Very Computer

Quote:>To be more safe though, we usually log out from an X session, and
>only do the "Stop-A" when the login banner is displayed.  I know
>that a clean shutdown is advisable, but could the "Stop-A" lazy
>routine still be considered safe?

It may totally*up your system.

Casper

Quote:> >But we noticed "L1-A sync" does not work anymore on SPARCstation 5's
> >and SPARCstation Classic's. What use does sync have when you cannot
> >use it to flush the disks of a running (and hung) Sun?

> I would assume it should work.  It doesn't?

> All sync does is "jmp %g0" which should panic the system and make
> it sync its disks.  Is this function broken in the PROM?
> What does it do?

> Casper

To be more safe though, we usually log out from an X session, and
only do the "Stop-A" when the login banner is displayed.  I know
that a clean shutdown is advisable, but could the "Stop-A" lazy
routine still be considered safe?

Thanks very much.

Alex Cerna

Quote:>We have been doing this for more than a month now _every_
>working day, and there seems to be no problem the morning after.

Is there some particular reason why you are turning the machine off
every day? If not, I'd recommend not doing it routinely.

Quote:>The machine just "corrects" itself.  

Quote:>We're using Solaris 2.3, btw.  I assume it uses a journaling file system.

Quote:>To be more safe though, we usually log out from an X session, and
>only do the "Stop-A" when the login banner is displayed.  

Quote:>I know that a clean shutdown is advisable, but could the "Stop-A" lazy
>routine still be considered safe?

Believe me, if you keep on the way you have been, you *will* eventually
get your system into a state where fsck fails and it can't reboot itself.
--
Ruth Milner                          NRAO/VLA                  Socorro NM

To prove my point, when you get back to the prom, type

 new-mode
 sync

and watch how much data the thing writes back.

Even with a JFS you're still assuming the thing will rebuild the super
block correctly.  One day it won't and you'll be very, very, upset.

Personal experience.

Cheers,

Colin.

...

        If your system is being used by anyone, at any time, L1-A is,
absolutely, the worst possible method for shutting down a system.
Even if a user is not logged in to the console, you cannot necessarily
guarantee that no other user is utilizing that system through one of
the hundreds of remote access methods. . .

        By the way, why on earth would you want to power-down a Sun
regularly?  With the exception of OS upgrades and hardware fixes, our
machines stay up 24/7/365. . .

--

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Manager, Dept. of Statistics                     University of Florida
"Our Paperless Office printed over 16,000 pages last month. . . . . . .  . ."

Also, you should be aware that it is very * the entire system to shut
it down every day.  Suns are designed to be left on all the time.
Some sun systems have hard drives in them that will wear out very quickly
from being turned on and off frequently.

        Steve

David>       If your system is being used by anyone, at any time, L1-A is,
David> absolutely, the worst possible method for shutting down a system.

Actually, STOP-A is the second worst possible method for shutting down a
system, regardless of whether anyone is logged in or not, because processes
are always running. The worst is, of course, direct loss of power :).

--

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/ratinox|children under 10 should avoid prolonged
PGP Public Key: Ask for one today! |exposure to Happy Fun Ball.

Quote:

> No, that is not safe.  (Neither Stop-A sync).  You really should
> bring the machine down gracefully.

Scott Seligman

Quote:>that a clean shutdown is advisable, but could the "Stop-A" lazy
>routine still be considered safe?

dave

Quote:

>Thanks very much.

>Alex Cerna

Especially database processors such as Sybase, Ingres etc and things like
INN and NIS+ need a graceful shutdown.

Casper

Quote:>Is it okay to just use "Stop-A" to halt the machine, then turn
>it off?

Quote:>We have been doing this for more than a month now _every_
>working day, and there seems to be no problem the morning after.
>The machine just "corrects" itself.

Quote:>To be more safe though, we usually log out from an X session, and
>only do the "Stop-A" when the login banner is displayed.

Quote:>I know
>that a clean shutdown is advisable, but could the "Stop-A" lazy
>routine still be considered safe?

Regards,
                                                                        J. Bern
--

/ J. \ <A HREF="http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~bern">My Homepage</A> /  \
\Bern/ FINGER, NEWS ETC. AT THIS SITE ARE BROKEN, PLEASE USE MAIL (+ WWW) \  /
 \  /  P.O. Box 1203, 54202 Trier, Germany, Europe - Ham Call Sign: DD0KZ  \/

What about laptops?

Are there any papers out there or research about Unix systems that
probably aren't going to be up even close to 24 hours/day?

                                                ...Mike

--

 http://www.msen.com/~mjo/

"I sure wish I could get my hands on some REAL dynamite."  -Calvin

: All Sparc laptops and Voyager already give you the capability
: to shutdown,startup without rebooting.

I just wished Tadpole had made the boot w/o rebooting/restarting an
easy thing to find.  I hosed a save partition and couldn't get the
thing to boot properly until someone called Tadpole to find out
what to do.

: Sinan
: >

: > http://www.msen.com/~mjo/

Ben
--
Ben Taylor              Unix Gun for Hire & Director for Strategic Accounts

Smoke N' Mirrors, Inc.  (703) 318-1440 {office} (703) 318-8642 {fax}
580 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 300,  Herndon, VA 22070

Quote:>One of the things I'm wondering about as this gets discussed is:

>What about laptops?

>Are there any papers out there or research about Unix systems that
>probably aren't going to be up even close to 24 hours/day?

Sinan

Just as the system boot will go through the /etc/rc3.d directory and run all S
scripts, the init to another level will activate the K scripts (I believe it
runs all K scripts first, then all S scripts).  Thus, unless you have a K script
for sybase, etc, you may not get as happy a shutdown as you think (though anything's
better than THAT evil button combo!)

                                                                        Scott