[Wimo]

In my experience a server spontaneously rebooting like that is almost always the physical memory. If you have a support agreement with the hardware vendor, call them in.