System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration

What to Do if the System Crashes

The most important things to remember are:

  1. Write down the system console messages.

    If a system crashes, making it run again might seem like your most pressing concern. However, before you reboot the system, examine the console screen for messages. These messages can provide some insight about what caused the crash. Even if the system reboots automatically and the console messages have disappeared from the screen, you might be able to check these messages by viewing the system error log, the/var/adm/messages file. For more information about viewing system error log files, see How to View System Messages.

    If you have frequent crashes and can't determine their cause, gather all the information you can from the system console or the /var/adm/messages files, and have it ready for a customer service representative to examine. For a complete list of troubleshooting information to gather for your service provider, see Troubleshooting a System Crash.

    If the system fails to reboot successfully after a system crash, see Chapter 29, Troubleshooting Miscellaneous Software Problems (Tasks).

  2. Synchronize the disks and reboot.


    ok sync
    

    If the system fails to reboot successfully after a system crash, see Chapter 29, Troubleshooting Miscellaneous Software Problems (Tasks).

Check to see if a system crash dump was generated after the system crash. System crash dumps are saved by default. For information about crash dumps, see Chapter 28, Managing System Crash Information (Tasks).