topic Re: zombie process in Operating System - HP-UX

zombie process

Ron Irving — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:22:47 GMT

Good Morning gents!!

I have a PA system, (rp8420,) with a zombie issue. This system is rebooted monthly, but the same zombie keeps reappearing.

rp8420 root /.root # ps -ef | grep defunc
root 28238 2666 0 08:20:07 ? 0:00
root 28450 20493 1 08:20:47 ttyp3 0:00 grep defunc

Then when I run a ps -p on the 2666 process, in comes back with "ia64_corehw"

Any ideas on what would be causing an IA process to hang out there on a PA system??

Thanks in adavance!!

Ron

Re: zombie process

Pete Randall — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:27:09 GMT

Ron,

Is NFS involved on this system?

http://www12.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHNE_37851&sel={hpux:11.23,}&BC=main|search|

Pete

Re: zombie process

Rasheed Tamton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:28:08 GMT

Good Morning Ron,

Perhaps you need a patch. Please see this link.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=684634

Regards,
Rasheed Tamton.

Re: zombie process

Torsten. — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:39:40 GMT

Hi Ron,

do a

# swlist | grep -i diag

what did you get?

From the release notes of a 2004 version (already):

"The monitor has been corrected to stop generating multiple processes, and to eliminate defunct processes on HP systems"

Get a new version:

http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=B6191AAE

Re: zombie process

Ron Irving — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:00:25 GMT

well, my diags are at Mar, 06.

I also did a quick patch analysis on the system. WOW!!! I didn't realize how bad life can be. It looks like I'll need every patch out there since the dawn of time.

Welcome to my life.

Re: zombie process

Torsten. — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:14:38 GMT

Welcome to this wonderful world ;-)

Since more and more software products are independent units, patching will really only patch - not update (most of them).

The diags are a good example for this.

Best idea is to take a current install media and compare all the versions (drivers! and others) and even consider to run update-ux even within the same version , let's say 11.11 (this depends on what you really have and need).

Re: zombie process

Ron Irving — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:24:22 GMT

Thanks!!

I am downloading HP's recommended patch bundle, (I'm up to 780MB.) Is there an 'easy' way to tell which to install, if not all?

thx

Re: zombie process

Pete Randall — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:32:55 GMT

Use the swinstall option "patch_match_target=true". This will automatically select the patches that fit your system.

Pete

Re: zombie process

Torsten. — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:34:11 GMT

Let the installer decide what to install.

Remember, patch bundles will only patch/fix existing product. It will not update drivers, diags etc. You need to do this seperately.