Very Computer

I have a UPS, but it only has two outlets and I needed three, so I put
an unused power strip on it and plugged in my three devices.  Apparently
one of my cats went snooping around back there and stepped on the
switch, turning off the power.  I flipped it back on and my server came
up with no problem, but my workstation had some issues with manually
fsck'ing the drive, apparently mainly because it was sending a mail the
instant the power went out as the files in lost+found were an email and
spool information.

Anyway, after that was done I couldn't login!  Every time I tried, I got
something like this:

login: mylogin
passwd:

29.93049234 920348294 00000000
3042304300

login failed

Three different accounts did it, but root would login fine.  I created a
new account to see if shadow was munged, same problem.  Logs show:

Aug 12 05:00:57 psi login: FAILED LOGIN 1 FROM (null) FOR mylogin,
Authentication failure

I checked tripwire, all looked okay, rpm verify looked okay, so it
doesn't appear that I was hacked (and the server is fine too, and they'd
have to go through it) so I decided to ftp install pam, rebooted and it
was fine!  I don't know if pam was corrupted, or if it was coicidence..
Anyone have any idea what happened?

--
Walter Francis
http://theblackmoor.net                  Powered by Red Hat Linux 6.x

Quote:

> Anyway, after that was done I couldn't login!  Every time I tried, I got
> something like this:

> login: mylogin passwd:

> 29.93049234 920348294 00000000
> 3042304300

> login failed

> Three different accounts did it, but root would login fine.  I created a
> new account to see if shadow was munged, same problem.  Logs show:

> Aug 12 05:00:57 psi login: FAILED LOGIN 1 FROM (null) FOR mylogin,
> Authentication failure

> I checked tripwire, all looked okay, rpm verify looked okay, so it
> doesn't appear that I was hacked (and the server is fine too, and they'd
> have to go through it) so I decided to ftp install pam, rebooted and it
> was fine!  I don't know if pam was corrupted, or if it was coicidence..
> Anyone have any idea what happened?

--
Enjoy

WebHead

--------------------------------------------------
Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?
Pinky: Yes, but who would want to Pierce Brosnen?
--------------------------------------------------

I use and love PK Electronics Blackout Buster UPS. I have one on each
computer here (one mac and two PCs). The units have three protected
outlets, two with battery backup, and one with battery backup that has
room to allow the device to be a block plugin. For a total of 6
protected outlets per Blackout Buster. Also there are connectors for
phone lines as well. Very nice unit, priced well at $99 (US).

Looking through a current catalog I happen across the new Blackout
Buster from PK and what comes with it... a surge strip to plug into the
back of the unit. The only drawback is that it really dosen't look like
there is any room for a block style plug to go in it though.

Go figure. So I do stand corrected on this. :-)

--
Enjoy

WebHead

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?
Pinky: Yes, but if you get along little doggie wouldn't you have a dachshund?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:> Looking through a current catalog I happen across the new Blackout
> Buster from PK and what comes with it... a surge strip to plug into the
> back of the unit. The only drawback is that it really dosen't look like
> there is any room for a block style plug to go in it though.

Quote:> Go figure. So I do stand corrected on this. :-)

--
Walter Francis
http://theblackmoor.net                  Powered by Red Hat Linux 6.x

--
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My UPS has two power-strips on it.  Been that way for nearly two years
and never had a problem.

--
Angry Bob
        I often imagine, with full visuals, what playing nethack
        sober would be like.  
                        --sdpcat (from rec.games.roguelike.nethack)

Gene Heskett sends Greetings to Angry Bob;

 AB> this is a Robert Dinse scroll!  it says:

 AB> My UPS has two power-strips on it.  Been that way for nearly two
 AB> years and never had a problem.

As a technician/engineer, I'd like to find out exactly why such might be
harmfull to a *_well designed ups_*.

Mine is about as ancient at they come, an old 1200 va NCR I put some
fresh motorcycle batteries in rather than send it to the dump.  It
weighs about 150 lbs and matches my tower case for size.  It works
*very well*, and currently has 4 or 5 surge arrestor type strips plugged
into or daisy-chained as the expediant case may be.  It runs this whole
room, which is a printer, a scanner, 2 computers with 5 hard drives, 2
cdroms and 2 tape drives and 2 modems plus 3 floppies and 3 sets of
stero amp-speaker combo's between them, and a pair of 17" monitors
without breaking a sweat.  I ran it all for about 20 minutes during the
last major outage here, came to the conclusion we were dark for the
night and shut it all down.  I got up in the night, turning on only the
monitor I needed, and checked the mail, shut down and went back to bed.

My guess is that the ups wasn't all that well designed and was throwing
spike  voltages all over the place.  I don't think I'd want to run my
gear on such a unit, and the plugging in of a power strip should have
nothing to do with the ups dying unless it was overloaded.  Again, a
good ups should just shut down well before it damages itself.

Cheers, Gene
--

        email gene underscore heskett at iolinc dot net
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This messages reply content, but not any previously quoted material, is
? 2000 by Gene Heskett, all rights reserved.
--

There are several ways to damage an UPS and equipment attached to an UPS.

1.  Batteries can drain to exhaustion if source power to the UPS is turned off for
an extended period of time.  This is one reason not to plug a low-wattage UPS
into a switched power strip or switched wall outlet.

2.  Power strips on the UPS output are not normally a problem except if your
total load exceeds 75-80 percent of the rated UPS power factor.  The nonlinearities
in power supplies and the inability of UPS regulators to provide clean waveform
power, may cause problems with either your equipment or to the UPS regulators.