Server sometimes (1 or 2 hrs) down :/

[edge]

Originally Posted by thesquib

Hey I'm having a similar problem - I followed the perfect Debian sarge install.
Basically the server is fine... most of the time, but it goes down for periods of time where nothing will work - when trying to connect to websites it just times out. It wont' reply to pings, and email services are down.

My server got exactly the same symptoms.. I think that (in my case) it is something with the network (eth0) or firewall, as when I look at any other running service logfile (when the server is 'online again') I do not see any problems.

I remeber when I was installing the server some time ago I 'kind of' had the same problem.

The terminal (even when it was sitting at the login screen asking for a login) sometimes showed

ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Netfilter message via NETLINK v0.30
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (8192 buckets, 65536 max) - 232 bytes per conntrack

When it did show this, the network went down, and the only way to access the server was by direct access on the system.. A pain in the neck now as the server is about 1hr away from me :/

Again thesquib, I'm here talking about my server. I'm not sure if this is also the problem with your server!

[falko]

You can disable SELinux in /etc/selinux/config. You must reboot your server afterwards.

ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Netfilter message via NETLINK v0.30
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (8192 buckets, 65536 max) - 232 bytes per conntrack

That's the normal message when iptables goes up. Maybe it's some kind of firewall rule that blocks networking.

[edge]

Originally Posted by falko

You can disable SELinux in /etc/selinux/config. You must reboot your server afterwards.

This is what it is set to (I did not change it)

  GNU nano 1.3.5-cvs             File: config

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
#       targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
#       strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

It looks like it's set to: disabled allready!

That's the normal message when iptables goes up. Maybe it's some kind of firewall rule that blocks networking.

Okay, but is it also normal that it's showing it over and over and over again?
Even when I'm not logged in (terminal is sitting at the login: prompt)

[edge]

More strange info about SELinux.

uname -a

Linux my.domainename.com 2.6.15-1.1831_FC4smp #1 SMP Tue Feb 7 14:09:31 EST 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

So NO SELinux kernel....

When I run 'cat /proc/1/environ' I get this:

HOME=/TERM=linuxSELINUX_INIT=YES[root@host ~]#

[thesquib]

Mine must be some sort of firewall... I just managed to figure out that even though services are not available - I can actually use everything fine on another server on the same ip range. Yet the internal network and the external network has intermittant access..

I haven't configured a firewall, but I did enable it once or twice within the ispconfig system

[falko]

Originally Posted by edge

It looks like it's set to: disabled allready!

That's good.

Originally Posted by edge

Okay, but is it also normal that it's showing it over and over and over again?
Even when I'm not logged in (terminal is sitting at the login: prompt)

Yes, that's normal.

[falko]

Originally Posted by thesquib

I haven't configured a firewall, but I did enable it once or twice within the ispconfig system

Are you sure no other firewall was running when you started the ISPConfig firewall? If another one was running, both firewall will interfere with each other and produe unforeseeable results.
Please disable the ISPConfig firewall, then reboot the system and then post the output of

iptables -L

[edge]

falko, I really appreciate you helping me with this problem..

This is what I get after disabling the ISP's firewall and a reboot, and no I'm not using any other firewall with the ISP one.

[root@host ~]# iptables -L
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
[root@host ~]#

[edge]

Reading a lot about 'sk98lin' and Gigabit Lan, and network problems.. Not sure if I'm using this with my Fedora RC4 server, but when I do a 'locate sk98lin' I do get a lot of files back!

Could this be causing the problems?

[falko]

Originally Posted by edge

Could this be causing the problems?

At least it's possible.
Do you get the same problems if you leave the firewall off? That would mean it isn't caused by the firewall.