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Insder
There never was a second I in my name
Premium Member
join:2005-04-27
Salem, MA

Insder

Premium Member

Dell server randomly rebooting

So I figured I would finally bring this one to the hive mind, in the hopes that someone else can help me along with my issue. For the past one to two months, one of our servers (Dell PowerEdge 860) has been randomly rebooting at all times of the day. There is never an event log of a BSOD and there is never a memory dump left for me to dissect.

I've run a memtest on the memory and it is clean and also checked the harddrives just in case, which leaves me to either the PSU or the UPS that the server is plugged into, mainly because of the fast shutdown the server is performing (sort of like a pull of the plug) and the lack of time left for a memory dump to be created.

Before I go out and buy a replacement PSU and pop it in, am I on the right track here? Never had a server just rebooting with no BSOD to show for it, and I would think that with it behind the UPS, the power shouldn't fluctuate enough to cause it to have power problems from our lines. If it helps, the server is about 2.5 years old.

Jahntassa
What, I can have feathers
Premium Member
join:2006-04-14
Conway, SC

Jahntassa

Premium Member

What's running on the server? It's very possible there's software at fault as well if there's no discernable BSOD.

Have you physically inspected the motherboard? Any bad caps?

I'm guessing the system is out of warranty? You should probably see if it is.
lorennerol
Premium Member
join:2003-10-29
Seattle, WA

lorennerol to Insder

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Sounds like a power supply problem to me, though Dell shipped some Optiplex desktop PCs with bad capacitors a few years ago that sometimes did the same thing.

An 860 could still be under the three year warranty. If so, you can call Dell and get them involved in troubleshooting.

Badger3k
We Don't Need No Stinkin Badgers
Premium Member
join:2001-09-27
Franklin, OH

Badger3k to Insder

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Run the Dell Diagnostics. I had a PE850 that was doing the same thing. Turned out the issue was with the SCSI Raid card. Bought a replacement card and no problem since.
NullMaster
join:2000-08-24
Minneapolis, MN

NullMaster to Insder

Member

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I had a HP DL380 doing the same thing last year in one of my branch offices. Turned out it was the UPS. UPS was not reporting any errors or issues, but as soon as power was removed - bam the server went down.

I would unplug the UPS from the wall at a point in the day where the server drop won't cause an issue for you users. If it is the UPS you will have your answer.

PToN
Premium Member
join:2001-10-04
Houston, TX

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We had the same issue with the server responsible for our voicemail and it ended up being the UPS.

We unplugged the UPS from the wall and the server turned off.
Insder
There never was a second I in my name
Premium Member
join:2005-04-27
Salem, MA

Insder to NullMaster

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said by NullMaster:

I had a HP DL380 doing the same thing last year in one of my branch offices. Turned out it was the UPS. UPS was not reporting any errors or issues, but as soon as power was removed - bam the server went down.

I would unplug the UPS from the wall at a point in the day where the server drop won't cause an issue for you users. If it is the UPS you will have your answer.
Amazing you say that, because I just had our DL380 G3 (older than your DL380 I'm sure) do the exact same thing as my Dell PE server last night and this morning, which is the first time that server has done that. I'm now going to check the UPS because I can't see two servers on the same UPS having failing power supplies..I have a feeling our UPS is now crap, and I have a spare that I can test with for a week or two to see if that is the issue. Thanks for the help guys!