What To Do if The System Crashes

The most important things are:

1. Write down the system console messages.

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

   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. See "Troubleshooting a System Crash" for a complete list of troubleshooting information to gather for your service provider.

   See Chapter 70, Troubleshooting Miscellaneous Software Problems, if the system fails to reboot successfully after a system crash.

2. Synchronize the disks and reboot.

   ok sync

   See Chapter 70, Troubleshooting Miscellaneous Software Problems if the system fails to reboot successfully after a system crash.

3. Attempt to save the crash information written onto the swap area by running the savecore command.

   # savecore

See Chapter 69, Generating and Saving System Crash Information for information about saving crash dumps automatically.